1 John 3:1-3 - We shall be like Him

3:1

Why would anyone want to follow any alternative philosophy or religion? In Christ we have been made children of God, we have been adopted into His family. Nothing or no one can offer anything to compare with that. God Himself has made us His children, you cannot beat that! “And this is what we are”. Being children of God is not just a theological statement, it not a mere academic truth, it is a reality. It is the way that God interacts with us. When you wake up in the morning you wake up as a child of God. When we look at our lives we should look at ourselves as children of God. Now we need to get rid of some of the Western society ideas of what being a child means. In the West the concept of family is pretty much shot to pieces these days. Our Father in Heaven truly has our best interests at heart, He does not pander to what we think we want or need.

So if what the gospel offers is so good, why then does the world reject it? The reason is that the world does not know God. The world is living in rebellion against God, the world is blinded by sin. The world is enmity against God.

3:2

We are God’s children now. This is not something we need to attain to, not something we are on the way to achieving. It is the state of affairs now, today. But that does not mean we do not grow or mature. Children learn and grow, but a child is fully a child of its father on the day it is born as it is when it is twenty one. We do not know exactly what we will be like in eternity, but we know that we will be like Christ. We have been saved in order to become like Christ.  And why will we be like Him? Because we will see Him as He really is. The key to becoming more like Christ is knowing Him better. So our focus should be on knowing Christ, not on following any wild and silly ideas.

3:3

Our hope is not a form of escapism, ie it is not something that enables us to escape from the realities of life. Rather, it is something that enables us to overcome, endure and triumph in the realities of life, and to live better. So those who have the hope of being like Christ “purify themselves”. Indeed nothing else would make sense. Christ is pure, we have been saved in order to become like Him, becoming like Him is our greatest desire. Therefore we should seek to be as Christlike as possible now.