Such Love
Such Love
1 John 2:28-3:3
Many years ago, in another church, we had a young lady attending Sunday School and Worship. She came without her parents and was fairly regular. I think she started attending because of Vacation Bible School. But after a few months, she quit coming to church. Many people who leave a church just leave. They don’t explain. And often, they go silent. I guess the modern term is, they ghost the church. I try to contact them to find out why they left, if they’re attending another church, or if there is some offense that we may have caused - and I get no response. This young lady was different. She wrote me a long letter telling me why she left. She accused the people of the church of hypocrisy, so when I wrote back I challenged her to name one hypocrite in the church. She didn’t. She just leveled the charge without any evidence. But among her objections, or reasons, was this:
I had been preaching about being like Jesus. She didn’t get it. She candidly wrote that she just couldn’t see herself growing a beard, wearing a long robe, and walking about in sandals. She didn’t want to “look like” Jesus. I tried to explain, but she just wasn’t seeing it.
We do talk a lot about being like Jesus. I’ve told you that my “life song” is, “I have one deep, supreme desire: that I may be like Jesus. To this I fervently aspire, that I may be like Jesus.” My beard is irrelevant. What I want is that I will have the character of Christ. I want people to see Jesus in the way I live. Not in my dress or my beard, but in my character. That ought to be the goal of every believer. We don’t just believe, and we don’t just follow. We strive to imitate our Master.
Ann Spangler tells the story of a pastor-friend who visited Israel. The pastor said that one day in Jerusalem, “he noticed a bent-over rabbi, shuffling through the streets. Behind the rabbi walked several men, presumably his disciples. Remarkably, each man was also walking bent over.”1 Earlier in the book, the author writes that the disciple was expected to be the servant of the rabbi because some lessons can only be learned through obedience and imitation. Servanthood teaches humility. And by serving his rabbi, the disciple places himself in a position where mistakes can be corrected. That’s why, by the way, that Elisha was called the servant of Elijah (1 Ki 19:21). Only in servanthood could the disciple learn these vital lessons. In Jesus’ day, the disciples ate at the table with their rabbi and accompanied him wherever he needed to be. When Jesus told the disciples to “abide in me,” it was not theoretical or theological, but rather practical. They were literally to be with Jesus all the time, wherever he went, and whatever he did. Not just to be with, but to be as. That’s what happened in the book of Acts, when Peter and John were arrested by the Sanhedrin and answered the charges. Luke records, When they (the Sanhedrin) saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13). As Christians, we are not just to follow Jesus; we are not just to be with Jesus; we are to be as Jesus. The point of discipleship was to develop in the disciple the character of the rabbi. The point of being a disciple of Jesus is to develop in us the character of Christ. It should become evident that we have been with Jesus.
And now, dear children (Kai nØn, tekniva) ... This is roughly the equivalent of “therefore.” It is going on and building on what John has previously written. He’s just talked about counterfeits, antichrists, and deceivers, and the fact that you already know the truth. You’ve been taught. You need to remember what you were taught so that you are not among the deceived. And now ...
Remain in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. When Jesus predicted his return, he did not give a date or a time. This is the problem today with people predicting the Rapture or the Tribulation or the Second Coming. I saw one recently with an interesting calculation predicting the Rapture in 2026 - where we are. But Jesus said that no one knows the day or the hour. That’s all up to the Father. And since no one knows, we don’t do what Peter criticized and just do whatever we want. There are a lot of people who think they’ll have some warning, and they’ll get right with God just before they die. Sadly, there is no warning. But Peter noted that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation” (2 Pet 3:3-4). It’s because we don’t know that we must be constant and steady. Walk with Christ, live in Christ faithfully so that when he does return, you will be ready. You will have no reason to be ashamed. You can stand before God with a clear conscience. It is because we don’t know, and because there will be no time to change when it does happen that we must live today, and every day, as if the next is The Day.
That doesn’t mean, however, that we live in fear or that we stop making plans. We are in an interesting place as Christians. We continue to do business, continue to live our lives, but we have an eye to the clouds.
So, what do we do? John answers that: If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him. And here’s where context, again, is vital. John is not offering a salvation by works, by just doing good. In fact, it’s not goodness that John is talking about, but righteousness. The real concern here is for holiness. One problem with reading this is the whole issue of translation. The Greek wording is actually confusing in English. It would read this way: everyone who does that which is righteousness is of him begotten. It’s not just “does what is right”, but “does righteousness.” Good is not good enough. It is not doing good that shows our relationship with Christ, but living righteously, living according to what Christ commands. It is a matter of living according to the pattern of Jesus. This is about the sort of discipleship I talked about earlier. Disciples imitate their master. And righteousness is imitating Jesus.
