1 John 3:1-3
1 See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children
and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not
know him. 2 Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we
shall see him as he is. 3 And every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself
as he is pure.
In the immediately preceding paragraph, John encourages his readers, whom
he calls "little children" to abide in Jesus so that when he appears "we
may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming." He
goes on to say that as we know Jesus is righteous we can know that whoever "does
right is born of him." As I said in the last study, John is saying that
the way to not be ashamed when Jesus returns is to remain in Him, draw your
life from Him, wait on Him, turn your life moment by moment over to Him. In
other words, live as if He is your source of life and identity and you will
grow in your confidence that this is indeed the case. This doing right that
he mentions in the next sentence must refer again to this abiding in Jesus.
Our actions should come out of our abiding in, resting in, and counting on
Him to be present and active in our lives. We can only "do right" as
we act out of a counting on Him as the righteous One.
Now John develops these thoughts about abiding and waiting for His appearing
in these next three verses. He begins by exclaiming that they "see" or "behold",
which means consider, dwell on, direct your attention to, this fact about the
love God has for us. Isn't it amazing John says, that we are called the children
of God. God looks at us and He calls us His daughters and sons. And he goes
on to say, this is not just a label, we really are the children of God. This
indeed is a truth that we need to see, focus on. It is so easy to slip right
by this and on to the next point. We belong to God as His children, not just
as His creation. To be His children means to be born of Him, to be of His "flesh
and bones" so to speak, to truly belong, to be welcome as one who really
is part of the family. God is not ashamed to call me daughter, to identify
me as one who truly belongs to Him. Can we let this truth sink into our minds
and hearts?
The intimacy of this truth is staggering. We all have different experiences
of being the children of our earthly parents. For some of us, it was not easy
growing up to sense being cherished and welcomed over and over by our parents.
But what John is saying here is that our earthly experience is not as deep
as the truth that we are truly children of God. We have come home, to our real
home in God, the home we were always meant to one day know and enjoy. God heals
our past as He not only says we are His children, but makes us truly His children
in His son Jesus.
This truth is not easy to hold onto and John goes on to deal with this fact.
There are so many competing voices in the world, ready to tell you who you
are, as we have discussed before. The world will not treat you as one who is
already a daughter or son of our heavenly Father. The world will not confirm
the goodness of who you are or be able to already knowing who you are. The
media in fact wants you to constantly question who you are and to be discontent
with yourself--that is how they hope to sell you their products.
John knows that his readers are facing hostility rather than confirmation
of the truth. He assures them that the reason the world cannot see and acknowledge
the truth is because the world did not recognize Jesus. In our fallen world,
there is grasping for power and influence over one another because human beings
are seeking to know themselves as worthy of respect, admiration of, and attention
from others. They themselves try to give themselves life. When Jesus came,
He came already knowing who He was as the Son of the Father. He lived here,
as He did and now does in Heaven, receiving moment by moment His life and identity
from the Father. This made no sense to the fallen world. They tried to tell
Jesus who He was and to manipulate Him to be what they wanted him to be for
their own ends. We deal with these same pressures since the world is still
so distorted.
Now I love this next verse [number 2] John knows that his readers are looking
at their lives and thinking "But it is not obvious even to me that I am
God's child." The world does not recognize my true identity, but I am
not sure that I see evidence of it either! So he assures them that they are
God's children now, but that this truth is not completely manifest yet. We
don't reject the truth of who we are just because we cannot see it completely
in our lives here and now. John says we are becoming, and we cannot yet see
the end result. But we can know that when Jesus, the Son appears, we shall
be like Him, we shall be inside and out, the children of God. And we will know
we are like Him because we will be able to see Jesus as He is. You cannot really
see someone else's heart if you have no sympathy for them. To be like Jesus
is to be His sister or brother, to enjoy, appreciate, know His heart. I am
becoming one who will be able to have true intimate fellowship with the triune
God who made me and now is transforming me into a daughter who belongs with
and to Him.
John's last point in this section is that "every one who thus hopes in
him purifies himself as he is pure." As I hope in Jesus to make me like
Him, and therefore more truly the person I was created to be, I become more
pure as He is pure. Jesus is pure--the same inside and out. There is no darkness
or deceit in Him, as John stated in the first chapter. I am still broken, there
are still parts of my life that are muddy. I do not act out of a whole heart.
I am so grateful that the triune God can be completely trusted to be the light
that He is. But to think that He is making me the same is truly wonderful.
God's deepest desire is to separate us completely from the sin that distorts
and destroys, to make us His children all the way down to our toes. And this
is not just a potential John says. God has made us His children truly, really
in Christ. We are now His daughters and sons, and while it is sometimes painfully
obvious to us that we are still not living in that truth completely, we can
set our hope in His completion of this work He has started in us. John wants
to remind His readers of this awesome truth to encourage them to abide, live,
obey out of hope in the greater work of God in our lives and in the lives of
others.
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