DTS Devotional

How can Christians make right choices between worldliness and holiness? The coming of the Lord helps motivate us to select and live out righteous behavior. If we really believe that the Lord could come again at any time, we would behave in ways that would please Him (1 John 2:28-3:3). This includes living so that we will be “confident and unashamed before Him” (2:28), having done “what is right” (v. 29), and leading pure lives (3:3).

John expressed amazement at the kind of love it would take for us to become the children of God. Yet “that is what we are.” Unsaved people cannot understand the reality of the new birth; they do not know Christ experientially. But those born of God, who live in His likeness, understand the spiritual nature. Through sanctification they become more like the Lord as they wait for His return.

And that return offers hope—the hope of seeing our blessed Saviour face to face. These wonderful verses emphasize the fact that a genuine expectancy of Christ’s return will lead the true believer to self-examination, cleansing from sin, and a life of holiness (cf. 2 Cor. 5:10).