Everyone who has this hope in him [her] purifies himself [herself], just as [H]e is pure. 1 John 3: 3, NIV.
Blessed Lord, how we long to be made pure! We pray that as You draw near to us, You will teach us how, through Your Word. In Your holy name we pray. Amen.
Perhaps the two most obvious questions that jump out at us from the title of our devotional are, Who are we? and, What hope are we talking about? Well, let us find out by looking at the context from which our text is taken. One thing is obvious, there were two groups of people in John’s day, as they are in ours: Those who walk in the light and those who walk in darkness. And there is no compromise between the two groups! We cannot claim fellowship with Jesus the Son, and yet walk in darkness, because He is in the light, and there is no darkness in Him (1 John 1: 5, 6)!
Those who obey God, and those who do not. In John 15: 14, 23 we read: “If you love Me, keep My commandments….If anyone loves Me, he [she] will keep my word…” It is very clear that between these two groups there is no intersecting! They can run parallel ad infinitum, without ever coming together. There is nothing in common between these two ways! If those who disobey God’s commands claim to know Christ, they are called liars (1 John 2: 4); strong language! The two ways are completely opposite one from another.
Then there are those who love and those who hate ( 9, 10). Jesus said that people would know that we were His disciples by our love (John 13: 35). No sign was as distinctive of Christ’s followers as the love they professed one for another. Not love as the world professes it, but love as Christ loved (34). Therefore, one who did not love, was not recognized as a follower. Love was the distinguishing sign.
Those who love the world, and those who do not. We are warned against loving the world and the things of the world. The Word of God says of those who love the world and the things of the world, that the love of the Father was not in them (1 John 2: 15-17). In Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane, He did not ask the Father to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil (“the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes… the pride of life, and anything that separates us from God). There must be a difference between those who are followers of Christ, and those who are not. “Can two walk together unless they be agreed” (Amos 3: 3)?
In answering the question posed at the beginning: Who are we? We are those who love Jesus, and have made Him the Lord of our lives. There is a difference between those who love Him, and those who do not. It is not a difference that separates; but a difference that speaks of our love for Jesus, and our desire to serve Him. It is a difference that helps us to keep heaven in our view; and not the world. It is a difference that makes us “love our enemies, and pray for those who persecute us” (Matthew 5: 44). It is a love that makes us feed on His Word which is a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path (Psalm 119: 105); as we walk in a world engulfed in darkness (Isaiah 60: 1, 2).
What is the hope? It is the hope of one day seeing Jesus return in glory to take His faithful followers home; where we shall live forever with Him! This is the hope that purifies us as we wait for that day. Just to think that we will live in an atmosphere that is completely free from sin makes us desire that purity!
We have this hope! May we allow it to do its purifying work in us!