Purifying Hope | 1 John 2:28-3:10 | Walking in the Light
What does it actually look like to belong to God's family? This week's message in the "Walking in the Light" series through 1 John takes up that question directly. John moves from a call to abide in Christ with confidence, not shame, into the striking reality that believers are already called children of God — heirs, not strangers hoping to be let in. From there, the passage turns practical: the hope of seeing Christ face to face is meant to actively purify a life right now, and the evidence of true sonship is a life marked by pursued righteousness and love for one another. The message closes with a question worth sitting with all week: does the hope of Christ's appearing actually change how you're living today?
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Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon from First Reformed Church in Edgerton, Minnesota. Each week we dig into God's Word trusting that the Holy Spirit will continue the good work of sanctification in us.
When you know guests are coming, you prepare. If family or friends are coming from a distance, and you know they are going to stay at your house, you start to get your home ready well in advance of their arrival. And you not only start to clean, but you make sure the rooms they will be staying in are ready. You go above and beyond what you normally do when people come over because they are not just coming over for coffee or for a meal. They're coming to live with you for a few days. Now, the level of concern shown for this can often confuse other members of your household. Your children or even your spouse might not understand why you're so worried about having everything just so for your family or your close friends that are coming. And much of the confusion about this comes from why we're so concerned. These are people that we love. These are people that love us. These are not random people off the streets coming to stay with us. They're people that you've known for decades. They're the ones who have stuck with you through thick and through thin. They aren't going to be upset and offended if you don't have new towels.
Or if they don't find— or if they find something out of place on the nightstand, they're not going to be upset. We know that these people love us no matter what. But it turns out that that's actually what fuels the desire to have things right for them. We love them. We respect them. And our preparation for their arrival isn't about impressing them or winning their approval. What we do knowing that they are coming is done because we care for them and we want to give them the best. So as we arrive to our passage in 1 John this morning, we see a call that we saw last week to abide in Christ, and now this flows into a call to holiness so that we are going to be prepared for the arrival of Christ. And throughout this letter, John has been clear and he's been deliberate in not only spelling out important doctrines for us, but He has always helped us understand the practical implications of the Gospel as well. Christ has come. He has turned aside the wrath of God for His people. And so now we can live in confidence knowing that we have received this grace from God.
And John calls us to hold firm to the faith that we might persevere and that we might continue in the Gospel that we have heard and believed. And so as verse 28 starts out for us this morning, we have John using the term of endearment again: "Little children." He is again showing that he cares deeply for those who are reading this. And he encourages them again with what we saw last week: "Abide in Him." in Him. And notice here what abiding implies. That by abiding in Him, they might have confidence and not shrink in shame at His coming. If you're abiding in Christ, the natural position is to be living in such a way that you are doing what He desires. Now, some see salvation as transactional. Say the right words or walk the aisle, and then it really doesn't matter what we do after that because we've done the right thing. But John is very deliberate about what a life of abiding in Jesus looks like. It's about pursuing righteousness. In fact, John tells us that if we know that Jesus is righteous, well, then we should also be certain that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him.
John is saying that if we are in Christ, we will start to look like Him. We will reflect Him. And this is a humble thing for any Christian at any stage of their walk to read because It's hard to reflect Jesus. He is perfectly righteous. And we know that we are not. In fact, John himself makes this point for us, right? All through our time in 1 John, I've been using that same call to confession. If we say that we have no sin, the truth is not in us. From the youngest believer to the most seasoned, A key part of walking in faith is daily acknowledging our desperate need for forgiveness because it shows our dependence on God. We can't be righteous on our own. We need him. This is an important part of doing what John is calling us to do. It's an important part of abiding in Christ, daily throwing ourselves at the foot of the cross and then desiring to walk in newness of life. Like I said, that's at the root of abiding in Christ. Practicing righteousness requires us to acknowledge that our self-righteousness is futile. Righteousness is so much more than being able to say, that we kept the majority of the Ten Commandments today.
It's about letting the mercy and grace of God permeate us. And this pushes us not only towards good outward moral behavior, the knowledge of God's grace shapes the way we think. It forms us. It molds us. It manifests in us as the fruit of the Spirit. A righteous life is one of joy, peace, patience, self-control. Not a checklist of stuff we do or don't do, but a life that shows that we are abiding in the One who has saved us by His grace. And I don't know about you, but I read a statement that says that we don't want to shrink when He appears, and my mind goes to making sure that we're behaving when Christ returns, that we're being good. Similar to a TV episode where the kids have to clean up the house before the parents get home or they'll be in big trouble. But that's not at all what John is pushing us towards here. He's telling us to be mindful of the One who saved us to strive to be righteous as he is righteous, an active pursuit, not just an avoidance of particular behaviors, but a pursuit of the things of God.
