Purify
- Thread starter Dekybo
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Isn't the answer in the passage? We purify ourselves only if our hope is fixed on him.
Of course, earlier, in chapters 1 and 2 John plainly acknowledges that we are sinners but we have an advocate.
Later in chapter 3 John doubles down on what it means to be righteous--there is a stark divide between the righteous and the sinner. I take it from putting it all together that (1) we must purify ourselves and (2) the only way we can is by first fixing our hope on Him. We are made pure by seeing him, but we don't fully see him yet (3:2).
And of course, we are to keep his commandments (3:24).
a mere housewife
Not your cup of tea
I love 1 John and read it through again on reading your question. So these are just some of my own notes, in case they help. In the first chapter, purity is associated with fellowship -- with God the Father and Jesus, but also with one another -- and it is something done to us by Jesus (1 John 1:7). It does not mean sinlessness (though it does mean turning away from sin), but being honest. Confessing that we are not sinless. Fellowship with God means we have to come into His atmosphere: the truth; and if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and call God a liar. But living in truth calls us away from sin even while we confess it. God's light shows us our sin and His blood washes it away. My former pastor said something like 'the light keeps on shining and the blood keeps on cleansing'.
It feels like those themes get amplified and expanded till the last verse, to 'keep ourselves from idols'. Sin, lawlessness, is associated with the devil and the world we're not of if we are in fellowship with God -- and so it is impossible for us to 'continue' in it. The fellowship of God means that we receive His testimony as truth, even though it involves confession; and even when it contradicts the condemnation of our hearts. 'Purity' throughout seems very much about that honest fellowship. A fellowship which is not merely about lines drawn externally but about One who is within us, greater than the one in the world -- the One who is Love. The intense vision of love we have seen in Jesus is the 'positive' picture of purity of which 'sin' is the negative.
(I don't live up to this -- it calls me away from how I often act to far more than I am living up to. This light shining in the revelation of Jesus shows me my sin. But I can tell that to God honestly, too.)
It feels like those themes get amplified and expanded till the last verse, to 'keep ourselves from idols'. Sin, lawlessness, is associated with the devil and the world we're not of if we are in fellowship with God -- and so it is impossible for us to 'continue' in it. The fellowship of God means that we receive His testimony as truth, even though it involves confession; and even when it contradicts the condemnation of our hearts. 'Purity' throughout seems very much about that honest fellowship. A fellowship which is not merely about lines drawn externally but about One who is within us, greater than the one in the world -- the One who is Love. The intense vision of love we have seen in Jesus is the 'positive' picture of purity of which 'sin' is the negative.
(I don't live up to this -- it calls me away from how I often act to far more than I am living up to. This light shining in the revelation of Jesus shows me my sin. But I can tell that to God honestly, too.)
Thanks for those expansive thoughts, Heidi.
I was pressed for time and meant to add after the "we are to keep his commandments" the follow-up: and when we don't, we are to repent, repeat, and check that our hope is fixed on him.
We are blessed and encouraged, even in our failures, by remembering that "we love because he first loved us."
I was pressed for time and meant to add after the "we are to keep his commandments" the follow-up: and when we don't, we are to repent, repeat, and check that our hope is fixed on him.
We are blessed and encouraged, even in our failures, by remembering that "we love because he first loved us."
a mere housewife
Not your cup of tea
My notes always wind up feeling disordered and confused to myself so I'm sure they must to objectively existing entities 
. I like what you said about how the hope itself is a purification. I had been thinking along the lines of the OT concept of purification for coming into the presence of God (so the cleansing with blood in 1:7), and I expect that's involved: if we hope to see him 'as he is' (we 'have seen' and handled ... but there is even more) we undergo this process of purification. But I had not reflected on how that hope itself is purifying; and that's a sweet thought when one is feeling one's failures.
. I like what you said about how the hope itself is a purification. I had been thinking along the lines of the OT concept of purification for coming into the presence of God (so the cleansing with blood in 1:7), and I expect that's involved: if we hope to see him 'as he is' (we 'have seen' and handled ... but there is even more) we undergo this process of purification. But I had not reflected on how that hope itself is purifying; and that's a sweet thought when one is feeling one's failures.
Kinghezy
Puritan Board Sophomore
When you said purify, it made me think of how Jesus does so to his church in Ephesians.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.
— Ephesians 5:25-27
So I was trying to wrap my head around what 1 John is saying about purify. If it at all helps, here is what Matthew Henry and John Gill have to say.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.
