Last week as we jumped back into 1 John, we looked at just the first half of the first verse of chapter three. There we paused, just as John did, to behold! just what kind of love the Father has given us.

This is one of those places in Scripture where the combination of numbering from the Middle Ages and modern English paragraphs butt heads a little bit, and it makes things a little awkward for us to read. If you look at your Bible, the end of C2 and beginning of C3 comes right in the middle of a paragraph!

John’s call for us to behold God’s otherworldly love for us comes in the broader context of Jesus’ return at any moment, and how that coming reality should affect the way we live here and now.

Anybody remember Home Living magazine that the SBC published? My mom had a poem published in that magazine, in October 1989:

No matter how hard or long that I try,
I can’t find a reason, a cause, or a why.
There’s no explanation that I have found,
It’s something that’s crazy, weird, and profound.

Here is the question I’m talking about,
Here is the problem I can’t figure out:
I’ve had my shower, the dishes are clean,
I’ve spent all day with the washing machine.
The lamps have been dusted, the floors have been swept,
The bathroom and bedroom look clean and well-kept.
But today’s not the day I’ll get company,
Today’s not the day, ‘cause I’m ready, you see.

They’ll wait ‘til tomorrow when I’ve done a lot less,
They’ll wait ‘til tomorrow when the house is a mess.
That’s when the neighbors come in to say “Hi,“
That’s when our friends will choose to drop by.

It must be a law that’s unwritten but real,
When there’s no food in the house, they’ll stay for a meal.
How do they know that I’m in such a mess?
How do they know? Oh, how do they guess?
I don’t mind them coming, but why won’t they come,
Sometime when the chores and the housework is done?

Well, the dishes are dirty, there are clothes on the floor, So excuse me please, I must answer the door!
Cindy Wilson, 1989

That’s a frustrating and funny reality in our homes… but it’s much less funny when we’re talking about our lives and Jesus Christ himself… coming soon to a city near you!

TEXT

See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children—and we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know him. Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.
1 John 3:1–3

1. We bear the family likeness.

See what great love the Father has given us that
we should be called God’s children—and we are!
1 John 3:1a

It’s a basic truth of being a branch of the family tree… you look/act like your parents.

You find yourself saying things they said, things you
might have even swore you would never say/do.

“Watch out of the way.”

We bear the family likeness.

2. We deal with a family bias.

You might have had people reject you because of your last name, someone in your family.

The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know him.
1 John 3:1b

On one hand, we should be able to “give a reason for the hope that is in us.”
On the other hand, we can’t be shocked when they just don’t get it.

We ought rather to be concerned about ourselves if the world thinks highly of us and seems to think it does understand us.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.
John 15:18–19

We bear the family likeness.
We deal with a family bias.

3. Our future will surprise us.

Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is.
1 John 3:2

In Greek, now is the first word, emphasis. We’re God’s children, right now. We’re not waiting for some future date to become his children.

Remember what it felt like when you were a kid/teenager, and you dreamed about what it must be like to be an adult? It’s gonna be so great, all that money and all that freedom, right?!

Turns out you had no idea what it would really be like, did you?! You laugh, because you know it’s true.

That’s the place we’re at right now: as much his children now as we ever will be, but still growing into His image,Children of God, right

We’re still being transformed into what we will be one day. And we can’t even imagine what that will be like.

We know the basics, but we don’t know all the specifics. All we have to go on is what we can learn from Jesus’Jesus’ post-resurrection body.

What We Will Be…

A. Still ourselves

“Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself! Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.”
Luke 24:39

B. Better than our current selves.

Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.
Philippians 3:20-21

C. Lives without pain/frustration.

My chosen ones will fully enjoy the work of their hands. They will not labor without success or bear children destined for disaster, for they will be a people blessed by the Lord along with their descendants.
Isaiah 65:22-23

D. Ever-increasing joy

The dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet only in a nightmare…

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal… Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.
C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

The New Testament does not tell us much more than that, because we could not stand it; our language is inadequate, and if it were adequate, the description would be so baffling we could not tolerate it, the thing is so glorious and wonderful.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones

We know for sure…

He will appear.
We will see him as he is.
We will be like him.

Seeing him for who he is changes who I am.

We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.
2 Corinthians 3:18

We have an idea of God. We have a mental image of what Jesus looks like (maybe suspiciously similar to Jonathan Roumie, The Chosen)… but we don’t really know fully.

We bear the family likeness.
We deal with a family bias.
Our future will surprise us.

4. Our future is to guide us.

And everyone who has this hope in
him purifies himself just as he is pure.
1 John 3:3

You and I, having had a vision of glory, have to come down and translate it into practise and put it into daily operation, and if it does not lead to that, then we are abusing the Scripture…

Holiness is not something we are called upon to do in order that we may become something; it is something we are to do because of what we already are…

This is the way in which the New Testament indicates that the process must be followed up: I purify myself by considering Him, by looking at Him and His perfect life; that is the pattern I am to follow.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones

So then, dear friends, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from every impurity of the flesh and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.
2 Corinthians 7:1