1 John 3:3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
What is hope? You can go real flowery and use Emily Dickinson's definition: ‘Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.’ Now, while that conveys some of the more touchy-feely aspects of hope, as an engineer I want something a little more down to earth and quantifiable. Hope is a desire to see something come to pass. We say things like ‘I hope this will happen’ or ‘I hope to do this or that.’ Hope is the desire for an action and Christmas is filled with hope. We hope for gifts, for time with family, for rest. Now it may not be wrong to hope for these things, but what do we do when that thing we’re hoping for doesn’t happen? What happens when our family time is cut short or made unpleasant? How do we react when our anticipated rest is interrupted or never comes? Are we hoping in things that disappoint?
1st John 3:3 states that hope fixed on Christ is purifying. What action is this hope looking forward to? Looking back at verse two we see that our hope is the coming of Christ. The things we talked about yesterday regarding Christian maturity are in mind. As we follow Christ and his example, we are growing up. Hoping in Christ’s coming and working to follow Him will bring satisfaction and not disappointment. Fix your hope on Christ. He has promised perfect peace and rest. He will bring us into His family as a child of God where we can rejoice in His love and fellowship. Hope in Christ does not disappoint, but rather brings perfection. Now, this is a great promise and it is true. Remember, though, that it is a process. Jesus, the perfect son of God who was pure, had to come to earth and die a horrible death as part of the fulfillment of this hope. We have this assurance of God’s love and work bringing us to Himself. We also have His call to live according to this hope, to put into action what we see in Christ. So, where is our hope fixed? As we remember the coming of Christ during the Christmas season, does that give us hope and how is that hope seen in our lives?
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