1 John 3:1-10

1 John 3:1-10

Sometimes we say of a child, “I can see the family resemblance.” As members of God's family, we need to bear the family resemblance of our Father. Being a of child of God is not a title or a label that is accidentally stuck to us. It is the reality of our lives. Because of our relationship with the Father, we are unknown to the world; we are unrecognizable.

But best of all, God is not done with us. As we mature, the family resemblance grows stronger and stronger. When the Lord returns, that family resemblance will come to its completion. While not obvious at first, this brings up an important challenge or question: why live and be holy? If when Jesus returns we will be like Him (let's assume both in body and character), what is the point of a righteous life now? It might be said that with this coming perfection and all our flaws replaced and purified, it would make things easier to not worry about being like Christ now. Why not get saved, do what we want, and then wait on Jesus to come back and make us right? This may have been what the false teachers advocated at the practical level. We can imagine some saying, “I'm okay at a spiritual level, so my behavior doesn't matter.”

John points out that the person who is living a holy life is reflecting that inner character. So too the one who is unholy is showing what is inside. We are not saved by good deeds, not by our acts of charity in a new kind of law that we have to keep. Rather, righteousness is the practice of being like our Father in Heaven. So are our good deeds the result of the Spirit living in us or the works we are doing to be righteous? In a word ‘Yes’. In the life of a disciple, we do not wait idly by while the Lord makes us righteous by himself. Nor do we perform vigorous self-improvement. Rather, it is a cooperative effort. A boy may look like his dad because of genetics, but as he watches and imitates his dad, he picks up on his mannerisms, his habits, or his gestures. A newborn may show only some signs of the dad's appearance, when he grows to be a young man, the genes are on full display, and so also the mannerisms. A toddler may offer a poor imitation of his dad, but later he will copy the dad's actions more completely. So as we mature in our spiritual life, we will look like our spiritual father, whoever that may be.

“Help me, Lord, to display the family resemblance.  AMEN”