约翰一书1John 3:1-3

愿恩惠、平安从父神和救主耶稣基督归于你们，领受祂的慈爱和救恩，并且因此时常保守自己洁净的人。阿们。

我们信靠耶稣基督的，就领受神所赐的权柄，被称为神的儿女。这都是出于父神的慈爱，不可测量的慈爱，不可思议的慈爱，使徒约翰说：“看啊，父神赐给我们的是何等的慈爱。”父神爱世人，将祂的独生子赐给世人，更是赐给我们信徒；这赐给，赐予，不是口头的，而是实际的，真真实实地赐给我们，就是将自己的独生爱子交在我们罪人手中，被钉死在十字架上，为人赎罪，为要拯救我们罪人。

我们不仅仅是称为神的儿女，约翰还告诉我们，我们“也真是”祂的儿女。我们基督徒做神的儿女，不仅是名义上的，更是实质性的；爱我们的神并不是我们临时看顾父母（foster parents），而是收纳我们，收养我们，赐给我们具有法律效力，永远有效，永不变更的儿女身份。之前听说有一位明星，生不出孩子的时候领养了一个，后来跟丈夫能生育了，有了自己的孩子，就撤销了领养孩子的身份。具体细节我不知道，但是听说引起了公愤，人怎么可以这么自私，其实大家也是因为有同理心，共情这位被领养、又被抛弃的孩子。人会这样，但神不会。我们真是祂的儿女。

路德在小问答中解释主祷文“我们在天上的父”时说：“这是什么意思？ 神用这话温柔地引我们信祂为我们的真父，而我们为祂的真儿女；为要我们以亲爱儿女的身份，放胆无疑地求告亲爱的父亲。”不是这样吗？如果我们真是神的儿女，我们有资格发出这样的祷告吗？如果我们基督徒做神儿女的身份是可以随时撤销，不是永远的，主耶稣还有必要这样教导门徒们祷告吗？

然而，我们时常会有怀疑，对不对？就像那位被领养、之后又被抛弃的孩子，时刻活在恐惧当中。在这种恐惧怀疑当中，我们怎么办？我们的本能反应就是自己努力表现好一点，乖一点，争取让神更喜欢我一些，跟神建立更加稳固、美好的关系，这样神就不会轻易抛弃我了；这样我在神心中就有稳固的地位了。

因此，我们时刻关注的圣经经文都是围绕自己的行为。“洁净自己，像祂洁净一样。……凡不行义的就不属神，不爱弟兄的也是如此。”“清心的人有福了，因为他们必得见神。”等等。经文有错吗？没错，只是我们的动机错了。我们已经被神所爱了，我们已经是神的儿女，我们现在是，将来也要是。

约翰说“亲爱的弟兄啊，我们现在是神的儿女，将来如何，还未显明。”这不是说我们的将来，在神面前，是不确定的；或者说我们的救恩是不确定的，那样我们就埋没基督，没有尊主为大了。约翰是告诉我们，我们的身份是神的儿女，但我们在地上，今天并不是完全的，我们会时常被罪缠累。约翰一书2章开篇：“我将这些话写给你们，是要叫你们不犯罪。若有人犯罪，在父那里我们有一位中保，就是那义者耶稣基督。”（约一2:1）我们中间会有不和睦，不饶恕，嫉妒纷争甚至仇恨，求主怜悯我们，藉着我们聆听的道，快快奔向基督，快快悔改，在那义者基督里面寻求赦免，并且与人和睦，和好。“饥渴慕义的人有福了，因为他们必得饱足。使人和睦的人有福了，因为他们必称为神的儿女。”（太5:6-9）

“将来如何，还未显明”，因为如今是不完全，将来却是完全的，这是我们所盼望的永恒福分。约翰不要我们有这样的疑惑和不确定，而是要鼓励我们，将来会是好得无比。约翰继续说“但我们知道，主若显现，我们必要像祂，因为必得见祂的真体。”（约一3:2）什么是真体？英文是说as He is.就是祂的样子。祂是什么样，我们就要像祂那样；基督是完全的，毫无瑕疵和罪恶，我们将来也要那样：完全的，毫无瑕疵，毫无罪恶，必要脱去一切罪恶的缠累，肉体和情欲的撕扯。这是我们今天所经历的吗？不是，这是我们盼望的。“凡向祂有这指望的。”什么意思？我们是拥有现在和将来的身份，然而我们还没有拥有和经验将来的完全，那是主再来时必要赐给我们的永远福分。

我们听道就是领受基督和我们所盼望的将来完美的形象。这也是雅各书所说的自己“本来的面目”：“因为听道而不行道的，就像人对着镜子看自己本来的面目，看见，走后，随即忘了他的相貌如何。”（雅1:23-24）基督就是我们“本来的面目”，就是我们的“相貌”。哥林多前书13:12保罗也说类似的话：“我们如今仿佛对着镜子观看，模糊不清，到那时就要面对面了。”弟兄姐妹们，我们明白吗？这样来看登山宝训，天国八福，我们就晓得，这是在给我们一幅画面，以盼望的福分来活在当下，把这份模糊的画面尽力践行在当下，因为“永福”已经应许给我们了。

