Because we are the dearly loved children of God, God gives us the gift of his love. A son might expect to receive something from his father, the wealthier the father, the more extravagant the gift. If we have been born again then God is our father and God has access to all of the wealth of the universe, so his gifts to us can be lavish indeed!
Because we are children of God and have received the love of God in this way, the world does not know us (3:1b). The world did not understand Jesus in the Gospel of John, there are many examples of Jesus stating something which was misunderstood (Nicodemus thinking he needed to be literally reborn, for example).
If a person is in Christ they are a new thing, a new category which the world does not fully grasp. In the Roman world, it was very hard to understand why these Christians were willing to give up their lives for a belief in a crucified God. They did not understand why faith in Jesus brought men and women, slaves and free together as a new family, and they certainly could not understand why Christians would help the poor, care for the needs of the orphan or widow, help people who were sick with dangerous diseases, etc.
Even though we are children of God, we have cannot fully understand what this means (3:2). Continuing the metaphor of a parent and child, it is possible a child has no idea the exact wealth of their parent. Imagine a child who has a famous and wealthy father, but they do not realize who wealthy until they are an adult. As Karen Jobes says, “the full effect of being a child of the Father with eternal life is not something anyone can comprehend now” (1, 2, & 3 John, 142).
The one who has this hope purifies themselves because God himself is pure (3:3). This “hope” refers to the love god has lavished on us, but possibly as far back as the hope of confidence on the day of judgment.
To be pure has the sense of both ritual and moral purity. The verb (ἁγνίζω) is used for Judeans who purify themselves as they go up to Jerusalem to worship at Passover (John 11:55). In Acts 21:24 Paul goes up to the Temple to assist some men who were completing a Nazarite vow, they “purify themselves.” The verb is used as a metaphor in the New Testament, James 4:8 refers to purifying one’s heart and 1 Peter 1:22 refers to purifying one’s soul.
It may be a coincidence, but Paul does not use this language when describing sanctification, possibly because it is a very Jewish metaphor; the one who is purifying themselves is getting ready to worship God at the Temple. They are drawing near to the presence of God and therefore take the necessary steps to be ceremonially clean.
The child of God purifies themselves. Being born of God was passive, we do nothing to be born again, but John says there is some responsibility on the part of the believers to purify themselves.
Developing the Father and child metaphor just a bit more, if the Father is has some characteristic, then his child likely has the same attribute but the child will needs to make some effort to develop that attribute be more like the father. In this case, God is perfect purity, the child will not reach that same kind of purity, but that is what the goal ought to be.
“Developing the Father and child metaphor just a bit more, if the Father has some characteristic, then his child likely has the same attribute, but the child will need to make some effort to develop that attribute to be more like the father” (Long, 2020). I liked this metaphor; it makes a lot of sense. Being born in the image of God, the Imago Dei, it is true that we will reflect some characteristics of who God is. For example, in one of my psychology classes this morning we talked about the baby/puppet experiment. The experiment shows babies a puppet show. One puppet is being “nice” throughout the show and the other puppet is being “mean”. At the end of the show the puppeteer gives the babies a choice, do they reach for the “nice” puppet or the “mean” one? Most often the babies will choose the “nice” one. This sociologically proves that even small children have the ability to detect good and evil. We then discussed that because we are all created in the image of God we would inherently have that within us, but because of the fallen world we live in, we would also have evil. As believers we have the Holy Spirit to help better transform us into the good or “nice” attributes of God. That takes constant sacrifice of giving up ourselves in order to be more like God. Romans 12:1 shares “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship”(ESV).
References
ESV Study Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008. Print.
Speaking of seeking after the characteristics of our father as being pure as he is, in light of this idea of purification, this might bring more profound light to 1 Peter 1:16, which says, “be holy because I am holy” (NIV). Although we are unable to be the exact replication of who God is, we are commanded to seek after following in his image. As a child follows the lead of their father in life, we do the same. The distinguishing point between sanctification and purification might be a little challenging to understand, since both sound like the would be similar, but this might construed our understanding of both sanctification and purification. When 1 John speaks of this, he has in mind “the purification of our souls” (Long, 2020). Although we don’t know exactly the wealth of the father, we know he gives gifts to us far better than what we can even comprehend (Matt 7:11). So, in being born again we do nothing on our part to be born again by God, yet we still have a responsibility to purify ourselves, to seek after the intended means of our creation, to be made and shown as creatures made in the imago dei.
This concept of purification- whether it be metaphorical, physical, or spiritual, is a concept that has always been so intriguing to me. I have a hard time believing that even we as believers today, with a rich, nuanced, well-researched Biblical understanding, can even begin to grasp the significance of what this purification means. A starting point to begin understanding this vastly profound concept can be found earlier in the blog post: “To be pure has the sense of both ritual and moral purity.” We have these two components, ritual and moral. I find very much in hindsight that the Wesleyan denominal tradition I grew up in very much put on emphasis on this idea of renewal, and frequent confession for sins. Not a frequent renewal that had anything to do with the security of salvation mind you, just a healthy encouragement to consider a continual investment in your personal relationship with Christ, and confessing your sins often and being in communion with our Father is a great way to go about experiencing deep spiritual growth. I’m reminded of Paul’s teachings in Romans: 2 Do not be conformed to this world,[a] but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,” (Romans 12:2a, ESV).
