Personalities of the Children of God – They Are Righteous
1 John 2:28 And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.
1 John 2:29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.
The word “abide” is in the present tense and gives forth the meaning that the Christian should “be constantly abiding in Him.”
This exhortation here to “abide” is given in view of the uncertainty of the time of Jesus’ coming. He is coming but we do not know the day nor the hour that He will appear so the believer must live in close fellowship with His Lord that he or she may be ready at all times for that coming.
If Jesus would have told His disciples that He was coming to get the church on October 26th, 2008 many would “party hearty” on up through October 25th and start repenting at 11:55PM.
The fact is that Jesus is coming to rapture His church but no one knows the day or the hour He will appear.
Christ’s appearance will result in confidence
John goes on to communicate to his readers that Christ's appearance will inevitably cause one of two reactions: confidence or shame.
For the believer, the response is confidence. The term "confidence" is a translation of a Greek word, which literally means "all speech" or "freedom in speech." It also means “cheerful courage,” “boldness” or “assurance.”
John is describing the believer who lives so close to the Lord Jesus that there is nothing between him and his Lord when He appears. There is nothing of known sin in his life when the rapture occurs.
This is the person who when Jesus appears will shout as recorded in Revelation 5:12, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!"
And, Revelation 7:10, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"
The confidence that John writes about is indicated in the believer's ability to verbalize, in contrast to the silent terror and shame of those who must quake before Him at His return.
Christ’s appearance will result in shame
There will be some who in shame will shrink from Him when He appears. They will shrivel low and won’t have much, if any, to say because of conscious guilt and His glorious presence.
Just like the brightness of the son causes our unprotected eyes to contract, the person who stands before the Lord Jesus ashamed, will shrink away from Him at His appearance.
This is why the Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:9, “Therefore also we have as our ambition . . . to be pleasing to Him.” A Christian who has not walked in fellowship with Christ in obedience, love, and truth will lose his rewards; and this will make him experience shame.
1 John 2:29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.
John wants us to know in verse 29 that God is righteous: He is innocent of any evil; He always does right and makes right judgments. If that is characteristic of Him, you would expect His children to behave in the same manner; so John says, “…everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.”
Peter reminds us that children of God do not act like they did before they were born again: "As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance but, as he who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of life, because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy." (1 Peter 1:14-16)
This means if He who gave birth to us is holy, then we who are born of Him will show forth that same righteousness in our lives.
Those who claim to know God but don't live righteously discredit their claim by their lifestyle. It is so easy to “say” we have faith but not have the righteous lifestyle to back it up.
Jesus speaks of those who call Him “Lord” and do not do what He says (Luke 6:46).
James even warns us against having a “say so” faith. (James 2:18) He goes on to teach that biblical faith is coupled with righteous deeds.
The Bible says in the book of Titus, “Let those who of you who have believed in God be careful to maintain good works.” (Titus 3:8)
Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)
Too much today do we have people who “say” they are Christian but do not have the lifestyle to prove it.
Let me share with you a true story. A number of years ago, there was a knock on the door of a pastor of a large church. It was 3:00am. His son went to the door and this guy says, “I want some counsel from your father.”
Now this teenage boy knew the heart of his father, he knew he was a shepherd and wouldn’t mind getting up at 3:00am to minister to one of his sheep. So the son says to the man, “You can go into the living room and wait for him.”
He woke his father up; the father got up, walked to the living room, and as he did so, from behind the door came down a 14 inch machete blade across his face. Sliced his fingers, cut his throat. His sons came running into the living room because they heard him screaming, only to find the blood of their father all over the walls.
They grabbed the guy they believed had murdered their father, and they just about killed him. The man was screaming, “I can’t breathe,” and they said, “Die…die then.” The man got arrested. The father survived but had to have hundreds of blood transfusions.
The next day, another pastor was sharing the story with one of his friends and said, “Did you hear about last night? Well, you won’t believe it. The man that did this was part of my church. He’s one of our members.” Then he says, “Man that’s amazing…that another Christian could do that.”
But here is the sad thing…that the pastor could assume that a person who would do this is a Christian.
The Gospel has been watered down to where all someone has to do is say they believe in Jesus and they are a Christian.
It doesn’t matter how they live.
It doesn’t matter how they talk.
It doesn’t matter that they don’t attend church on a regular basis to worship and serve God.
We have people in our churches today that have a profession of faith. Perhaps they can remember a day when they walked down an aisle or prayed the “sinner’s prayer.” But they do not demonstrate the fruit of one whose life has been cleansed by the power of Jesus.
John wants us to know in verse 29 that the true believer brings forth the fruit of a new lifestyle, a lifestyle that is pleasing in the sight of Almighty God.
