We will see Him just as He is

Several weeks ago, a sister and I were discussing 1 John 3 and agreed to spend the next week studying it and asking the Lord to open it to us.   In our first look at it, we were a bit caught up on verse 6- "No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him."  That seems harsh and in some ways contrary to the unending mercy and grace we know we have in Christ Jesus.  After all, in 1 John chapter 2 we see that "if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."  I certainly have not figured it out nor do I have a sufficient answer, but I thought I would share what the Lord opened to me as I spent the following week meditating on this chapter of scripture.

"Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be.  We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.  And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." 1 John 3:2-3

Here we see a connection drawn between seeing Jesus and being like Him.  This is speaking of seeing with our spiritual eyes, of having revelation of the character and person of Jesus Christ.  This makes me think of 2 Corinthians 3:18 which says,

"But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit."

As we behold the glory of the Lord, we are transformed from one degree of glory to another.  This is a continual transformation.  As long as we are looking at the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit is transforming us into the same image, to look more like Jesus.

We also see in 1 John 3:2-3 the idea of maturity.  Now we are children of God.  We don't yet know what we will be, except that we will look like Jesus.  In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul is talking about this same issue of maturity.  In verses 11 and 12, he says,

"When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.  For now we see in a mirror dimly but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known."

As I thought on this, the Lord asked me a question, "What if, as a twenty-four-year-old adult, you came home from work each evening, went into your bedroom and started playing with dolls in a dollhouse in your apartment?"  That would be absolutely STRANGE.  It was perfectly normal for me to play with dolls twenty years ago, when I was four.  But there would be something wrong if I never moved on from there.

It would not be good to take 1 Corinthians 13:11 and 12 out of the context of the rest of the chapter.  I believe verse 8 gives us more light on this issue of maturity.

"Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away."

All these things that we prize will be done away, but LOVE NEVER FAILS.  I surely believe that growth in maturity will be accompanied by gifts of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge.  But the true test of maturity is love. 

So, back to 1 John 3:3, "...everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure."  As we begin to see the Lord Jesus for who He is, we are transformed, we are matured.  And as we grow up, we put away childish things.  Just as when we grew up physically, it was natural to set certain things aside, it is normal for us put away sinful attitudes and behaviors as we grow up spiritually.

I am convicted that often I read scripture and even if I truly see something in it, I don't let it transform me.  I choose to let go of my stubborn ways.  I long to be transformed into the image of my Lord.

Let us choose to grow up.  Let us ask the Holy Spirit to reveal more of Jesus Christ to us so that we would be transformed, become more mature, more like Jesus.  And may we come to prize love above all gifts.