Verse of the day 1 John 3:2 (NET)

Faithlife Study Bible (FSB) is your guide to the ancient world of the Old and New Testaments, with study notes and articles that draw from a wide range of academic research. FSB helps you learn how to think about interpretation methods and issues so that you can gain a deeper understanding of the text.

3:2 has not yet been revealed God’s full plans for a person’s life are unknown, especially in terms of the transformation he will offer believers upon Jesus’ return.

whenever her is revealed we will be like him On the day that Jesus returns, a full transformation of believers will take place, though John admits that no one knows what this will look like. John likely is drawing on the imagery of new creation, as well as the idea that God’s image is restored in a person through the saving work of Jesus

John likely is drawing on the imagery of new creation, as well as the idea that God’s image is restored in a person through the saving work of Jesus (Rev 21; 2 Cor 3:18; 5:17; compare Rom 8:29 and note).

Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., Whitehead, M. M., Grigoni, M. R., & Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (1 Jn 3:2). Lexham Press.

This Pillar commentary seeks to clearly explain the meaning of John’s letters to teachers, pastors, and general readers looking for a reliable resource for personal study. Colin Kruse introduces the important issues involved in interpreting the Johannine letters, gives verse-by-verse comments, and provides extensive discussion of John’s major theological themes, including the real humanity of Christ.

3:2 Addressing his readers once more as Dear friends (agapētoi), the author goes on to emphasise, by repetition, what he affirmed in the previous verse: now we are the children of God. The new element in the repetition is the emphasis on the fact that we are ‘now’ (nyn) children of God. What we are now stands in contrast to what we will be later, so the author adds, and what we will be has not yet been made known. While what we will be cannot be fully comprehended now, one thing is known: But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him.

When Christ appears, the author says, ‘we shall be like him’. The nature of our likeness to Christ will be a likeness in respect to ethical purity, as the next verse makes clear. The author then explains the reason for this great change: for we shall see him as he is. Elsewhere in 1 John the verb ‘to see’ is used in reference to the eyewitnesses’ encounter with Jesus Christ (1:1–3) and in the denial that those who commit sin have ever ‘seen’ Jesus Christ, who came to take away sin (3:6). In the first case the seeing involves the physical eyes.

In the second case it involves failure to see with the ‘eyes’ of faith. However, the future seeing spoken of in 3:2 is of a different order: ‘we shall see him as he is’, that is, not seeing him as he was in the days of his earthly ministry, nor seeing him with the eyes of faith, but seeing him as he now is in heavenly glory; and the sight of him, the author says, will be enough to make us pure like him (cf. 1 Cor 13:12; 2 Cor 3:18).

Kruse, C. G. (2000). The letters of John (p. 116). W.B. Eerdmans Pub.; Apollos.