Word Live: Family Likeness
Pause for a moment to think about God’s extravagance. The Bible uses words like ‘overflows’, ‘inexpressible’, ‘surpassing’, ‘immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine’ (eg Ephesians 3:20).
Bible passage
1 John 2:28 – 3:10
God’s children and sin
28 And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.
29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.
3 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Explore
Lions and tigers may look cute and cuddly when they are small, but in time they will attack and kill without compunction. Their behaviour is a key indicator of their predatory nature.
A key indicator of whether a person is a child of God is their behaviour, says our passage (eg 2:29). Christlikeness, doing what is right, goes hand-in-hand with having been born of God. So much so that, when ultimately Christ appears in glory and we, as children of God, see him in his purity, we shall be ‘like him’. Meanwhile, we can be found making our lives fit for his presence (3:2,3).
The other side of the coin is also true. Habitual and characteristic sinning are incompatible with being a child of God. It indicates rather an affinity with the devil, who ‘has been sinning from the beginning’ (3:8). All sin in our lives needs to be confessed and turned from before it gets more of a hold on us. To conquer sin was precisely why Christ came.
To ‘lavish’ (3:1) or ‘bestow’ (KJV) are beautiful words for describing God’s love in making us his children. Being born of him makes a profound difference to a life. So profound that it will show in a person’s behaviour (v 10).
Author
Roger Combes
Respond
How strong is your hope of seeing Christ ‘when he appears’ (3:3)? What adjustments to your present-day life does it call for?
Deeper Bible study
‘… he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature’.1
The first verses of chapter 3 are one of the theological highlights of the letter. John beautifully describes the truth that believers are related to God, through Christ, as children of the Father. His assertion about the greatness of the love the Father has lavished on us is emphatic, as evidenced by the fact that we could actually be called children of God! He declares that that is indeed what we are! The original Greek does not contain punctuation, but exclamation marks are appropriate given the enthusiastic tone of verse 1!
John goes on to say that we do not fully know what we will become, but we do know that, when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he truly is. The key question is, what does it mean to be like Christ? Different branches of Christianity have emphasised different aspects of this. For much of Western Christianity, this refers to our character – loving, kind, pure etc.2 Important as this is, there are also rich theological traditions that emphasise the actual sharing in the divine life of God.
There are other New Testament hints that more is going on than transformation into greater degrees of godliness; the Greek fathers spoke of the Christian’s final transfiguration in this way. While this does not necessarily mean confusing Creator and created, it does mean that in a real way the destiny of every Christ-follower is to enter into and appropriate the actual life of God and to become transformed into his very likeness.3 The incarnation has opened the way for humanity to share in God’s being.
Salvation means that we are not simply being sanctified, we are being glorified and invited into Christ’s divine life. Thank God for this. What does it mean for you today?
12 Pet 1:4 2 See Eph 4:24 3 Cf 2 Cor 3:18; Rom 8:29,30
Author
Daniel McGinnis
