For We Will See Him As He Really Is

 Meditations on the Epistles of Saint John

October 27, 2020

For We Will See Him As He Really Is

See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children,  

and that is what we are!

1 John 3:1a

John’s appeal to the followers of Jesus is to live our lives today in the same manner in which Jesus lived his life. Like Jesus, we too are the children of God; thus, John calls us to live our lives in the light of this magnificent relationship. John’s ambition for the church reminds me of a teaching aid my friend, Dick Brown, passed on to me. H³ is his aid, and it stands for the three H’s: Hunger for God; Hatred of sin; and Heart for people. All three of these are present in John’s letters. In this letter, John uses the word love twenty-six times: twenty times in chapters three and four. Eight times John discusses belonging. Do we belong to God, or to the world, to truth or to a lie? Over and over again, John stressed that a Christian is in God, and God is in the Christian. John wants Christians to be fully grounded in their identity:

“See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!. . .  Dear friends, we are already God’s children”

(1 John 3:1-2).

John not only sets high his expectations for the followers of Chris; he also points us to the truth which enables us to embrace these expectations for ourselves: God

“has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure” (1 John 3: 2-3).

Do you see the connection? John believes we will see Jesus, face to face, and that when we do, we will be as he is. Spend some time with this truth. One day all of the weaknesses of our flesh, all the temptations and struggles we encounter today that tarnish our lives, all these will be gone! We will see our Lord, and we will be as he is! John was persuaded that this truth will motivate us to incorporate the H³ into our lives as we long to be made pure, just as our Lord Jesus is pure.

My Takeaway: How is this possible? The more we keep our eyes on Jesus, the more we realize “God is working in (us), giving (us) the desire and the power to do what pleases him” (Philippians 2:13).

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2020 by Alex M. Knight

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.