Verses to review today: 1 John 2:1-3:2
New Verse: 1 John 3:3
And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. (ESV)
And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. (KJV)
Greek: καὶ πᾶς ὁ ἔχων τὴν ἐλπίδα ταύτην ἐπʼ αὐτῷ ἁγνίζει ἑαυτόν, καθὼς ἐκεῖνος ἁγνός ἐστιν.
Transliterated Greek: kai pas ho echōn tēn elpida tautēn ep’ autō hagnizei heauton, kathōs ekeinos hagnos estin.
Literal Word for Word Translation: and everyone having this hope in him purifies himself, just as that one is pure.
Vocab: πᾶς, pas, all/every; ἐλπίδα, elpida, hope; ἁγνίζει, hagnizei, he purifies; ἁγνός, hagnos, pure.
Commentary: How we make ourselves pure by our having hope in Him will become better understood as we proceed further into 1 John. But, the point of this verse is that when we have hope in Christ, we are purifying ourselves through that hope. Without the hope in Christ, there is no purification.
So we are purified through our hope, or by faith in fact. I wondered how we could possible purify ourselves if as Hebrews says ‘We have been made holy once for all.’ So John isn’t saying we should strive and make an effort to purify ourselves as some would say this verse means, but that simply through our hope, we become pure, because we are righteous by faith. Same idea ?
There is the step of “justification” where we are set apart for holiness at that time, and there is the process of “santification” where we are being made holy in the image of Christ day by day. Neither one is in our power to acheive. Yet, by faith, by trusting in the Lord’s grace, we are made pure by the Lord’s death at the cross for the purpose of being able to have fellowship with Him, for reconciliation, and continue to be made made pure in our daily lives by His work in our lives as we stay close to Him in study and reflection on the Word, prayer, fellowship with other believers, and so forth. If in fact we are not following Him in faith, there is no purification. Faith is a gift of God, but we must be obedient to that faith and I think that is the sense of what John is saying.
So I do think it is the same idea.