— Ephesians 5:25-27
Matthew Henry
Urges the engagement of these sons of God to the prosecution of holiness: And every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure, v. 3. The sons of God know that their Lord is holy and pure; he is of purer heart and eyes than to admit any pollution or impurity to dwell with him. Those then who hope to live with him must study the utmost purity from the world, and flesh, and sin; they must grow in grace and holiness. Not only does their Lord command them to do so, but their new nature inclines them so to do; yea, their hope of heaven will dictate and constrain them so to do. They know that their high priest is holy, harmless, and undefiled. They know that their Go and Father is the high and holy one, that all the society is pure and holy, that their inheritance is an inheritance of saints in light. It is a contradiction to such hope to indulge sin and impurity. And therefore, as we are sanctified by faith, we must be sanctified by hope. That we may be saved by hope we must be purified by hope. It is the hope of hypocrites, and not of the sons of God, that makes an allowance for the gratification of impure desires and lusts.
John Gill
not that any man can purify or cleanse himself from sin, this is only owing to the grace of God and blood of Christ; nor that any man can be so pure and holy as Christ is, who is free from all sin, both original and actual; but this must be understood either of a man that has faith and hope in Christ, dealing by these with the blood of Christ for purity and cleansing, with whom and which these graces are conversant for such purposes; or of such a person's imitating of Christ in the holiness of his life and conversation, making him his pattern and example, studying to walk as he walked; to which he is the more excited and stimulated by the hope he has of being a Son of God, a dear child of his, and therefore ought to be a follower of him, and walk as Christ walked, in humility; love, patience, and in other acts of holiness; and by the hope he has of being like unto him, and with him in the other world to all eternity: but then this "as" is only expressive of some degree of likeness and similitude, and not perfect equality, which is not to be expected in this, or in the world to come; believers indeed, who have faith and hope in the justifying righteousness of Christ, may, and should consider themselves pure and righteous, and free from sin, as Christ is; being clothed upon with his robe of righteousness, in which they stand without fault before the throne, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but this does not seem to be the sense of the place here, the argument being to engage the saints to purity and holiness of life and conversation, from the consideration of the great love of God bestowed upon them in their adoption, and from their hope of eternal happiness, as the context shows; see 2Co 7:1; other arguments follow.
Urges the engagement of these sons of God to the prosecution of holiness: And every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure, v. 3. The sons of God know that their Lord is holy and pure; he is of purer heart and eyes than to admit any pollution or impurity to dwell with him. Those then who hope to live with him must study the utmost purity from the world, and flesh, and sin; they must grow in grace and holiness. Not only does their Lord command them to do so, but their new nature inclines them so to do; yea, their hope of heaven will dictate and constrain them so to do. They know that their high priest is holy, harmless, and undefiled. They know that their Go and Father is the high and holy one, that all the society is pure and holy, that their inheritance is an inheritance of saints in light. It is a contradiction to such hope to indulge sin and impurity. And therefore, as we are sanctified by faith, we must be sanctified by hope. That we may be saved by hope we must be purified by hope. It is the hope of hypocrites, and not of the sons of God, that makes an allowance for the gratification of impure desires and lusts.
John Gill
not that any man can purify or cleanse himself from sin, this is only owing to the grace of God and blood of Christ; nor that any man can be so pure and holy as Christ is, who is free from all sin, both original and actual; but this must be understood either of a man that has faith and hope in Christ, dealing by these with the blood of Christ for purity and cleansing, with whom and which these graces are conversant for such purposes; or of such a person's imitating of Christ in the holiness of his life and conversation, making him his pattern and example, studying to walk as he walked; to which he is the more excited and stimulated by the hope he has of being a Son of God, a dear child of his, and therefore ought to be a follower of him, and walk as Christ walked, in humility; love, patience, and in other acts of holiness; and by the hope he has of being like unto him, and with him in the other world to all eternity: but then this "as" is only expressive of some degree of likeness and similitude, and not perfect equality, which is not to be expected in this, or in the world to come; believers indeed, who have faith and hope in the justifying righteousness of Christ, may, and should consider themselves pure and righteous, and free from sin, as Christ is; being clothed upon with his robe of righteousness, in which they stand without fault before the throne, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but this does not seem to be the sense of the place here, the argument being to engage the saints to purity and holiness of life and conversation, from the consideration of the great love of God bestowed upon them in their adoption, and from their hope of eternal happiness, as the context shows; see 2Co 7:1; other arguments follow.
Dekybo
Puritan Board Freshman
Thanks for the replies. I was trying to see the practical side of this verse. I understood Christ to be the reason why we purify ourselves but I didn’t understand how we actually go about doing so. From what I gathered so far it is how we interact with how God purifies us. Gill gave a more pointed explanation there on how we are to live as Christ lived. Thanks again
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