1 John 3:3 And every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. I. WE MUST LOOK HERE, AS ALWAYS, TO CHRIST. He had a hope in God, or upon God; a hope having God for its object, and God for its ground and warrant. And it was substantially the same hope that we have as children that He had as the Son. True, He could not say, with reference to Himself, and His own knowledge or consciousness, "It doth not yet appear what I shall be"; at least not exactly as we say it. He knew better what He was to be than we can know what we are to be. But even He, in His human nature and human experience, did not adequately know this; for even He walked by faith and not by sight. It really did not yet appear what He was to be. One thing, however, He did know, that whatever the future discovery or development, to Himself or others, of His Sonship was to be, it would be all in the line of His being like the Father; and being like the Father through seeing Him as He is. To see God as He is, when the present strange problem — a dispensation of long suffering patience, subservient to a dispensation of present mercy and salvation, and preparatory to a dispensation of retribution and reward — is at last solved — to see God as He is, when the shifting shadows of time flee away, and the repose of the final settlement of all things come; — that was to Christ a matter of hope; exactly as it is to us. It must have been so. And if it was so, is it too much to say that this included, even in His case, the idea of His hoping to be like God, when He was thus to see Him as He is, in a sense and to an extent not within the reach and range of His human experience, when it was among the ordinary conditions of humanity here on earth that He had to see Him? That was His trial, as it is ours; to be in a position in which, seeing God as He is, and being consequently thoroughly like Him, in respect of full and ultimate contentment, complacency, satisfaction, and joy, is "a thing hoped for." It is in such a position that our purifying of ourselves is to be wrought out, even as it was in such a position that His being pure was manifested and approved. We have to realise our sonship, as He had to realise His Sonship, in a world that knows not God; and we have to realise it, like Him, in hope. So realising it, and having this joint hope with Him in God, we purify ourselves as He is pure. II. WITH ALL THIS THE COMMISSION OF SIN IS INCOMPATIBLE. "He that doeth righteousness," and he alone, "is born of God" (1 John 2:29). The doing of sin is inconsistent with so righteous a parentage; for it is the doing of that which is against law (ver. 4). Sin is lawlessness; insubordination to law. It is to be so regarded; especially by us who, on the one hand, being born of God, make conscience of doing righteousness as God is righteous (1 John 2:29); and who, on the other hand, having this hope in God — that we are to be like Him when we shall see Him as He is — make conscience of purifying ourselves, as our model, His own beloved Son, is pure (1 John 3:2, 3). We are to look upon sin as a breach of law. That is our security against committing sin, and so compromising the righteousness which we do, and the purity to which we aspire. (R. S. Candlish, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.WEB: Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure. |
    |