Purifying Hope | 1 John 2:28-3:10 | This Week’s Devotions
This week's devotional walks alongside the sermon Purifying Hope from 1 John 2:28-3:10, tracing the thread John lays down across five days: adoption, hope, purification, sin, and the mission of Christ. Day one sits with the wonder of being called children of God, drawing on Romans 8 and Galatians 4 to explore what that adoption actually means. Day two turns to the groaning anticipation of what we will one day be. Day three lands on the hinge of the whole passage, the hope that purifies. Days four and five work through what sin really is and
why the Son of God appeared to destroy it. Each day's Scripture reading and reflection questions are meant to be worked through slowly, ideally alongside this week's sermon, which walks through the full passage in more depth. Take your time with the questions below. They're meant to search, not just inform.
Day 1: Children of God
Scripture Reading: Romans 8:1-17 & Galatians 4:4-7
Reflection:
John's exclamation in 3:1 reads like a man stopped in his tracks: "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are." The Greek word translated "see" is one used for something remarkable, something that arrests attention and demands a response. John is not stating a doctrine calmly. He is marveling at one.
Paul in Romans 8 uses the most intimate possible language to describe this adoption. The Spirit you received is not a spirit of slavery driving you back into fear, but the Spirit of adoption by whom you cry "Abba, Father." Abba is the Aramaic word a child used to address their father, familiar and close, the kind of word you would use at the breakfast table, not in a formal setting. And the Spirit himself bears witness with your spirit that you are a child of God. The assurance of your standing does not rest on your own assessment but on the Spirit's testimony within you.
Galatians 4 takes the same truth from a different angle. God sent his Son to redeem those under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. You are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. This is the foundation beneath everything else John will say about purification, obedience, and hope. You are not trying to earn the status of a child. You already have it, and the life that flows from it is a response to what you already are, not a striving toward what you are not yet.
Questions to consider:
John uses the word 'behold' or 'see,' a word for something astonishing, before announcing that believers are called children of God. When did you last find this truth genuinely astonishing rather than merely familiar? What would it take to recover that sense of wonder?
Paul says the Spirit cries 'Abba, Father' within believers, the most intimate possible address to God. How does the intimacy of that language shape the way you actually approach God in prayer, especially in moments of fear or uncertainty?
Galatians 4 says adoption is the goal of redemption; Christ came specifically so that we might receive the Spirit of sonship. How does understanding adoption as the telos, the goal, of what Christ accomplished change the way you understand salvation?
Day 2: What We Will Be Has Not Yet Appeared
Scripture Reading: Romans 8:18-25 & Philippians 3:20-21
Reflection:
Paul's description of creation's groaning in Romans 8 is one of the most evocative passages in the New Testament. The whole creation has been subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of the one who subjected it, and it groans together in the pains of childbirth, waiting for the revealing of the sons of God. That word "groaning" is not despair. It is the groaning of labor, pain that is purposeful, suffering that is moving toward something. Creation itself is in active anticipation of what God is about to do.
And believers groan as well. We have the firstfruits of the Spirit, which means we have already tasted something of what is coming. And that taste makes the waiting harder, not easier, because now we know what we are waiting for. We wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. What we are waiting for is the completion of what has already begun. Hope that is seen is not hope. We wait in patience for what we do not yet see.
Philippians 3 gives that hope a concrete shape: our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body. John says in 3:2 that "what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we will be like him, because we shall see him as he is." The destination is Christlikeness, not a vague spiritual improvement, but a transformation so complete that we become like the glorified Son of God himself. That is where the story is going. The groaning is real, but so is the destination.
Questions to consider:
Paul describes creation's groaning as the groaning of labor, purposeful pain moving toward birth. How does that image help you hold suffering and hope together rather than treating them as opposites?
The 'firstfruits of the Spirit' means we have tasted what is coming, which makes the waiting both sweeter and harder. Where in your life do you most acutely feel the tension between what God has already given and what he has not yet completed?
John says we will be like Christ when we see him as he is. How does having that as your ultimate destination, full conformity to the glorified Christ, change the way you evaluate what matters in this present life and what does not?
Day 3: Everyone Who Has This Hope
Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 7:1 & Titus 2:11-14
Reflection:
Paul's appeal in 2 Corinthians 7 is grounded in promises about God dwelling among his people. Because we have those promises, he says, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. Notice the logic: the promises come first, and purification follows as a response. Holiness is not the price you pay to earn access to a holy God. It is what happens to people who have already been brought into the family and are now being shaped by the reality of whose presence they live in.
Paul says the same thing to Titus from a different angle. The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation, and it trains us to renounce ungodliness and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. Grace is not just the door. It is the training program. And the fuel for all of it is the hope of the appearing of Christ, "our blessed hope."