And even though I've said this isn't a checklist and a burden, thinking about this, if we're honest, this can still feel really heavy, right? Practice righteousness? You're probably thinking some days you struggle making it through the day biting your lip or being nice to the person you work with that rubs you the wrong way. That's a challenge enough. To pursue righteousness feels like a mountain that we will struggle to climb. But that's where we start, right? That's an acknowledgment that we can't do this on our own. That's a realization that we need to depend on the grace of God every day if we're going to abide in Him. And John just doesn't leave us there. He doesn't show us the peak of the mountain and then leave us to climb there on our own. There's the peak. You're in the foothills. "Get there or else." He doesn't give us this calling and then just leave us with the overwhelming weight of it. Look at the first verse of chapter 3 here. He immediately points us to the love of God and he speaks of the ramifications of it. John wants it to be clear that we're God's children.
As those who have been saved by grace through faith, we have the adoption as sons and daughters. We're not travelers on the road hoping to arrive at a destination. We are children in the Father's house. This is who we are because of what God has done for us in Christ. We're not servants trying to earn a place of honor in the house. We have been adopted by God, and so we are his children. We are heirs to the promises of God. We live with him. This is who we are. The pursuit of righteousness, then, is a part of our identity as children of God. Pursuing the things of God isn't the price of admission into the kingdom of God. It's how we live in the Father's house. And before moving on, I want to think back to that feeling I talked about when family comes to stay with you. You don't do all that cleaning and preparations because you have a fear of them showing up and deciding they don't like you anymore, and then they will renounce you as their family. You do it because you care for them, and love motivates you to have things ready.
That's what John is telling us about preparing for the appearing of Jesus. It's not, "Get things ready so you can be a part of the family of God." Instead, it's, "You're a part of the family of God, so get ready." And that's an important distinction. It's the difference between living in fear and living in hope. When the children of God pursue righteousness, they aren't preparing for a random stranger to come and inspect them. You're pursuing a life lived for a Father who already calls you His beloved child. And as you seek to live in holiness, hold on to that. You're going to need it. Because as John says at the end of v. 1 here, "The world does not know us because it did not know Him." If you seek holiness, it is going to be a foreign thing to the world. Seeking to live in response to God's grace is going to be weird to people who don't understand the grace of God. It will seem peculiar. But John wants us to lean into this identity we have as children of God. And he emphasizes this by telling us that we are God's children now.
But he also says at the same time, we don't fully know what this means. And here in verse 2, John reminds us that we're God's children, but at the same time, what we will be has not yet appeared. John isn't putting our future into a state of doubt here. He's not saying, "We're God's children, but we might not be in the future." Instead, he makes this statement in a sense of wonder. We have the amazing blessing of being children of God, but we have not come to the fullness of what that means yet. We have it now, but we don't fully know it. And really, that's, that's amazing to think about. We have the blessings that come from being adopted into the family of God, but there's more. We don't know fully what that is, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him. And thinking on that, I understand why John speaks about this the way that he does. I understand that I am a child of God. I realize that this means that my sin has been forgiven and that I have the sure and certain promise of eternal life.
I know that at the end of history Christ will return to judge the living and the dead. I know all of those things. I have confidence in all of those truths. But I have no frame of reference for being able to really comprehend what that will be like. I can't fathom the concept of eternity, much less what a resurrected body is, because I'm bound by time and I only know the material world. I only know this finite body. And while we struggle to comprehend what that will be, the most important thing to know about our future is that we shall be as he is. That's enough. The one who made us, the one who saved us, the one who sustains us is the one that we will be like. And that is not only something to be excited for, it is something to aspire to. John wants this to push us towards striving towards holiness when he says, "Everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure." And notice the language there. It isn't passive. We don't sit on our hands while we wait for His appearing. We purify ourselves. And he is not saying that we make ourselves righteous or acceptable before God.
He is talking about growing in holiness and seeking to be like Christ. So that raises for us a natural question: What does doing this look like day by day? How do we tell the difference between someone who is being purified and someone who isn't? As we move on in the text, John lets us know. As we slide down to verse 4, we come to the first of several statements that are going to convict us. He says, "Everyone who thus makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness." Sin is lawlessness. "You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin." As we read these words, It is really important that we don't fall into one of two traps. Because on one side, we can despair. We can despair because of our struggle with sin. We can question our salvation. On the other side, the trap is to think that What John is saying doesn't apply to us. We're secure in the grace of God. We have to be sure that we read this and remember to stick with the theme that John has been focusing on here. Stay firm in the faith and pursue godliness.