If we are rooted and grounded in Christ, it should be obvious. Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abides in Me and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit.”
If you belong to Jesus, you are a branch connected to Him as the vine and can only bring forth much fruit.
In Colossians 1:10, Paul says that a believer walks “worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”
John continues to write about practical righteousness in chapter three of the book of 1 John.
(1 John 3:1 NKJV) Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
Behold - Not translated in the NIV. It is the Greek word (idete, eido, i'-do), which means, "look at."
This word means, “behold you.” The writer wants everyone to take notice. Another way to put it is “Behold, all of you.” “Check this out!”
What is it that John wants us to see? What is it that John wants us to behold? He wants us to behold or to see “what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us…”
When John uses the words “great love” (NASB, NIV) or “manner of love” (KJV, NKJV) he is writing about a strange kind of love, an unusual kind of love, a kind of love to which we are not accustomed.
For example, in this life many of us have experienced a “fair-weather” love – When the storms come, the love and the lover goes.
There is selfish love (or love driven by selfish motives_ – As long as they are getting what they want, they are around. But when the well dries up, they’re gone.
As long as you are a 36-24-36 you are his “brick house,” but if the foundations begin to shift, watch out!
The word “manner” speaks of something foreign. The first part of verse one could also be translated, “Behold, what foreign kind of love…”
It is an out of this world love. (i.e., other worldly)
It is not of this life or from this place. (i.e., unearthly)
John is in essence saying, “You may have known the love of a mother, the love of the child and the love of a man or a woman; but the love of God is from a different realm altogether!”
John continues, “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us…”
A minister one day sat in the vestry of his church to meet anyone who needed help with some difficult passages of Scripture. Only one came. "What are you having trouble with?" asked the minister. The man answered, "My problem is with the ninth chapter of Romans, where it says, 'Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated,'"
"Yes," said the minister, "that is a hard verse to understand; but which part of the verse is difficult for you?" The latter part, of course," said the man. "I cannot understand why God should hate Esau."
The minister replied, "That verse has given people trouble, but my difficulty has always been with the first part of the verse. I never could understand how God could love that deceitful scoundrel, Jacob."
If we stopped to think about it, everyone of us could say the same thing about ourselves. “How could God love a sinner like me?”
The suffering Job says, "What is man, that You should exalt him, That You should set Your heart on him” (Job 7:17 NKJV)
John writes that God bestowed His love on us. He gave us His love! The word “bestow” is in the perfect tense – indicates the gift becomes a permanent possession of the recipient.
Jeremiah 31:3b - "…I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.”
Romans 8:35 – “Who… shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Then he goes on to say in specific terms “Nothing!”
How do we know that God has bestowed this great, out of this world kind of love? His love was proved by what He did for us. John says that God has called us His children!
…that we should be called children of God.
In the 1950’s the world was shocked by the murders of five missionaries killed by Aucas of South America. One of the wives of the murdered missionaries, Elizabeth Elliott, wrote the history of that event in a book called Through Gates of Splendor. And she did more. She went herself to live among those murderers and win them to a new way of life in Christ.
Elizabeth Elliott displayed an act of unselfish love but it was nothing compared to what God did for us.
Last week in our LIFE Group we were looking at this passage and concluded that God’s love is like Elizabeth Elliott going further than what she did and taking one of the murderers of her husband into her home, making him a member of her family and calling him her son.
This is what God did for us. The Bible says, “For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us…” (Titus 3:3-5)
In 1 Timothy chapter one, Paul describes himself as the type of person you would not want to have as your child (vs 13)
“…although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent aggressor; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” (1 Tim 1:13-15)
Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God!
A tender word is used in 1 John 3:1 for "children." It is the Greek word teknia, meaning "born ones." This word is used in the Scripture by both the apostles Paul and John.
When Paul uses it he is concerned with our public position as sons:
Rom 8:16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
Rom 8:17a and if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ…
Because we are “children of God” we are legal heirs to the promises of God our father.
However, John is concerned with our nearness as born-ones of the Father.
1 John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!
God has called us His “born ones;” His children.
As King, He could have referred to us as merely His subjects.
As Master, He could have confined us to the realm of servitude as His slaves.
As Lord of heaven, He could have related to us as only His tenants
As Creator, He could have associated with us as simply His creation.
As our Savior, He could have referred to us primarily as His debtors.
BUT! Because He is Father, He chooses to call us His little “born ones”—His children.
The KJV and NKJV omit the last part of verse one. But other translations have the expression, “and such we are!”
John is saying, we are not only called children of God---we are children of God.
Not only does a Christian carry the name “child of God,” we have the essence of sonship.
We don’t hope to be…we don’t expect to be…but every believer can rejoice and constantly thank and praise God that he is God’s child.
At the end of verse one John writes, “For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.”