如果我们的身份是确定的，神的爱是超乎我们想象的，我们所领受的应许和盼望都是确定的，我们为什么不按照神的话语和吩咐去践行呢？为什么不洁净自己，保守自己的心思意念，竭力行在神的义当中呢？为什么我们不去恨恶罪，反倒怨恨身边的人，甚至弟兄姐妹，同为基督的身体呢？谁家的儿女不是效仿自己的父母样式，无论是好是坏呢？我们作为神的儿女，当然要处处保守圣洁，不沾染污秽，不去犯罪，因为神是圣洁的，毫无罪恶。神的心意就是要我们行善，因为我们在基督里，成为“神的义”；祂的义必要从我们流淌出去，彰显基督。我们不可能不去行义，因为那义者已经居住在我们里面。如果我们这样想，就是在行善、行义上有正确的动机，也必会结出恰当的义的果子来了。奉耶稣基督的名。阿们。

Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Savior Jesus Christ, to you who receive his steadfast love and salvation and who therefore keep yourselves pure. Amen.

We who trust in Jesus Christ receive the authority God gives and are called children of God (John 1:12: “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”). All of this comes from the Father’s love: immeasurable love, unfathomable love. The apostle John says, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God” (1 John 3:1). God so loved the world that he gave his only Son to the world, and even more so to us who believe. This giving was not in words but in deed. He truly gave us his own beloved Son, placing him into the hands of us sinners to be nailed to the cross, to atone for sin and to save us, sinners.

We are not merely called children of God. John goes on to say, “and so we are.” Being God’s children is not nominal for us Christians but real. The God who loves us is not a temporary foster parent. He has received us and adopted us, granting us a legally binding, eternally valid, unchangeable standing as his children. I once heard of a celebrity who adopted a child when she could not have children of her own. Later, when she and her husband were able to conceive and had a child of their own, she revoked the adoption. I don’t know the details, but I heard it caused public outrage: how could anyone be so selfish? People felt this way because they sympathized with the child who was adopted and then abandoned. People may do this, but God never will. We truly are his children.

In explaining the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father who art in heaven,” Luther says in the Small Catechism: “What does this mean? God would thereby tenderly invite us to believe that he is our true Father and that we are his true children, so that we may boldly and confidently pray to him as dear children ask their dear father.” Is it not so? If we are truly God’s children, are we not qualified to pray this prayer? If our standing as God’s children could be revoked at any time and were not permanent, would the Lord Jesus have needed to teach his disciples to pray this way?

And yet we often doubt, don’t we? Like that child who was adopted and then abandoned, we live in constant fear. What do we do in the midst of this fear and doubt? Our instinctive reaction is to try harder to behave, to be a bit better and more obedient, to win God’s favor and build a more secure and beautiful relationship with him, so that God won’t easily abandon me, so that I have a firm place in his heart.

So the Scripture passages we fix our attention on are all about our own conduct. “Purifies himself as he is pure.” “Everyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother” (1 John 3:3, 10). “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8). And so on. Is there anything wrong with these texts? No, but our motive is wrong. We have already been loved by God. We are already God’s children. We are now, and we will be in the future.

John says, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared” (1 John 3:2). This does not mean that our future before God is uncertain, or that our salvation is uncertain. That would bury Christ and fail to exalt the Lord. John is telling us that our identity is that of God’s children, but here on earth today we are not yet perfect and are often entangled by sin. As 1 John 2:1 opens: “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Among us there is discord, unforgiveness, envy, strife, even hatred. Lord, have mercy on us. Through the Word we hear, may we run quickly to Christ, repent quickly, seek forgiveness in Christ the Righteous One, and be at peace and reconciled with one another. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied... Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matt. 5:6, 9).

“What we will be has not yet appeared” because now we are imperfect, but the future will be perfect, and this is the eternal blessing we hope for. John does not want us to have such doubt and uncertainty. He wants to encourage us that the future will be unimaginably good. John continues: “but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Whatever he is like, we will be like him. Christ is perfect, without blemish or sin, and in the future we will be the same: perfect, without blemish, without sin, stripped of every entanglement of sin and of the tearing of flesh and desire. Is this what we experience today, complete perfection? No, it is what we hope for. “Everyone who thus hopes in him” (1 John 3:3): what does this mean? We possess our identity now and in the future, but we do not yet possess or experience the future perfection. That is the eternal blessing the Lord will give us when he returns.

Hearing the Word is receiving Christ and the perfect image of the future we hope for. This is also what James calls our “natural face”: “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like” (James 1:23-24). Christ is our “natural face,” our true appearance. In 1 Corinthians 13:12 Paul says something similar: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.” Brothers and sisters, do we understand? Seen this way, the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes give us a picture: to live in the present by the blessing we hope for, practicing this dim picture as best we can now, because the eternal blessing has already been promised to us.

If our identity is certain, God’s love is beyond our imagination, and the promises and hope we have received are sure, why do we not live according to God’s word and commands? Why do we not purify ourselves, guard our thoughts and intentions, and strive to walk in God’s righteousness? Why do we not hate sin, but instead resent those around us, even brothers and sisters who are members of the same body of Christ? Whose children do not imitate their parents, whether for good or ill? As God’s children, of course we should keep ourselves holy in every way, untainted by defilement and free from sin, because God is holy and without any evil. God’s will is for us to do good, because in Christ we have become “the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). His righteousness must flow out from us and manifest Christ. We cannot help but practice righteousness, because the Righteous One already dwells within us. If we think this way, we have the right motive for doing good and righteousness, and we will surely bear the fitting fruit of righteousness. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.