1 John 3
v.1
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
v.2
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
We see Jesus now only in a dim, unclear way, but one day we will see Him with perfect clarity.
What makes heaven, heaven, is the unhindered, unrestricted, presence of our Lord, and to see Him as He is will be the greatest experience of our eternal existence.
John made the connection between seeing Him as He is and our transformation to be like Jesus. We can say that the same principle is at work right now. To the extent that you see Jesus as He is, to that same extent, you are like Him in your life.
v.3
Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
Knowing our eternal destiny, and living in this hope will purify our lives. When we know our end is to be more like Jesus, it makes us want to be more like Jesus right now.
If you could see the everlasting crowns of the saints in heaven, and the great glory wherein they now rejoice - they who were once considered contemptible in this world and, as it were, unworthy of life itself—you would certainly humble yourself at once to the very earth, and seek to be subject to all rather than to command even one. Nor would you desire the pleasant days of this life, but rather be glad to suffer for God, considering it your greatest gain to be counted as nothing among men.
Similar to my revelation of Revelation 1:12.
v.5
But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.
v.6
No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
v.10
This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
v.14
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.
v.15
Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
v.16
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
v.18
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
v.19-20
This is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
John assures us that God is greater than our heart, and so reminds us that we cannot base our relationship with Him purely on how we feel in His presence.
Sometimes our heart condemns us, but, in doing so, it gives a wrong verdict, and then we have the satisfaction of being able to take the case into a higher court, for ‘God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
Similar to v 26.
v.21
Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God.
v.22
and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.
The key to prayer is being in such close fellowship with God that we ask for the things that are on His heart; we take up His agenda with our requests and intercession.
The spirit of true prayer is Thy will be done, not My will be done – we turn to prayer to call into action what God desires; even knowing that some of the things God desires will directly and personally benefit us.
v.23
And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
Here, John does not refer to these two aspects of obedience as two commandments, but as one commandment. Grammatically, he may not be officially correct, but spiritually, he is right on. These two are one. When Jesus spoke of the greatest commandment: You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, He added another saying: And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). There are two commandments, but they are clearly like one another.
v.24
Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.