There is no obvious relationship between Moroni’s text and Paul’s statement on hope from 1 Corinthians 15 but there is a similar attempt to explain the relationship of hope to our spiritual lives. Paul explains: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (1 Cor. 15:19). This message contrasts mortality and post-mortality. For Christians, hope relates to their expectations of post-mortal reality. Hope is miserable if it is limited to this life only, for it is painfully obvious that the Christian ideal is no guarantee of a peaceful, gracious mortality. For this reason, Paul specifies that misery accompanies a hope that endures for “this life only.” Our hope would be in vain, indeed, if it were limited to mortality. Hope inherently looks to a post-mortal fulfillment of glorious promises, which may never be seen in this life.
Moroni contrasts hope and despair. If one has hope and looks to the gospel’s post-mortal blessings, then hope gives courage and perhaps even joy as we understand the purpose of our earthly trials. However, stripped of that hope, we find ourselves in despair because we are faced with the reality of this life with no vision of any improvement. Moroni further links this type of despair to iniquity, by which he means not just sin, but rejecting the gospel. If we reject the Savior, then our hope in the post-mortal life is necessarily gone as well. We are left with only that earth-bound, fickle, and typically unfulfilled hope that so readily turns to despair.