1 John 3:1–3

“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God; therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 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. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”

One of the more difficult parts of the Christian life is learning to live with the fact that God’s work in us is real, yet unfinished. We may have known His grace for many years and still discover impatience, fear, pride, weakness or old habits that we thought should have disappeared by now. At times this can leave us wondering whether we have changed at all. Yet Scripture does not describe the Christian life as instant perfection. It describes a life in which something decisive has begun, while something greater still lies ahead.

John captures this tension beautifully. “Now are we the sons of God,” he writes, but immediately adds that “it doth not yet appear what we shall be.” Both statements are true at the same time. Our identity in Christ is not postponed until we become spiritually impressive. The love of the Father has already been bestowed. Yet neither are we told to pretend that the work is complete. We belong to God now, while still becoming what His grace intends us to be.

The Danger of Measuring Ourselves Too Soon

Because we are unfinished, we can easily adopt the wrong measures. We compare ourselves with someone who appears more mature, look back at yesterday’s failure, or become discouraged because the same weakness has surfaced again. We may interpret the continued presence of struggle as evidence that grace has somehow failed.

Yet struggle and sonship are not opposites. A believer may genuinely belong to Christ and still be learning obedience. We may still need to repent, still discover hidden pride, still recognise thoughts that need correcting and still find areas of life where our desires are not yet ordered towards God. The presence of unfinished work does not mean that no work has taken place.

There are two opposite errors we can make here. One is pretence, where we act as though maturity has removed every weakness. The other is despair, where we assume that remaining weakness cancels everything God has done. Christian hope gives us another way. It allows us to tell the truth about what still needs healing without denying the grace that has already begun its work.

Hope That Changes the Present

John does not describe hope as passive optimism. He says, “every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” The promise of future likeness to Christ does not make present holiness unnecessary; it makes it meaningful.

If we truly believe that we shall one day see Christ as He is, then the future begins to influence the present. We do not make peace with bitterness because bitterness does not belong to the life towards which Christ is leading us. We do not defend pride, dishonesty or selfishness because these things have no place in the likeness of Christ. Hope looks forward, but obedience happens now.

This is not an attempt to earn God’s acceptance. John has already settled that question: “now are we the sons of God.” Purification grows from belonging, not towards it. We do not become holy so that God might finally receive us. We pursue holiness because His love has already called us His own.

Grace for the Unfinished Places

This gives us permission to be honest before God. We can admit that prayer sometimes feels difficult, that an old fear has returned, that our patience is thinner than we thought, or that we need help in an area where we expected to be stronger by now. We do not need to protect an image of spiritual completeness.

At the same time, honesty must not become complacency. Grace gives us room to confess, but it never asks us to become comfortable with what Christ is still seeking to change. We bring the unfinished places into the light precisely because we believe He is not finished with us.

The Christian life therefore involves a patient confidence. We are not what we once were, and we are not yet what we shall be. Between those two truths lies the daily work of faith: confessing, returning, learning, obeying and trusting.

Our hope is not that we will somehow perfect ourselves. Our hope is Christ. The work may feel slow, hidden and incomplete, but it has a promised direction. One day we shall see Him as He is, and the work that now feels partial will finally be made whole. Until then, we live faithfully in the middle, neither pretending nor despairing, but trusting the One who has already begun to restore us.

Explore More

If you have found this helpful, there is more to explore across Saints of the Restoration. You can continue with our Daily Bread devotionals, go deeper through The Deeper Walk, consider some of Life’s Questions, reflect through Bible Poetry, or browse our growing library of free Christian books and study resources.

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