“Living As God’s Saints”
1 John 3:1-3
November 3, 2024
Many years ago there was a television show known as “The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” where each week you would see the homes of entertainers, professional athletes, and big business leaders that had things like 25 bedrooms, 30 bathrooms, built in movie theaters, gymnasiums, swimming pools, tennis courts, closets the size of my living room, and perfectly manicured lawns and bushes. The cost for some of these places was over 10 million dollars. The gold, the diamonds, the furniture, the gadgets, and all of the excess stuff was overwhelming. It appeared that life must be pretty nice if you were rich and famous.
With all of the reality shows that exist today, I wonder, though, if a television show about common, everyday Christians would be a hit? “Lifestyles of Christians,” probably wouldn’t be very popular, because the name “Christians” just seems rather ordinary. But we are not ordinary. Every person here today is a child of God, because God wanted you. Before you were born, God chose you to be a member of His family. He made your place in His family possible by carrying out a plan almost 2000 years ago to rescue the world through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus. Then, in time, God made His adoption a reality by sending His Holy Spirit into your hearts, so that you would believe in Him and live as His child. He put His name on you when you were baptized, and He promises to never let you go. You are a child of God, that’s what John wants us to understand in our second lesson for today.
In verse 1, John says, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” Therefore, since God paid such a huge price to adopt us by sending Jesus to suffer and die for us, we can certainly expect to receive good things from God, right? After all, if we were adopted into a family of millionaires, we would expect to drive a nice car and wear fancy clothes. So, should we expect anything less from God? But if everyone here is a child of God, why doesn’t everyone here live like the rich and famous? The fact is God hasn’t promised to give His children earthly riches. He doesn’t even guarantee that we’ll make it through life without having to make a trip or two to the hospital. The truth is, being a Christian often brings about suffering.
Last weekend we celebrated the 507 anniversary of the Protestant Reformation – a time when a monk named Martin Luther tried to tell the leaders of the church that there were great abuses taking place. Many priests and the Pope himself had gotten away from the Scriptures and were taking advantage of the people. You would think that the church leaders would have been grateful to Martin Luther for pointing them back to Scripture, as he had no interest in leaving the Church, let alone having a denomination named after him. Instead, the church leaders were furious with Luther and they condemned him to death.
John wants us to know in this text that we shouldn’t be surprised at such treatment or when we suffer for doing the right thing. In verse 1, John went on to say, “The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him (God).” Just think of how the world treated Jesus. For the most part people laughed at His claims that He was their Savior, they mocked Him, and eventually murdered Him. If that’s the way Jesus was treated, then we shouldn’t expect to be treated any better as His children.
So is that God’s plan for us – suffering and persecution and then death? I mean, I think we can understand that we may be mocked and persecuted by unbelievers for our faith, but why does God allow things like sickness and car accidents? Why doesn’t He protect us from all those things that can harm us, especially since we are His children? We certainly do everything we can, as parents, to protect our own children from things that can hurt them. But the fact is, God does do a good job of taking care of us – cuts, bruises, illnesses, and all. The Bible tells us that God uses those difficulties in life to purify our faith and make it stronger, just like we have to allow our children to endure some hardships in order for them to be stronger.
You see in God’s hands we are like diamonds in the rough, meaning before we can shine brightly, we need to be expertly cut and polished. That’s what God is doing with the trials and difficulties He allows in our lives. He is cutting off an undesirable quality in us here, and polishing a desirable quality in us there as He shapes us to live as His children. John explains in verse 2 that, “We are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” John says that someday we will live with God in His heavenly kingdom and we will be like Him, meaning perfect and holy in every way. Gone will be our sinful thoughts and temptations. Gone will be the guilt and shame we feel when we’ve failed to do the good God demands and have chosen instead to do the evil God forbids. Can you imagine having only pure, peaceful, and happy thoughts in your mind all the time? Can you imagine seeing Jesus face to face? What a wonderful day that will be.
So when life is not treating you fairly, when you are struggling with your health, when things seem to be falling apart in your life, remember who you are. You are a child of God, adopted by Him in your baptism; and just like a child often becomes like their parents, we should want to be more like our Heavenly Father every day. That’s why John writes in verse 3, “And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” One of the strangest moments in life is when you, as an adult, are talking to your children or your spouse and suddenly you hear your mother or father’s words coming out of your mouth. Almost without thinking you start saying things that you were convinced you would never say to your children or your spouse. And it is in those moments that we suddenly realize we have become like our parents.
In the same way, as God’s children, as His saints, we become more and more like Him every day as we make our walk with Him. We keep on purifying ourselves, just as He is pure. But what does that mean to “keep on purifying ourselves?” Very simply, it means that we examine ourselves every week here in worship or in our daily lives so that we can see our impurities and our imperfections. We look at what we say and how we act. We look at our feelings, our actions, our attitudes, and desires. Are they godly, holy, or pure? If not, we bring those impurities to God in prayer and we remember the promise God made to us in verse 9 of the first chapter of this book when John said, “If we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just, will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” That is God’s plan for our lives, to walk with Him every day as pure and holy children. And if we fail to do that today, then we try again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next. But even if we are not able to be like God in every way, I know I’m not, we don’t worry, because God has promised to forgive us again and again, and to never leave us.
Life is filled with all sorts of challenges. Our jobs pull us in one direction, school activities may pull us in another direction; and church or community responsibilities may be pulling us in another way. We want our homes to be places of peace and rest, but too often they are places of frantic activity as dad goes one way, mom goes another, and the children just seem to be constantly passing through. This can result in stress, tension, and conflict between family members. So we definitely need a love that is unconditional, undeserved, unlimited, and unfailing in the person of Jesus. God knows all of our problems and all of our failures, and loves us nonetheless.
You may wish that you had more money to live in a fancy house, but you have something even better to look forward to as a child of God – the mansions of heaven. Sure, there will be some troubles along the way, but today as we rejoice in the fact that we are God’s children, we especially remember the example of those who have faithfully departed this world to be with our Lord and we reflect upon the life we have been called to live as God’s children – a life filled with worship, praise, and service to God and to others.