World – kosmos – people of this world system of evil headed by Satan
Know - ginosko, - to "know" experientially
John is saying that the people of this world system of evil headed by Satan cannot come to an understanding and appreciation of the nature of the person we are. Why? Because unsaved people do not have a saving relationship with God and hence an understanding of God.
In our text, John is saying that Christians are foreign to the unsaved because God is foreign to them. The reason the world can’t get into us is because it does not get into Him.
1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.…”
He writes, “…it has not yet appeared” – This means it has not yet been made manifest. It is in the aorist passive – The aorist tense in the Greek refers to a snapshot of something in time. John is saying that our future condition was never manifested on any occasion. There is no photographic record of this condition.
Then John writes, “…what we shall be” – Here he is referring to “something unspeakable.” No one has ever died, been changed, went to heaven and then returned to tell about it.
John is writing that it has not yet appeared—it has not yet been made manifest—there is no revelation on this.
John continues at the end of verse two, “but we know;” in other words, because of the inner witness of being God’s child, “we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
A song writer once wrote, “something on the inside working on the outside.” For the Christian, there is something on the inside, the inner witness of the Holy Spirit, letting him know that this life is not all there is. There is something on the inside working on the outside letting me know that one day I will shed this robe flesh and become like my Savior
So John says, “but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
It would help us to understand what John is saying by examining what he means when he says, “when He is revealed.” John is referring to what is called the Rapture.
The word “rapture” means caught up. The Rapture is that event in Bible prophecy when Jesus returns from heaven and appears in the clouds to call up His children. He summons the bodies of the departed believers to be reunited with their spirits that have been in heaven up to this point.
Then He calls up Christians who are alive at that moment to meet Him in the air. He proceeds to change the bodies of both the living and the dead believer into the glorious kind of body that He has and all this occurs in the time that it takes of an eye to twinkle.
(1 Th 4:16-17 NKJV) For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Back in our text, John says, “…we shall be like Him…”
This statement has to do with physical likeness, not spiritual likeness.
If you know Jesus Christ as Savior you are already spiritually like the Lord—we call this sanctification. You have been sanctified or set apart to be spiritually like Jesus Christ.
1 Cor 6:11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
The word sanctification also refers to the present work the Spirit of God is doing in the life of the believer. You are more spiritually like the Lord each day through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.
Heb 2:11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,
However, one day we will be ultimately sanctified as we are transformed into the physical likeness of the Lord:
(Phil 3:20-21 NKJV) For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
The word “change/transform” that Paul uses in Philippians 3 means, “to change the outward expression by assuming one put on from the outside.” In other words, this is not a change from the inside out, but a change from the outside in.
(1 Cor 15:51-53 NKJV) Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
Are you looking forward to this day?
Every so often after a hard day of work I cannot wait to get home so I can strip off my clothes and get into something more comfortable. On this day God will strip off the mortal and put on immortality. He will strip off the corruptible and put on the incorruptible.
Some of us have been trying desperately to lose some weight. Others are tired of the aches and the pain, the arthritis, the diabetes and high blood pressure.
We are reminded of the frailties of our bodies due to Adam’s sin each and every day. We used medications to deal with these frailties, painkillers to numb these frailties and cosmetics to hide these frailties.
Now let me tell you some good news! Everything that we’ve been trying to do through blood, sweat and tears, God is going to do “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye…”
These corruptible bodies will put incorruption:
* Obesity will be no more!
* Hypertension will be no more!
* Diabetes will be a thing of the past!
* Heart disease will be history!
* Cerebral Palsy and Multiple Sclerosis, Cancer, Asthma, Lupus, Gout, Migraines, Sickle Cell, HIV/Aids and Arthritis will be done away with!
For John writes, “when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
It is during the Rapture that God will retrofit our bodies, enabling them to withstand His holy presence.
It is only at the Rapture that we will be able to see our Lord Jesus as He is now. These mortal bodies we live in will not allow us to look on that blazing glory and stay alive.
This is why we will be like Him; for only in that state can we see Him just “as He is.”
Lastly, in verse three of our text, John speaks of a purifying hope
(1 John 3:3 NKJV) And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
What hope is he referring to? This hope we have “in Him.”
This hope, this expectation of His return to call us up to meet with Him in the clouds
This hope, this expectation of being like Him…
This hope, this expectation of seeing Him just as He is.
If you have this hope, John writes that it should have a purifying effect on you because He is pure.
Now we have come full circle to John’s message in the five verses we’ve been looking at. John is helping his readers to come to terms with the righteous characteristics that should be on display in the life of the one who says they are a follower of Jesus Christ.
John is letting us know that we should want to live a pure life because we know that in order to see Him, we have to be like Him. This is why Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8)
