Some Key Words

Know (ginosko[1097]):

to know experientially; intimate knowledge; to be sure, understand. From Vine's: Ginosko tends to indicate a coming to knowledge, a beginning to understand, whereas eido tends to indicate a fulness of knowledge and understanding.

Know (eido[1492]):

to perceive with the senses, know intuitively. Throughout this section, ginosko is used when referring to the sinful - they haven't come to know God, whereas the knowledge of the believer is written of as eido - the fullness of knowing.

Appeared (phaneroo[5319]):

act of divine revelation, to make visible (note: same word translated as manifested elsewhere in the text).

Hope (elpis[1680]):

desire of something good with expectation of obtaining it; confident expectation.

Purifies (hagnizo[48]):

to consecrate, dedicate by sacrifice; to cleanse ceremonially; to sanctify (separate from evil things and ways - from Vines NT:38)

Take away (airo[142]):

to lift, raise, take up, remove, take away, to loose a ship from shore; to take upon oneself and carry, to bear away, carry off, to cause to cease.

 

Paraphrase

1 God's love for us is so great that He chooses to call us children of His. 2 The world, which refuses to recognize God, will fail to recognize us as well. We are yet imperfect, 3 but our hope remains in Him who will perfect us, purifying us completely where we have worked in part. 4 Sin and lawlessness have no place in His children, 5 for He took away their sins, and is Himself sinless. 6 Those who continue to sin habitually don't know Him.

Key Verse

3:3 - Having in us the sure hope of coming to be like Him when we see Him in His Godhood, we work as we can to prepare ourselves in purity.

Some Parallel Verses

3:1

Jn 3:16 - God loved us enough to sacrifice His son so we could be His children. Jn 1:12 - all who received Christ became God's children. Jn 11:52 - gathering us together to become one. Ro 8:16 - and confirming our childhood by the Holy Spirit [again the whole trinity gets involved]. Jn 15:18 - the world hates us as it hated Him, Jn 15:21 - because they know not the One who sent Him. Jn 16:3 - nor do they know Christ.

3:2

Ro 8:19 - creation longs for us to be revealed as His sons, Ro 8:23-25 - as do we, in hope and eager perseverance. Lk 17:30 - we are warned what the days of His appearance will be like, Col 3:4 - in which day we too will be revealed. Ro 8:29 - because He predestined us to be like His Son, 2Pe 1:4 - and become partakers of His nature, escaping the world's corruptions. Jn 17:24 - Jesus' prayer is that we join Him where He is, to see Him in His glory, given by the Father before the beginning [remember, that the sinful will not see Him]. 2Co 3:18 - to which end we are being changed from created glory to perfected glory. Awesome!

3:3

Ro 15:12 - our hope is in the one who comes from David's lineage to rule us. 1Pe 1:3 - we are born again to a living hope through Christ's resurrection. Jn 17:19 - Jesus purified Himself, to purify us in truth. 2Co 7:1 - we should purify ourselves from all defilement - fleshly and spiritual. 2Pe 3:13 - We look to the new earth of the righteous.

3:4

Ro 4:15 - Without the Law, we would not know sin.

3:5

Jn 1:29 - Jesus takes away the sin of the world. 1Pe 1:18-20 - by whom we are redeemed - due to His sacrifice - which was known before the beginning but revealed in time. 2Co 5:21 - for God made Christ the sinless one to be sin for us, so that we could be righteous by Him. (and not just righteous but the righteousness of God!)

3:6

3Jn 11 - the good are of God, the evil haven't seen Him.

New Thoughts

There is so much here now, that I fail to put it all together. So many awesome implications in the words and in the confirming scriptures. Look at our hope: we look forward in expectation to becoming like Him perfectly! Knowing it will come, knowing He will remove our sins like a ship loosed from shore, taking them upon Himself to carry them off! Looking back at the question of how we purify ourselves, I think I see the answer in John 17:19 - we purify ourselves by accepting Christ's work on our behalf - who purified Himself that we might be pure in truth. There is no other way.

Note the assurance in the parallel passages: He was known before the beginning, as were the actions He would have to take on our behalf. Our becoming like Him has also been confirmed before the beginning, it is assured. Jesus' prayers reveal to us that this is the will of God (for He did nothing but God's will), and is God's will something to be thwarted? I think not. Blessed Assurance! Jesus is mine, and I His. Amen.