The other day, I was working through some homework on I John (one of the projects of my second year of Greek is to compile an "exegetical notebook" in which I transcribe the Greek text, "phrase" it by breaking it down into smaller "thoughts," write grammatical notes on each word, with the final end of translating it into English) ... I had dreaded this project through the summer, but now that I'm into it I'm really loving it! Because it easily takes 20 minutes to completely finish each verse, I'm able to spend more time thinking and meditating on what the passage is saying ... its like devotions in the middle of homework!
I John seems absolutely packed full of fabulous truths. Every verse (literally!) is packed with meaning, and the beauty of the Bible is that you don't have to know the original Greek to understand what it's saying (unlike the Quran, which Muslims believe is composed in sacred Arabic, and which no translation could ever duplicate).
These verses really touched me:
"Behold what sort of love the Father has given out to us, that we might be called "children of God," as we are! On account of this, the world has not known us, because they did not comprehend Him. Beloved, we are children of God now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He has been revealed we shall be similar to Him, because we shall see Him as He is. And every person having this expectation (based on Him) purifies himself, just as He is pure."
Lately I have been struggling with the immense depth of my sin; I know and even want to do good, but I keep on choosing to follow after my own selfish desires. In fact, as I was working through these verses, I was struggling with the thoughts: "Will I do what I want? or what God wants? why? why can't I "take some time off of being holy" and pamper myself a bit?..."
These verses hit me hard.
First, the amazement of John as he reminds those whom he writes to about the depth of God's love. You can feel the humility, the amazement, the excitement of a man who marvels at the wonder that the Father could show this sort of love to people like us!
Then the reminder that we are NOW the children of God ... but there is more coming ... more love to be revealed ... what WE WILL BE has yet to appear. The following verses seem to say that the "what we will be" that John is talking about is our sinless state in heaven, of our becoming like Christ.
We KNOW that when we see Jesus face-to-face, we shall be "similar/like" Him ... BECAUSE we shall see Him as He is.
Do you see what John is saying? We will be like Him because we will be seeing Him as He is. In other words, seeing our Lord Jesus Christ in all His holiness and majesty and beauty and awesome glory ... this moves us to become like Him. And John is not necessarily talking about our "future glorification" in heaven, after we die, though that is certainly there. From the next verse, though, I think that John is wanting his readers to understand something more.
We will indeed be free of sin and completely pure when we see Jesus in heaven. But John tells us that we can become like Jesus on during our earthly lives, too ... we are able to look forward with hope and expectation to one day seeing Jesus as He truly is, and this hope and expectation causes us to "purify" ourselves in anticipation, because He is pure!
This is nothing new to most people, probably most who read this post. But it was profoundly powerful to remind me once again of precious truth.
I should not "try to be good" because of a sense of duty or debt. No, my obedience and holiness as a Christian should naturally flow from a hopeful vision of Jesus, in all his glory and majesty and beauty and purity, whom I will one day stand face-to-face with and talk "as a man talks with his friend." And even this hope and this Christ-centered vision do not come from me, but from the Holy Spirit. This is an amazing truth ... may we all see and anticipate Christ, and live our lives holy for that day when we meet Him!