Remember what John has just said, that our hoping in him purifies us as he is pure. John makes a point that we can't disagree with. Continuing in sin is practicing lawlessness. Sin is more than just missteps. Sin is rebellion against God. It rejects the law that He established. And Jesus came to remedy this problem. John himself has said that the work of Jesus turns aside the wrath of God. Remember when we talked about propitiation earlier on in the book? He has done this for His people. And the only reason that He was able to do this for us was because there was not sin in Jesus. He was able to win victory over sin for us because He was one of us, but He did not sin. And so John uses this truth to make it clear to us what purifying ourselves looks like. And he moves on by coming back to this idea of abiding in Him. He says, "No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning." And this is one of the most convicting statements. Not only in 1 John, but in the whole of Scripture. No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning.
No one who keeps sinning has either seen Him or known Him. These are not only tough words because they are convicting, but they are tough because John himself made the point that if we say we're without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. So what is John doing with this statement here? Well, in the original language, it is in the present tense. And so, this gives us the idea, and we are going to see this further on in the text as well, that what he is talking about is persistent and impenitent sin. Not just sin that we go back to at times, but sin that is deliberate, sin that we don't hate, Sin that we don't wish that we would put to death. This doesn't excuse sin in the life of the believer, but presents for us the attitude that we should have about our sin. We should not celebrate sin. Instead, it should grieve us. And we need to acknowledge how it grieves God as well. And John tells us, that those who persist in sin are of the devil. Those born of God purify themselves because he is pure.
They reflect God. When someone remains in sin, they reflect the devil because that's the devil's character. He has been lawless. He is rebellious from the beginning. And the Son of God appeared to put away that work. That's what Jesus came to do. That was his mission. Those who are born of God will not make a practice of sinning. In fact, he says that God's seed abides in him and he cannot keep sinning because he has been born of God. When we've been rescued from sin, we understand the grace of God and we understand that we can't continue in lawlessness. Those born of God will be convicted of sin. They will seek forgiveness from God. They will not remain in sin and relish in that sin. And that's the promise behind verse 9. It's not that a Christian never stumbles. Not that a Christian never fails. But that the seed of God doesn't let you stay comfortable in your sin. The Holy Spirit will keep working, keep convicting, keep pushing you toward holiness. That's the same hope we started out with. It's not just hope for the day Christ appears. It's a hope that's already at work in you right now, refusing to let you remain in sin.
And so in verse 10, John brings this home. He says, "By this is it evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. He tells us you can tell who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are. It isn't complicated. If someone does not practice righteousness, he is not of God. If he doesn't love his brother, he also says he's not of God. The children of God pursue righteousness. The children of God love their sisters and brothers in Christ. The children of the devil don't concern themselves with holiness. This isn't hidden. It's not hard to spot. John says it's evident, which means this whole passage from "abide in Him" all the way down now to verse 10 has been answering one question. What does it look like to actually belong to the family of God? What does it look like to be a part of God's family? And the answer has never been, "Prove it and then you're in." Instead, it's been, "You're in, so live like it." Think back to where I started out this morning.
Getting the house ready isn't about earning your place with the people you love. It's what you do because you already have a place with them. That's what John's been describing this whole time. Practicing righteousness, purifying yourself, loving your brothers and sisters. None of it is a test you pass to get into the family of God. It's what happens in a house where you already know you belong with a father who has adopted you and calls you his own. So here's the question for us as we leave from here and step out into the world this week. The question is not, have I done enough to be sure that I'm his? Instead, the question is, does the hope of seeing him change how I'm living right now? Is there a room in your life you stopped cleaning because you forgot company was coming? Is there a relationship where love has gone cold. Purifying hope doesn't procrastinate, waiting for a better or easier time to get ready. Purifying hope does the work now because he could appear at any moment. And when he does appear, you want to be found ready. Not because you're afraid of him, but because you love him.
Amen. Let us pray. Gracious God, we praise you for the gift of your word and how it tells us of the deep love that you have for us in Christ. May the message of the gospel, of the punishment for our sin being turned aside, constantly be on our minds, that we would remember that we are in your family. We have been adopted. We are righteous because of the work of Jesus for us. And we pray, oh God, this would cause us to be ready for your appearing, because we know that you love us and we love you for what you've done as well. It's in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.
Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon. For more information about First Reformed Church, head to our Facebook page or website, edgertonfrc.org.
“Abide in Him” is part of our ongoing series through 1 John, Walking in the Light. Explore the full series or browse our complete sermon archive to keep digging into God's Word.
