“First John has been called the sanctum sanctorum (holy of holies) of the New Testament. It takes the child of God across the threshold into the fellowship of the Father’s home. It is the family epistle,” pens well-known commentator J. Vernon McGee.
With that thought, we are a family looking to be reunited with Him.
In the Family
“See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him” (1 John 3:1 NASB).
The word bestowed means “to give something to someone of one’s own accord; to give one something, to his advantage.”[1] “To give one something to his advantage” is the pure definition of bestowed. If it’s of no advantage, can it still be considered bestowing? I recall some years ago receiving a restaurant gift card as a gift. We were anticipating a nice evening out, a short reprieve from the family strain of ministry. Not knowing the eatery’s hours, we looked up their information only to see it was no longer in business.
The gift was of no advantage, though I am sure it was given in good faith and Christian love. Love is the greatest drive in the human family. A man falls in love with a woman, a woman falls in love with a man, and some make tremendous sacrifices for each other. When human love is genuine love, it is a beautiful, noble, wonderful, and immense drive; how much more is the perfect love of the Father that opens the door for us to be in His family!
Inside the Family
“And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him” (1 John 2:28-29 KJV).
Here, John is speaking of the family’s fellowship. To abide in the Lord Jesus is to live in fellowship with Him; to abide in Him means to have communion with Him. By having fellowship with Him, we have fellowship within the family.
Righteousness is the family’s attire. It is an attire that is not stained with sin. Sin, says the Westminster Shorter Catechism, is “any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.” This echoes 1 John 3:4, “sin is lawlessness.” It has other aspects as well. It is:
• lawlessness in relation to God as lawgiver,
• rebellion in relation to God as rightful ruler,
• missing the mark in relation to God as our designer,
• guilt in relation to God as judge,
• uncleanness in relation to God as the Holy One.”[2]
The original sin brought shame in Garden, and relatively speaking, it brings shame inside the family today. Certainly not to the extent seen in Genesis, but a personal feeling of embarrassment and dishonoring to our Father. (Remember those days in our youth, after an episode of willful disobedience, we had to wait for the arrival of a parent and inform them of our action?)
To avoid such a feeling in our Father’s family at his arrival, “… every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3:3 KJV).
Purifying is not a cleansing cycle of getting dirty and washing clean repeatedly. Instead, it is a washing of the water by the Word, which, as an unmixed purifier, keeps the dirt off! Even if it takes several washes, keep the faith; it will come off!!
Reunion with all the Family
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2 KJV).
By love, we are born into the family; through love, we abide (fellowship) with the family; in love, we are cleansed within the family—all prerequisites for our final family reunion.
Following all the inner works of family members, this reunion has to do with glorifying the physical body, not with a change of an inner spiritual life. Therefore, the change at the reunion (Rapture) is physical.
“The change which comes at the Rapture is therefore a physical one. We shall be like our Lord as to His physical, glorified body. “The word summorphon, ‘be fashioned like,’ speaks of that outer enswathement of glory that now covers the body of the Lord Jesus, and which will at the Rapture, cover ours. Only at the Rapture will we be able to see our Lord as He is now, for physical eyes in a mortal body could not look on that glory, only eyes in glorified bodies. And that is the reason we shall be like Him, for only in that state can we see Him just as He is.” [3]
It is then, at our ultimate family reunion, that we will see the Lord as He is, for through all our love practices, we will be changed; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, we will see Him as He is, and the family will be together for eternity!
Today, in the words of the Apostle Paul, let us, “Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:18 KJV).
