(1 John 3:1-3)
8. Living as Children of God (1 John 3:1-3)
Listen to what follows now: See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called, and should be, children of God. There are some who are so called, but aren't what they are called. What good does the mere name do them? How many are called physicians, and don't know how to heal? How many are called watchmen, and sleep all through the night? In the same way many are called Christians, but aren't found to be so in their actions; they aren't what they are called—not in their lives, not in their practices, their faith, their hope, or their love.
But what have you heard just now, dear friends? See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called, and should be, children of God. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him—nor do we know the world. The whole world is Christian, and yet the whole world is godless. Throughout the whole world there are unholy people, and throughout the whole world there are holy people. And the former don't know the latter. What makes me think they don't know them?
It's because they deride those who live in the right way. Consider well: perhaps even some of you are like that. If some people live a holy life and despise worldly things, or if some people have no desire to attend spectacles or to get drunk when it is the custom or—what is worse—to celebrate holy days in an unworthy way, how those who do these things laugh at those who don't! Aren't they derided if they are known? Why aren't they known? It is because the world does not know them. Who is the world? It's those who live in the world. I've said this often and don't want to irritate you with it. When you hear the word world used in a bad sense, take it to mean those who love:the
LIVING AS CHILDREN OF GOD /
world; by their love they inhabit it, and because they inhabit it they deserve to bear its name.
The reason why the world does not know us is that it doesn't know him. He walked among us himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. He was God, in flesh, hidden in weakness. And why wasn't he known? It was because he showed people their sins. They loved the delights of sin and didn't recognize God; they loved what their fever made them want, and they wronged their physician.
What of us, then? We have already been born of him. But because we are living in hope, Beloved, John says, we are God's children now. *Now"—already? What do we have to look forward to if we are already God's children? It does not yet appear what we shall be, John says. But what will we be other than children of God? Listen to what follows: We know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Understand this, my friends; here is something wonderful! We know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
First consider what is being called is. You know what is called so. What is called is—and not only so called but that really is—is unchangeable. It always remains, it knows no change, it is in no part corruptible. It makes no progress because it is perfect, and no regress because it is eternal. And what is this? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Again, what is this? "Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped." To see Christ in this mode of being—in the form of God, as the Word of God, the only-begotten of the Father, the Father's equal—is impossible for the wicked. But as the Word that has been made flesh, the wicked too will be able to see him. On the day of judgment the wicked will see him too, because he will come to judge in the same form as he came to be judged. In that same human form, but'also as God, for **cursed be all who put their hope in man." He came as a man to be judged, and he will come as a man to judge. And if he isn't to be seen, what is this that is written: "They shall look on him whom they have pierced"?
Of the ungodly it is said that they shall see and be confounded. And why will they be confounded? He will place some at his right hand and some at his left. To those on his right he will say, Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom." To those on his left he will say, *Go into the eternal fire." The wicked will see him, but in the form of a servant; his form of God" they won't see. Why is this? It is because they are ungodly, and the Lord himself says, **Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
And so, my friends, we are to see a sight which no eye has seen nor ear has heard nor human heart has beheld; a sight surpassing all earthly beauties, the beauties of gold and silver, of woods and fields, of the sea and the air, of the sun and the moon and the stars, the beauty of angels, a beauty beyond all things that exist. From this beauty the beauty of all things comes.
And what will we be when we see it? What have we been promised? We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
My tongue has done what it can, it's made the sounds of the words. The rest is for your hearts to ponder. What has John himself said in comparison with the One Who Is? What can any other human being say, so far is anyone from being his equal? Let's return to that anointing he spoke of, that anointing which teaches us from within what we cannot express. And because at the present time you can't see, your part is to desire. The whole life of a good Christian is a holy desire. You don't yet see what you desire, but desiring makes you capable of being filled when what you desire to see comes.
If you have a pocket or a sack you want to fill, and you know the immense amount of what you are to be given, you stretch whatever it is you have to fill. You know how much there is you have to put into it, and you see how small it is. By stretching it you make it capable of holding more. In the same way God stretches our desire by making us wait; he stretches our soul by making us desire; and by stretching our soul he enlarges its capacity. So let us desire, dear friends, because we are to be filled. Look at Paul stretching himself, so that he can hold what is to come: "Not that I have already obtained this, or am already perfect," he says; "brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own." What are you doing in this life, then, if you haven't yet made it your own? "But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and stretching forward to what lies ahead: I press on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God." He describes himself as stretching forward and as pressing on toward the mark. He feels he is too little to contain what no eye has seen nor ear heard nor human heart beheld.
This is our life: to be occupied in desiring. But we are occupied in a holy desire only to the extent that we cut off our desire from the love of the world. I've already told you to empty what you want filled. You're to be filled with good, so pour out the bad. Suppose God wants to fill you up with honey. If you're full of vinegar, where will you put the honey? You must pour out what your vessel holds, and you must clean it. You must clean your vessel, working hard on it, scrubbing it, so it'll be ready for whatever is to be put in it: honey or gold or wine —whatever we say it is, that which can't be said. Whatever we want to say, it is called God. And what have we said when we've said God? Is that single syllable all we're looking for? Whatever we've had the power to say is beneath him. We must stretch out toward him, so that when he comes he'll fill us. For then we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
And everyone who has this hope in him. . . . You see how John has established us in hope, and how Paul agrees with his fellow apostle when he says, "By hope we are saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." Patience exercises desire. Continue, for he continues. Persevere in walking, so that you reach your goal. Your goal isn't going to move away!
And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself as he is pure. See how he is preserving your free will when he says puri-
42 / LOVEONE ANOTHER, MY FRIENDS fies himself or herself. Who is it that purifies us if not God? But God doesn't purify you unless you are willing. Therefore because you join your will to God, you purify yourself. You don't purify yourself through your own resources, but through him who came to dwell within you. You have a part to play by your will, and thereby something is attributed to you. But it's only attributed to you so that you can say in the words of the psalm, "Be my helper, do not forsake me." If you say, "Be my helper," it's because you are doing something; if you weren't, how could he "help" you?