Purifying Hope
1 John 3
1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 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. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Most of us blithely toss off the phrase, "I'm a child of God." It sounds warm and fuzzy, but we tend to view it as kind of a buzz phrase - no real meat to it, but a nice thing to say. In these three short verses John enlightens us:
One of the great changes in attitude between John's time and ours is our view of mankind. We think of people as being wonderful; they saw the insignificance of man in comparison of God. As the Psalmist put it:
(Psa 8:3-4 NIV) When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
But here we see God's great love in that we are now his children! The very word used in the Greek, teknon, gives us the clue to the meaning. It is the root of our word "technology;" it means something that was produced. We are children, made so by God. Indeed, we know that we are children of God purely because of what Christ did at the Cross. It is essential for our understanding of this that we know grace; we need to understand that this is God's work, not ours.
Personal purity
Titus 2
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,
13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus,
14 who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to
purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good
deeds.
15 These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority Let no one disregard you
Romans 5 1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.
3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;
4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;
5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
