This is my third day to share some thoughts on the phrase “Just Like Your Father!” using the passage below.
1 John 3:1-2 How great is the 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. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Not recognizing Jesus for who He was and is, the world will not recognize those who through a faith relationship try to reflect Him to the world. Our faith in what Jesus did for us attaches us to all He did and everything He earned for us. Those outside of God’s grace cannot know the change that has taken place in those who have experienced this new life. That is why you and I need to make it know to them.
Along with the things I already mentioned, Jesus made this promise: when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Be like Him. We know that is a certainty in our future, when we enter His presence in life everlasting. But you don’t have to wait until then to be like Him. He wants you to be like Him now. When He appears, when He returns at the last day, the faithful will be more like Him. And not only that, but we will be with Him. We live in the hope of seeing Jesus face to face and being with Him for all eternity. This is a privilege that is reserved for His children, and as our passage above affirms, that is what we are!
Dear friends, now we are children of God. We are truly God’s children now, it is not something we must wait for. He has lavished His love on us and claimed us through Baptism. And He wants us to live like His children here and now. We do that when we imitate Him. The children of God will try to resist temptation and stay away from sin because they know their Father is opposed to sin. God’s Children LIVE like God and LOVE like God. We love one another as Christ has loved us, even to the point of being willing to lay down our life for one another.
…now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. As God’s children, we cannot fully understand or appreciate what lay ahead. We truly cannot imagine what it will be like, but we know we will be with God. We have the glowing accounts in His Word about our heavenly existence: the promise of life eternal, likeness to Christ, dwelling in mansions, the pearly gates and streets of gold. That the process called death, involving undertakers, caskets, tombstones and bodily decay is the gateway to this existence staggers the imagination and belief. It does not yet appear what we will be. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. We strive now to be and know that someday we will be JUST LIKE OUR FATHER.
