“And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears,
we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him
at His coming. If you know that He is righteous,
you know that everyone who practices righteousness is
born of Him.
Behold what manner of love the Father
has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!
Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
Beloved, now we are children of God;
and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be,
but we know that when He is revealed,
we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself,
just as He is pure.”
(1 John 2:28 – 3:3)
Three themes at the end of chapter 2 and beginning of chapter 3:
Abide
Righteousness
Purify
All of which are linked together
Things that we do but are NOT difficult to accomplish
And yet are things that come from Him
When we believe in Jesus and come to Him by faith
Trusting in Him as our own personal Saviour
And following Him as Lord of our lives
God the Father considers us to be His children
He loves so much that we become children of God
Through this salvation process
We are able to “abide” in and with Him
We receive His “righteousness” through Christ
And He has made us holy by “purifying” us
All these things already exist in and through Him
And yet John calls us, as little children, to abide in Him
(1 John 2:28)
Even though we DO abide in Him,
By virtue of who He is and what He has done in salvation
We choose to abide in Him also
The Bible tells us that we ARE the righteousness
Of God in Christ Jesus our Lord
And John tells us that those who practice righteousness
Are born of God
(1 John 2:29)
Encouraging us to practice righteousness
This does not mean that “if you practice righteousness”
That is a way to “be born of God”
But rather because “you already ARE born of God”
You WILL practice righteousness
THIS is a perfect example
Of how people can READ what isn’t there
We can be deceived into thinking that
This is something that we MUST do
And it becomes a weight, a burden to BE righteous
OR, we can be deceived to live according to the Law
And “if only I can be righteous enough”
If only I can be good enough – to be considered righteous
Then I will be a child of God and born again
NO! NO! NO!
Being BORN AGAIN comes by faith FIRST
And abiding, righteousness and being pure (holy)
Comes as a result of BEING born again
But even though these things are true
We need to choose to live a holy life and be PURE
Live according to the righteousness
That is already ours IN Him
And abide IN Him