1 John 3

As we give our lives to God and to others as servants, we are told to think of ourselves as children in His family. This is an extraordinary privilege that is now ours according to the plan of God's grace. The one and only Son has won for us this exalted position.

We are God's children even now, though the family estate is currently above in heaven, and we are here below in the world. This family standing in God's home comes with a warning. Though God is sovereign over all things in heaven and on earth, the children of God in the world should not anticipate that everyone will love us. If we consider for a moment the suffering that our Lord faced from His own countrymen during His days here below, we should not be surprised that people will not always care for us.

One day this situation will be different. We may not know everything about life in the present heavens, but we do know that when Jesus appears, we shall be like Him, because we will see Him as He is. This is our great and secure hope, and we who have this hope are to live accordingly. We are in love with the ultimate Man of purity. Therefore we purify ourselves now as we wait for His appearing.

The pursuit of purity is a noble endeavor. It requires that we choose to embrace the heavenly life every day. The alternative to this is a jarring disconnect between what we say that we love and the sin that we pursue. If Christ came to take away our sins, and we insist that we adore Him for this, how can it make any sense that we would continue in old habits of lawlessness?

There are many ways to say it, but the reality is the same. We need to walk in the light, to live as children of God, to practice righteousness, to pursue purity, to live the life of heaven now, and to follow Jesus. If we have been rescued from our former slavery to the devil, then we need to move away from sin. Our excuses and delays in repentance are not conducive to our true happiness.

The devil has been sinning from the beginning. The results of the rebellion of angels and men can be seen all around us. It is an old story of misery, shame, guilt, and loss. But now the Son of God has appeared. His death on the cross looked like another chapter in the old story of the defeat of what is good. Yet Christ's death and resurrection have destroyed the works of the devil. We are on the side of the greatest victory possible in Jesus Christ.

That victory is already at work within us, and it cannot be entirely contained in some private space of individual spiritual life. Christians have been leaving behind signs of heavenly victory everywhere they go for many centuries now. The love of God, the power of the cross, the hope of the Spirit, these good evidences of life are leaking out of our souls into homes, schools, prisons, businesses, and everywhere else where we live the quiet life of godliness.

But what message leaks out of us if we continue to make a practice of sinning? Isn't this the worst challenge that the church faces, not the press of persecution, but the indifference that comes from worldliness in our midst? But if God's seed is in us, and we hear a Word of freedom, life, and justice in Christ, something starts sprouting up within us that cannot easily be held back. As that seed starts to germinate, there will be growth, and eventually fruit. This is how we know the children of God and the children of the devil. The children of the devil do not practice righteousness, and they do not love the Lord's family.

Cain and Abel were brothers in the same family. Yet one was of the devil, he envied his brother, and envy yielded murder. Abel was murdered, but it was Cain who was walking in death.

Christ laid down His life for us. Because of His death, whether we live or die, we can now walk in life. That's why when we see our brother in need, the love of God living within us opens our hearts and sends our hands into action, providing for the one we love. This is how the body of Christ shines forth in life in a world of frequent and significant disappointments. This is how heaven springs forth from the souls and bodies of those who have been born from above. Why should we close our hearts? Are we not together in the Lord's family? Don't we love one another? “Little children,” John writes, “let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

This can all be so difficult to hear, and if we are honest about it, our hearts may begin to condemn us. Is that self-accusation, even that impulse of self-condemnation, an indication that we are not God's children after all? No, if our hearts condemn us, we have a recourse that we flee to that is greater than our own hearts. We run to God, who knows everything. Nonetheless, we should seek a life of honest and humble confidence before the Lord. That life can only come to those sons of God who are truly His servants in caring for His beloved bride.

If we have this quiet confidence, we will call out to Him in prayer and He will answer because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. Do you have room in your heart for this understanding of how God works? These are His plain words of encouragement to you, and they are good words. No matter what, whether your heart condemns you or not, believe in the name of God's Son Jesus Christ and love one another. This is God's command, and His way is surely the best way for all of His children.