11-11: Becoming Like Jesus

1 John 2

God’s Children and Sin

28 And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

1 John 3

1 See what great 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. 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 Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Notes:

1 - The Mechanism of Change

2 - The Power That Changes Us

Expanded Translation

28 And now, little children, be continually abiding in Him, in order that, whenever He is made visible, we may have instant freedom of speech and not be made to shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. 29 If you have learned that He is righteous, you know experientially that everyone who does righteousness out of Him has been born, with the present result that that one is a born one.

3:1 All of you, behold what foreign kind of love the Father has permanently bestowed upon us, to the end that we are named born-ones of God. And we are. On this account the world does not have an experiential knowledge of us, because it has not come into an experiential knowledge of Him. 2 Divinely loved ones, now born-ones of God we are. And not yet has it been made visible what we shall be. We know that when it is made visible, like ones to Him we shall be, because we shall see Him just as he is. 3 And everyone who has this hope continually set on Him is constantly purifying himself, just as that One is pure.