1 John 3:2

New International Version (NIV)

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.

For Meditation

The evening went well. God synced everything so perfectly together to our amazement, and we all rejoiced. As we drove towards another friend’s house, I opened my big mouth and said something that didn’t come out well. A very simple matter I shouldn’t have addressed, but I did, and it boomeranged in my face. The man simply said, “Is that how you think about me?” But the gentle voice from the backseat hit me harder, “Aaa, Pastor!” The blow was so hard; I couldn’t recover by correcting myself. Rather, I took the discussion tangentially and lost a very wonderful evening to a misstatement that shouldn’t have been.

1. Has it happened to you before?
2. Have you ever said something you wished you could immediately take back – something like I did that ruined my almost perfect evening?
3. How did you feel?
4. How did you resolve it?
5. What did you learn from it?

God is good! He uses such gaffes to reveal how imperfect we are.

I woke up with the issue hanging heavily on my mind. As I prepared breakfast, the Lord reminded me of a message on hope I heard on 1 John 3:1-3. My emphasis, however, is on the second verse.

“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.”

I am so glad for the affirmation that I am a child of God. I particularly rejoice this morning to be reminded that God has not finished His work on me. I am a work-in-progress. He has not put His chisel and hammer away from me (Eph. 2:10). But the better part of it is this: What I “will be has not yet been made known” (1 Jn. 3:2). What you see of me and hear from me today is not what I will be tomorrow. As His word turns me inside out (Heb. 4:12-13) and I work with His Spirit to flush the toxins of this world out of my life, I become more like Christ (Eph. 4:12-13). And I am convinced “that when Christ appears, [I] shall be like Him, for [I] shall see Him as He is” (1 Jn. 3:2).

So: Don’t draw conclusions about me now. Do not condemn your spouse or child over their silliness today. And certainly, don’t crucify your fellow because to you he may seem not to be growing. Observe everyone through Christ, and rather see their Christlike eternal state (2 Cor. 3:18). In the meantime, let’s pray and forgive each other; “encouraging one another – all the more as [we] see the Day approaching” (Heb. 10:25).

By the way, I apologized after breakfast and was pleased with how he took it.

May you also have the conviction and humility to make it right when your imperfection flaunts itself in the face of others; and may you also see their nakedness as temporary and be merciful, as God works to reveal their end in Christ.

Shalom