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.  (2) 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.  (3) And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

The verses we study today address the present and future status of believing Christians.  The author tells us in verse one that we are now children of God – he repeats this in verse two.  This essential truth  should dominate our lives – being born again in faith means that we are now members of Gods family.  Our future state is not yet completely revealed or known – right now we are in the flesh and  In time and space. We may be reborn but our nature is still a sinful nature and subject to the temptations of this world. We know, based on the testimony of the New Testament –  the gospel – that our faith is based on historical fact concerning the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

John tells us that in our future we (the faithful) will be like Jesus because we will see Him just as He is and that will conclude our transformation. This Christian hope does not imply uncertainty.  Because of this hope the faithful cannot live comfortably with sin – this is progressive sanctification.  Christ is the standard  for living,  not other men or the ways of this world.  If we are Gods children it is a continuing intimate relationship.  C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity tells us that “When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less.”