John connects these threads in 3:3: "everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure." The hope of seeing Christ as he is, of being made like him, is not a passive comfort. It is an active, purifying force. When you genuinely believe you are going to stand before the glorified Christ, it changes how you live today. It does not produce self-righteous performance. It produces the honest, ongoing work of bringing your life into alignment with your destination. The person who truly hopes in Christ finds that hope beginning to clean house.
Questions to consider:
Paul says cleansing and holiness follow from the promises; the indicative precedes the imperative. How does grounding the call to holiness in what God has already done rather than in what you need to achieve change your posture toward sanctification?
Paul says grace 'trains' us to renounce ungodliness. Where in your life do you most clearly see grace operating as a trainer, shaping your desires and discipline, rather than just as a pardon for past failure?
John says hoping in Christ produces purification. Is the hope of Christ's return and your transformation into his likeness a genuinely motivating force in your daily choices, or does it feel distant and theoretical? What would it take for that hope to become more practically shaping?
Day 4: Sin Is Lawlessness
Scripture Reading: Psalm 51:1-12 & Romans 6:1-7; 11-14
Reflection:
Psalm 51 reads like a man stripped of every pretense. "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love." David does not bargain. He does not explain. He throws himself entirely on the character of God. He acknowledges that he has sinned against God above all, not because Bathsheba and Uriah did not suffer, but because every sin is fundamentally a transgression against the God whose image they bear.
Paul in Romans 6 will not allow a misreading of grace to go unchallenged. Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! He grounds his argument not in a stricter law but in a deeper reality: you have died to sin; how can you still live in it? You were buried with Christ and raised with him. Your old self was crucified so that the body of sin might be brought to nothing. You are no longer a slave to sin because you are no longer who you used to be.
John says in 3:4 that sin is lawlessness, not just a mistake or a weakness, but active rebellion against the order God has established. His claim that no one born of God makes a practice of sin is not sinless perfection. John has already said that claiming sinlessness is self-deception. It is a claim about direction. The person truly in Christ is not moving toward sin. They are fighting it, confessing it, and being progressively freed from its dominion.
Questions to consider:
David's psalm strips away every pretense and throws him entirely on God's character rather than his own. When you sin, what is your first instinct: to explain, to minimize, to perform contrition, or to throw yourself on God's mercy the way David did? What does that instinct reveal?
Paul says you have died to sin; it no longer defines you. How does living from that new identity differ from simply trying harder not to sin? Where do you find it most difficult to actually believe that the old self was crucified?
John describes sin as lawlessness, rebellion against God's order, not just a personal failing. How does that definition change the way you think about the sins you are most tempted to treat as minor, private, or victimless?
Day 5: The Reason the Son of God Appeared
Scripture Reading: Luke 4:16-21. Colossians 1:13-14, & 1 John 3:8
Reflection:
When Jesus stood up in the synagogue at Nazareth and read from Isaiah 61, he sat down and said: "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." The mission of the Messiah was liberation: good news to the poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed. Every line describes the undoing of something that should not be. The Son of God came to reverse what sin and its consequences had done.
Paul makes the cosmic dimension of that reversal explicit in Colossians 1. The Father has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. That domain is not merely a metaphor for bad decisions or spiritual confusion. It is the reign of the devil, a real, malevolent power who has held humanity under his sway. The transfer is a rescue, an exodus, a liberation from one kingdom into another.
John states the purpose of the incarnation with breathtaking directness in 3:8: "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil." Every healing was a declaration of war. Every forgiveness of sin was a dismantling of the enemy's claim. The cross and resurrection were the decisive battle, the moment the outcome was settled. You live on the near side of that victory. The works of the devil have been destroyed in principle and are being undone in practice, one life at a time.
Questions to consider:
Jesus read his mission statement from Isaiah 61: liberation from captivity, recovery of sight, freedom for the oppressed. How do you see that mission continuing through the church today, and what specific part of it are you most personally called to participate in?
Paul says believers have been transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of Christ, a cosmic rescue, not just a personal improvement. How does understanding your salvation in those large, cosmic terms, as a change of kingdoms, change the way you think about sin, temptation, and spiritual warfare?
As you look back over the whole week, from adoption and hope to purification, the nature of sin, and the mission of Christ, what is the one truth that most needs to sink more deeply into your heart and daily life?
Continue the Journey
We hope this week in the Word has been a blessing to you. If you'd like to continue through 1 John with us, the full Walking in the Light series is available on our website. And if you are new here and curious about the faith and convictions that shape our preaching and teaching, we warmly invite you to explore what we believe.
