Hope in Him
And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure (1 John 3:3).
In chapter 3:1 John writes, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us.” As an old man, he looks back to recall the Father’s love revealed through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ, who declared, “The Father Himself loves you” (John 16:27). This love had never diminished in John’s heart or ceased to motivate his life. It is the Father’s love which has made us His children and brought us into His family. John in his letters reserves the word “Son” for Jesus Christ, and calls us “children”, unlike the apostle Paul who uses both sons and children when writing about believers. John brings home to our hearts a love which has taken us out of all the distance and darkness of sin and brought us into the life and light of the family of God. The world does not understand the true Christian, just as it did not know Christ. The character and teaching of Christ stand in total contrast to the world’s philosophy and culture. The world’s hopes are material and earthbound, whilst the Christian’s hope is spiritual and heavenly.
John next writes, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). John is teaching us about the present and the future. “Now we are the children of God” refers to the present. We do not have to wait to become children; it happens when we have faith in Christ. But John then looks on to the return of Christ. As he writes in his Gospel (14:3), “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also”. “We know” is a characteristic phrase of John’s writing. He has absolute certainty about Christ’s return and how His people will be changed into His likeness. At present we are like caterpillars waiting to be transformed into beautiful butterflies. This change is described in 1 Corinthians 15:51-58 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. At present, we are going through the spiritual and moral process of becoming like Christ: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). One day “we shall be like Him.”
John then concentrates on the present, “And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:3). We have this hope in our hearts now and we look for its fulfilment: “Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). This hope should have a present, purifying effect on us now and stimulate holy, practical living. If you come to our house when we are expecting guests to stay, you will see me and my wife, June, acting in different ways. I will be reading or doing some job, not at all concerned about the imminent arrival of our friends, whereas June will be busying herself making sure the house is just right and looking out of the window to see if our friends are about to arrive. The expected arrival of our guests has no material effect on my behaviour, but it energises June’s. Watching and waiting for Christ’s return is not a passive experience; on the contrary, it should invigorate our worship of and our work for the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:58).
