Godly Hope = godliness
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Hope is a word generally used as a term of a desire or an anticipation. “I hope it’s sunny tomorrow”. It conveys a longing for an uncertainty. Maybe it will be maybe it wont. Time will tell. You can’t do anything about it. So there is a desire but no plan or action to pull it off. You cannot participate.
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But this is not so for those who have their hope in Jesus Christ. It goes like this.Â
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Colossians 1.5 5 because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel,…23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel,… I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, 26 the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. 27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which[d] is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. 29 To this end I also labor.
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Here Paul is speaking of this hope of being god-like that is not allocated to be realized at a 2nd coming, but now through the gospel. And here is the missing element for most of us is that a godly hope is not a dead hope as though we cannot participate in the outcome like the weather. “I hope it will be sunny” then click your heals like something will happen? But we participate, work at striving to accomplish and obtain in our hope so that we see our hope transform into the thing we hope for… We attain. Like Paul said “to the degree you have attained, so walk ye in it”. This is what we do. We attain Christ-like-ness in the here and now. This is our transformation “into the self same image from the glory to the glory”. 2 Corinthians 3.18
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It is like this Romans 8.24 “We are saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope”… then we “eagerly wait for it with perseverance”. You cannot persevere to change the weather. A godly hope is a reaching out, a striving and a working towards a thing. “We are not as one who beats the air, or shadow boxes” as it says in 2 Corinthians.  And what is that thing for the one who has a mature faith in Jesus Christ? The hope is the Glory of God. And here once again as we have said before, what the 2nd coming gospel does is it derails you from persevering and participating in the accomplishing this hope to attain and tells you it is later. That when you see Jesus as a new man then poof! you will be like Him automatically. This becomes a new gospel of a new day to be accuated some day in the future. But it says in Colossians 1.23  if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel”. And the gospel of?
Christ in you, the hope of glory. And if Christ is in you He inspires you to put Him on and become more and more like Him. To strive to be like Him and His several invisible attributes gifted to us through the gospel for our transformation. For what? To be godly. For it is Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ”. And this is not the Christ seen as a man who gives you something at a second coming when you see him robed in white with wings coming through the clouds with a bright light behind him, but now through the gospel. We strive (a tool used in godly hope) “for the attaining of all the riches and full assurance, understanding and knowing the mysteries of God In Christ in whom are hidden all His treasures” not to be revealed to us at some second coming no, but now through the gospel. His word we absorb in the here and now, Him being “the bread of life come down from heaven that gives life to the world (John6). We hope, we strive, we attain to “all the riches and full assurance of this mystery. (Col 2.2) And the mystery once again is Christ in you, the hope of glory, for this we strive to attain.
And Paul emphasizes further here with a stern warning saying (2.4) Now i say this lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words”. And that is what the second coming gospel message does…. It steals you away from striving and reaching to acquire and obtain through this living hope and gives you a dead hope of another coming Jesus to come and do something for you as though scripture is dead words on paper that leaves you hanging there waiting for another savior. What you expect a 2nd coming Jesus to come and do for you has been done by the first Jesus and mapped out for you in scripture. We call it the Gospel.