It is also, by the way, not about “what I think”, or excusing certain behaviors because “that’s just the way I am.” The point of discipleship is to stop being what you are and start being what your rabbi is. It is to stop thinking the way you think and start thinking the way your rabbi thinks. To be a disciple is to be an imitator. To be a Christian is to think and behave like Christ, and to become like him. When we talk about the transformation, as Paul did in Romans 12 – Be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Rom 12:2) – it is not just a change in relationship or a change in habit; it’s a change in personality, a change of worldview, and a change in our way of thinking. And Paul reminded the Corinthian church that we are being transformed into his image (2 Cor 3:18). The whole point of discipleship is to develop the character and attitude of our Master.
Now I need to pull some things together. In Romans 8, where Paul writes about creation groaning for release and renewal, Paul told the church, The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father” (Rom 8:15). To the church at Corinth, Paul says that we are the temple of the living God, and then quotes from 2 Samuel: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” To the Galatian churches, Paul wrote, But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:4-6).
The chapter heading does not belong here, because the thought continues from chapter 2. John has just written that everyone who does righteousness has been born of him. Born of him implies what? That we are his children. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us ... (KJV). And that’s a correct translation. Except “what kind of” is very weak. Sometimes, that word requires a more powerful meaning. The NIV gets closer with See what great love the Father has lavished on us ... And that is too weak. John is trying to express something far grander than our language can convey. We might read this: Consider what a glorious love the Father has extravagantly given to us ... “Oh, it is wonderful! It is marvelous and wonderful – What Jesus has done for this soul of mine! The half can never be told.”2
I told you earlier that a disciple was to be his Master’s servant, to be in a position to learn obedience. In John 15:15, Jesus tells the disciples, “I no longer call you servants ... Instead, I have called you friends ...” But we’re not just friends with Jesus. When Jesus was calling Peter back from the brink, he asked Peter, “Do you love me?” Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, I am your friend.” And while Jesus was willing to begin there, he did not want Peter’s friendship; he wanted Peter’s love. He didn’t want Peter to be his friend; he wanted him to be his son.
I imagine John leaning back from his desk, tears in his eyes, as he contemplates the sheer immensity of this thought – that the Creator of the universe loves us so much that he calls us his children. And then, as if suddenly filled with delight, he leans back over the parchment and quickly writes, And that is what we are! We are the children of God. That’s what the cross did for us who believe. We are the children of God – and the reason the rest of the world doesn’t know who we are is because they don’t know who God is. If they knew God ... That is, if they knew the Father, they would recognize his children.
When Aaron was in college, one day on campus he was asked if he was related to Ira Edwards. My dad had taught there, and Aaron reminded them of his grandfather. He was on the Madeira Islands with the college jazz band, and someone asked him if he knew a David Edwards. They knew his father and recognized the family likeness. John says that if people knew who God was, if they knew God they would recognize his children by the “family resemblance.” Children bear the image of their parents. We are to bear the image of our Father. There should be a family resemblance.
Here’s the problem: sin has so corrupted the world that, as Paul wrote, we look through darkened glass, or a broken mirror, and see only a distorted image. We can become disciples and acknowledge that we are the children of God, but we’re not sure exactly what that means. We talk about the character of Christ, about imitating our Master, but we know that we fall short of our aims. John acknowledges the problem, but offers us hope at the same time: Beloved ones, we are now children of God, but what we will become has not yet been revealed to us. Here’s where theologians talk about the “already, but not yet.” We are already children of God, but not yet complete in him, and what “complete in him” look like we haven’t been told.
What we do know, however, is that Christ has promised to return, and when he does, then we will know. And we will know because we will see him fully and completely. We will finally see him as he is. We will see Jesus in all his glory. And John says, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. Our goal will be fulfilled in that moment. A woman pushed her way through the crowd for the opportunity just to touch the hem of his robe. Jesus said to her, “Your faith has made you whole.” Just so, as we live in faithful obedience to the commands of Christ, the day will come when our faith will make us complete in him. We will see him in his fullness and we will be like him.
But there is a caveat. It is not mere belief, mere agreement with the proposition, or mere acceptance of the truth. John finishes here: All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. That word “pure” is not the same as in 1:7, 9. It doesn’t mean “washed clean.” It means “made holy.” The word is pure in the sense of belonging to God, as the tabernacle in the wilderness and the instruments of worship were pure. They were not just clean; they were dedicated. John is telling us that Christlikeness, full discipleship, means that we belong to God. Jesus, in Matthew 5:48, said it this way, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Be holy. Belong to Christ. Wear the family resemblance cleanly. We are called to be his holy people, and to live a Christ-like life. I want to be like Jesus. Don’t you?
1 Ann Spanger & Lois Tverberg, Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009), p. 63
2 Lelia N. Morris, ‘Tis Marvelous and Wonderful, 1910