Having concluded his exposition about faith, Moroni turns to hope. He defines hope as a looking forward to a goal. In verse 32, the final goal is a house prepared for man among God’s mansions. It is our hoped-for inheritance. Hope, in the context of faith, hope, and charity, is not simply a wish, but a desire fixed on a goal. Faith may be “the principle of action in all intelligent beings” (Lectures on Faith, Lecture First: 9), but hope defines the goal upon which we focus our actions.
Moroni moves to the topic of charity, and the ultimate charity is the love of God for the world, and love that provided a savior. While that is the ultimate charity, it is one that permits us to develop our own charity, our own love for others. We begin with those who are already able to love others, but who are expected to progress to a more Godlike love (where God could love the whole world, even the world that would crucify his Son). That attribute of godhood is an essential lesson of our life on earth, for “except men shall have charity they cannot inherit that place which thou hast prepared in the mansions of [God].”
Verse 33 says that Moroni remembers that the Lord had said: “[T]hou hast loved the world, even unto the laying down of thy life for the world, that thou mightest take it again.” Moroni may have been referring to Christ’s appearance at Bountiful, as seen in 3 Nephi 9:22. However, the language in both cases is very close to John 10:17: “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.” Verse 33 probably modeled the wording of John 10:17, but the visit of the Savior provided the meaning and context to it.