What We Shall Be

1 John 3:1-10
Friday, 16 May 2008

There are lots of reasons to love babies, and anyone who knows me knows that I do. They are for our families both the continuation of what has been and the expression of possibility of what we will be in future. Parents hold their children and look into their lovely little faces and project decades into the future, imagining them in their 20s and 30s and on, seeing them as doctors, lawyers, and other noble professions. We don't know what they shall be, but we love it that they exist.

John's epistle focuses on the love of God that we experience in Jesus Christ and the victory it brings. In today's lesson, we are reminded of three matters that should bring us comfort and compel in us righteous service. First, we are God's children. Since 1 John 1 discusses universal human sinfulness, the fact that chapter 3 asserts that God has bestowed on us the love of a Parent and the privileges of being God's children should leave us grateful and in awe. Second, we are not all that we will be and we don't even know yet what that is. We are a work in progress. Finally, whatever we become when Christ is revealed, we should be comforted by and confident in the fact that we shall be like him.

Although we are far from being babies and most of us have become most of what we imagined ourselves to be, it is needful for us to embrace the reality that in Christ we are still becoming what we shall be. That we have not yet arrived, as old as we are and as hard as we have tried, should not discourage us. Even in our journeying, as we recognize that we have not yet reached our destination, we are always fiercely and wonderfully loved. We always have an enduring hope in Christ. And that love and hope are actually reproducing in us the image of Christ as we consecrate ourselves.

Sing, "Jesus Loves Even Me"

Let us pray:
Amazing and Wonderful God, how privileged we are to be called your children. How grateful we are that you see in us more than we see in ourselves and that you are making us over into what pleases you. As we consider the blessed hope of your glorious appearing, renew in us a commitment to pure and faithful living, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.