Verse of the Day 1/29

1 John 3:3   And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.    Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) 

Sunday's verse dealt with "pressing on in faith", onward and upward, a pilgrim's progress, one day at a time.  In it there is a striving. 

Yesterday the men's small group that I'm in studied 1 John 2:28 - 3:10, the passage has the heading "Children of God" and goes on to tell us how the children of God will act.  It speaks of abiding.  The thought is of growing in our faith and maturing in it.  It involves another one of those big Christian words "sanctification", setting Christ apart as Lord in our lives, and will involve getting rid of the baggage the things that slow us down and devoting more of ourselves to him.

I asked the question of our group, what does this purifying in verse 3 look like.  One of the men said that he pictured a doctor, a surgeon prepping for surgery.  He scrubs in, he meticulously scrubs his hands, fingers and under the nails for fifteen minutes.  It may seem like overkill, but he wants to make sure that he does kill every germ, every bacteria is, because the ramifications of that germ or bacteria left or transferred to the patient could be disastrous.  So it is with us.  That sin that remains in us may be disastrous for us and for those around us.

How are we doing in our "striving" to please Him?  Are we willing to do the meticulous work of "scrubbing in" for our service to Christ?

Blessings,
Mike
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1 John 3:2-4

English Standard Version (ESV)

² Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears^[a] we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. ³ And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
⁴ Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.