1 John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear… The present is the prophet of the future, says my text: "Now are we the sons of God, and" (not "but") "it doth not yet appear what we shall be." A man may say: Ah! now are we, we shall be — we shall be — nothing!" John does not think so. John thinks that if a man is a son of God he will always be So. I. THE FACT, OF SONSHIP MAKES US QUITE SURE OF THE FUTURE. It seems to me that the strongest reasons for believing in another world are these two — first, that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead and has gone up there; and, second, that a man here can pray and trust and love God, and feel that he is His child. "We are the children of God now" — and if we are children now, we shall be grown up some time. Childhood leads to maturity. And not only the fact of our sonship avails to assure us of immortal life, but also the very form which our religious experience takes points in the same direction. "The child is father of the man"; the bud foretells the flower. In the same way the very imperfections of the Christian life, as it is seen here, argue the existence of another state where all that is here in the germ shall be fully matured, and all that is here incomplete shall attain the perfection which alone will correspond to the power that works in us. There is a great deal in every nature, and most of all in a Christian nature, which is like the packages that emigrants take with them, marked "Not wanted on the voyage." These go down into the hold, and they are only of use after landing in the new world. If I am a son of God I have got much in me that is "not wanted on the voyage," and the more I grow into His likeness the more I am thrown out of harmony with the things round about me in proportion as I am brought into harmony with the things beyond. II. SONSHIP LEAVES US IGNORANT OF MUCH IN THE FUTURE. "We are the sons of God, and," just because we are, "it is not yet made manifest what we shall be." John would simply say to us, "There has never been set forth before men's eyes in this earthly life of ours an example, or an instance, of what the sons of God are to be in another state of being." And so because men have never had the instance before them they do not know much about that state. In some sense there has been a manifestation through the life of Jesus Christ. But the risen Christ is not the glorified Christ. The chrysalis's dreams about what it would be when it was a butterfly would be as reliable as a man's imagination of what a future life will be. So let us feel two things — let us be thankful that we do not know, for the ignorance is a sign of the greatness; and then, let us be sure that just the very mixture of knowledge and ignorance which we have about another world is precisely the food which is most fitted to nourish imagination and hope. III. OUR SONSHIP FLINGS AN ALL-PENETRATING BEAM OF LIGHT ON THAT FUTURE, in the knowledge of our perfect vision and perfect likeness. "We know that when He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is." (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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