Hope Because of God's Mercy!
When we Christians talk about the hope inspired by God's mercy, we're not talking about something we have to create or invent. We're talking about something that's a sure thing.
The Apostle John tells us something important:
See what love the Father has bestowed on us, that we may be called the children of
God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God's children now. What we will be has not yet been revealed. We
know that when it is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. Everyone
who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure. (1John 3:1-3)
"See what love the Father has bestowed on us"! God's love, the love that led him to send his Son for us, is so great that John can't even describe it. All he can say is "See what love!" And the result of God's love is that we are children of God.
Before Christ's sacrifice on the cross, humanity was without hope. But "at the right time God sent his Son to die for us." So now we're children of God.
That's who we are! What a wonderful reality that is.
It's as though John wants us to pause there. He tells us we're children of God, then emphasizes, "Yet so we are." Talk about mercy! You and I are children of God. Be confident in that mercy.
"The reason the world does not know us ..." Well, the world knows us in the sense that they know we're here. But they don't like it. John means that the world doesn't get us. They don't understand what we're about, why our values are the reverse of theirs. They think, "You Christians are alien to us. We don't even understand the language you use."
John tells us why they don't get us. "The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him." The world didn't get Jesus either. It pushed him out, all the way out--crucifixion. The world wanted nothing to do with him or his Gospel. That's why the world doesn't get us. To them we're weird and dangerous aliens plopped down from some other planet.
John repeats, "Beloved, we are God's children now." Then he goes farther: "What we will be has not yet been revealed." We're now children of God, but not yet what we will be.
What will we be? "We will be like him." The Apostle Paul says, "We're being transformed from one degree of glory to another." As we look to Christ, we mature into the image of Christ. And someday we'll be fully like him. We'll be free from all that separates us from him.
But John explains that this doesn't leave us just waiting. He shows us how we're to be now: "Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure."
Why does John single out purity here? He could have singled out joy or righteousness or another characteristic of God we're striving for. In John's time, the culture was undergoing spiritual and moral change for the worse. It was a time of spiritual confusion and increasing decadence. So it is in our time.
It's a testimony to the world when we are pure. Purity is powerful when we live it in our world.
I remember a homily preached by Martin Luther King Jr. Toward the end, King coins the phrase "creatively maladjusted". Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were "creatively maladjusted". The Prophet Daniel was "creatively maladjusted". So were Peter, Paul, John, and the early Christians. King preached:
Will we continue to march to the drumbeat of conformity and respectability, or will we
listen to the beat of a more distant drum? Will we move to its echoing sounds? Will
we march only to the music of time, or will we, risking criticism and abuse, march to the
soul-saving music of Eternity? More than ever before, we are today challenged by the
words of yesterday: "Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind". (Romans 12:2)
The pressures will be there to conform to culture. King said we should be "creatively maladjusted". Through the renewing of our minds, we will be able to live transformed lives--lives that, in the face of cultural decadence, stand for purity. If we stand for the convictions that come to us through God's Church, we'll be known as people of joy.
Someday "we will be like him". That's our hope. It's not a hope we put on the shelf. It's a hope that enables us, in the midst of the real world, to be confident in God, in his mercy, in his Church, in his Word, and in his Gospel!
That's John's Good News in this passage. Have a blessed Mercy Sunday.
The Apostle John tells us something important:
See what love the Father has bestowed on us, that we may be called the children of
God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God's children now. What we will be has not yet been revealed. We
know that when it is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. Everyone
who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure. (1John 3:1-3)
"See what love the Father has bestowed on us"! God's love, the love that led him to send his Son for us, is so great that John can't even describe it. All he can say is "See what love!" And the result of God's love is that we are children of God.
Before Christ's sacrifice on the cross, humanity was without hope. But "at the right time God sent his Son to die for us." So now we're children of God.
That's who we are! What a wonderful reality that is.
It's as though John wants us to pause there. He tells us we're children of God, then emphasizes, "Yet so we are." Talk about mercy! You and I are children of God. Be confident in that mercy.
"The reason the world does not know us ..." Well, the world knows us in the sense that they know we're here. But they don't like it. John means that the world doesn't get us. They don't understand what we're about, why our values are the reverse of theirs. They think, "You Christians are alien to us. We don't even understand the language you use."
John tells us why they don't get us. "The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him." The world didn't get Jesus either. It pushed him out, all the way out--crucifixion. The world wanted nothing to do with him or his Gospel. That's why the world doesn't get us. To them we're weird and dangerous aliens plopped down from some other planet.
John repeats, "Beloved, we are God's children now." Then he goes farther: "What we will be has not yet been revealed." We're now children of God, but not yet what we will be.
What will we be? "We will be like him." The Apostle Paul says, "We're being transformed from one degree of glory to another." As we look to Christ, we mature into the image of Christ. And someday we'll be fully like him. We'll be free from all that separates us from him.
But John explains that this doesn't leave us just waiting. He shows us how we're to be now: "Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure."
Why does John single out purity here? He could have singled out joy or righteousness or another characteristic of God we're striving for. In John's time, the culture was undergoing spiritual and moral change for the worse. It was a time of spiritual confusion and increasing decadence. So it is in our time.
It's a testimony to the world when we are pure. Purity is powerful when we live it in our world.
I remember a homily preached by Martin Luther King Jr. Toward the end, King coins the phrase "creatively maladjusted". Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were "creatively maladjusted". The Prophet Daniel was "creatively maladjusted". So were Peter, Paul, John, and the early Christians. King preached:
Will we continue to march to the drumbeat of conformity and respectability, or will we
listen to the beat of a more distant drum? Will we move to its echoing sounds? Will
we march only to the music of time, or will we, risking criticism and abuse, march to the
soul-saving music of Eternity? More than ever before, we are today challenged by the
words of yesterday: "Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind". (Romans 12:2)
The pressures will be there to conform to culture. King said we should be "creatively maladjusted". Through the renewing of our minds, we will be able to live transformed lives--lives that, in the face of cultural decadence, stand for purity. If we stand for the convictions that come to us through God's Church, we'll be known as people of joy.
Someday "we will be like him". That's our hope. It's not a hope we put on the shelf. It's a hope that enables us, in the midst of the real world, to be confident in God, in his mercy, in his Church, in his Word, and in his Gospel!
That's John's Good News in this passage. Have a blessed Mercy Sunday.
This message reminds me that even though the world changes every day, it stays the same simultaneously. Each of us is called, like our forefathers to be witnesses of God and to share His love to all so that one day they too will believe and find the Lord.
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