This blog does a great job of reflecting on how our nature should be as it refers to our identity as children of God. In this post, there is an example that is used that stood out to me, the example of a wealthy father giving his kids amazing gifts. This shows how generous and how much love our Heavenly Father has for each and every one of us. This is a really great picture of the love that He shows to us. The point of knowing how the world struggles helps to understand our faith better. People couldn’t understand why early Christians would give up everything for their beliefs. There are some people in today’s world who still don’t understand this concept of unconditional love and comprehension of following Christ. The point that is made in the post about us not fully understanding our identity as God’s children is so right. We are like children who don’t understand the full extent of how wealthy our parents truly are. There is so much more that we can find out about what we have inherited from our Heavenly Father.
God gave humanity their own free will because he wanted us to choose to love him, to choose to be purified, and to choose to suffer in his name. Therefore, it is on us to be purified, to go through the actions in heart and body for purification. I like the comparison of a parent and their child to our relationship with God, because that is who he is to us. He is a Father who loves his children so deeply he has no room in his heart for hate toward any one of them. He gets angry when we do wrong or go against him, he punishes us when we sin through consequences of our evil actions, he is sad when we turn away from him or suffer, and he is joyful when we are happy and in faith. It is so easy to have faith in God when the brain is not fully developed and reason is not the top of the hierarchy of the thought process. As children we believe in the reality of fairy tales, and to us God is a fantasy that is as real to us as anything else we can see, hear, and feel. The goal is to reach the type of awesomeness and purity that God is. As a child, we need to work hard to get close to God’s purity, and we have to work hard to maintain that level. We have to constantly grow in our faith of him, never stopping. But we will make mistakes, and so we have to ask for forgiveness, and we have to show in our hearts and actions we are truly sorry for the sins we committed instead of just saying we are sorry out of fear of the repercussions we will receive, because we are not going to walk away unscathed. We are going to face the consequences our sinful actions have sowed, but that does not mean we walk away from the faith, either.
I like the comparison that was made in this blog post about the parent to their child. It identifies Christ as our Father. He has unfailing love for His children, and as His children we are called to be like Him, however we are still given choices. Choices that we have to decide. We have to choose to serve Him daily. We have to choose between right and wrong, and also, we have to choose to suffer for His name. It is so hard to fully grasp what it means to be a child of God. In this role we are to seek to be like Him, however as humans there will be mistakes and moments where we fall short, but because He is our father, He is with us all the way if we rely on Him. As His children we should put our whole faith in who He is.
In 1 John 3:1-2, the phrase “children of God” is used twice, in verse 1 explaining the great power the phrase represents for us. In the second verse, the phrase is again used, this time to repeat the importance it has as our title. Much like in 2 Corinthians 6:8, the description of God as a father figure for believers is used here as a symbol of God’s love for us and the protection he offers us. In verse 3 this love God as for us appears again. As this post has outlined the use of the word hope in verse 3 is in some ways synonymous with the same love God has for us and us for him. The idea of purifying one’s self is discussed at the end of the verse. Specifically we are to make ourselves pure in the same way that Jesus is. The responsibility is placed on believers to follow in Christ’s example and live by his word. While man can never become fully pure this is still the goal. The old phrase, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars,” in the words of Norman Vincent Peale, while a bit cheesy is in some ways an applicable description of this idea. While the perfection of Christ is impossible to achieve, the pursuit of the purity he displayed is not. Living one’s life to become as pure as possible is essential.
Purification is a very hard process, some might say impossible. I know it is something that I have been trying for a long time to stay pure no matter what aspect of my life and I fall short. We have verses like Romans 3:23 that tell us that all fall short of the glory of God. No matter what you do or who you are, you will always fall short. I think sometimes it can feel like that falling short can seem a lot further than other times. The great thing is that every single person falls at the same place. No one in this world is “better” than you or worse than you. As it says in the blog, the word purification was used by the Jewish people to get pure before they entered the temple. As Christians, we use it in a different context. After Jesus died we became pure and holy in the sight of the Lord. When Jesus died at that moment all of our sins past, present, and future were forgiven. No matter the “level” of sin they are forgiven. The Jewish people had to sacrifice a spotless lamb before they entered the temple because that was their way of becoming blameless or pure before the Lord. For us as modern-day Christians Jesus was our lamb. Except that his death doesn’t have to happen every time before we speak to the Lord. It has already been done and it’s finished. There is no sin that comes by surprise to God. So when Christians talk about purification it’s different because we don’t do it to be able to speak to the Lord or be in his presence. We do it to honor Jesus who died for our sins so that we can please him and being pure is the ultimate thank you to Jesus. As humans, we will never reach the purity that we “need” to, but like I said before we are already pure before the Lord so it doesn’t really matter “how we do”. That doesn’t mean just living however we want. God knows our hearts and he knows when we are trying to obey and be pure, but he also knows when we blatantly disregard his commands and have the “I’m going to do whatever I want because God’s grace abounds”. It’s what is in our heart or “goal” that determines our purification rather than our purity based on our actions.