Purified by Hope
“All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” — 1 John 3:3, NIV
When we know something is coming, we tend to prepare accordingly, right? We clean the house before guests come over; we pack before going on a trip; we prepare for an important meeting or appointment, etc. Even if we do not know every single detail of what is ahead, knowing that something is coming typically changes the way we live leading up to it.
Scripture tells us over and over that Jesus is coming again. We do not know exactly when that will happen, but we can be certain that it will. And according to John, that future hope and anticipation should have a very real effect on how we live today. In 1 John 3, John talks about who we are now and who we are ultimately becoming as children of God.
“Now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.” (1 John 3:2, NIV).
Our present standing is secure—we are God’s children. Romans 8:16 tells us, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (NIV). But God is also still doing work within us now. John continues by telling us that when Christ appears,
“we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1John 3:2, NIV).
That is where we are headed. God’s goal for our lives is not simply to make us happier, more successful (whatever that means), more comfortable, or even more religious. Romans 8:29 says that we are being “conformed to the image of his Son” (NIV). God is making us more like Jesus.
If that is where we are going, should it not change how we live along the way?
“All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:3, NIV).
Our hope is not simply that someday we will go to heaven—our hope is in him. We are looking toward Jesus, longing to see him as he truly is, and trusting that one day the work he has begun in us will be complete. Knowing that should create a desire in us to look more like him now.
Purification is not something that happens once and then we move on. It is a continual process of allowing God to show us what does not belong, turning away from it, and allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us moment by moment. There is no point in our lives where we can say, I have grown enough! I am close enough to Jesus! There is absolutely nothing else God needs to change in me! Until we see him, he is still forming us.
That means we continually have a choice about where we will abide. We can continue abiding in patterns of sin, allowing them to become familiar and comfortable, or we can continually turn from them and abide in Christ and his love for us.
“Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4, NIV).
John does not soften the seriousness of sin. Sin is not merely making a mistake or choosing something less than ideal. At its core, sin is rebellion against God—choosing our own way over his. But immediately after explaining the seriousness of sin, John reminds us why Jesus came:
“He appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin” (1 John 3:5, NIV).
Jesus came to take away sin. He takes away the penalty of our sin. We cannot forgive or cleanse ourselves enough to make ourselves right with God. Salvation is the work of Jesus, received by faith. He also works continually to break the power of sin in our lives. The habits, desires, attitudes, and patterns that once controlled us do not have to remain in control. This is an ongoing work of Christ through the Holy Spirit as we surrender ourselves to him.
And one day, he will remove the presence of sin once and for all. When we see Jesus and are made like him, the work will finally be complete. From beginning to end, purification is his work in us—but it is a work we must continually respond to.
“No one who lives in him keeps on sinning” (1 John 3:6, NIV).
John is not saying that Believers reach a point in this life where they never sin again. Earlier in 1 John, he writes, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8, NIV). The difference is not between people who have ever sinned and people who never have—the difference is what we do with our sin.
Do we become comfortable with it? Do we justify it, protect it, excuse it, or build our lives around it? Or when the Holy Spirit brings something to our attention, do we confess it, turn from it, and allow God to continue changing us?
A life of abiding in Jesus cannot also be a life that is completely comfortable remaining in sin.
Obviously, that does not mean that we as Christians never struggle. Goodness knows we do. Sometimes the battle we face with sin is evidence that something has changed—the old person who once lived comfortably in a particular sin may now feel conviction, grief, and a desire to be free from it. We may fall, confess, get back up, and fight the same battle again—but we keep bringing it to Jesus.
Romans 6 reminds us that grace does not give us permission to say exactly as we were. In Christ, the old life has been put to death, and we have been given new life. We do not fight sin so that God will make us his children. We fight sin because we already are his children. And we know our Father is making us look more like his perfect Son.
We do not know whether Christ will return tomorrow, decades from now, or after our earthly lives have ended. But the uncertainty of the timing is exactly why our response should not be, I will get serious about following Jesus later. We want to be ready NOW. Not afraid—not anxiously checking whether we have somehow purified ourselves enough. But faithfully abiding in Christ today and allowing the Holy Spirit to continue his work within us.
Maybe there is something God has been asking you to release—a habit you keep excusing, an attitude you know does not resemble Jesus, a relationship with sin that has become a little too comfortable. Purification often happens in these ordinary moments of surrender when we hear the Spirit’s conviction and simply surrender it and say, Yes, Lord. Change this in me. Make me more like Jesus.
We do not know when we will see Jesus—but we know that we will. And because our hope is in him, we can live today becoming more like the glorious One we are waiting to see face to face. We ask the Holy Spirit to help us purify our lives not because we are trying to earn our place with Jesus, but because our hope is in his return—and we want to be ready to see him.
bytaylormcgee
