Homeward Bound: An Example of True Sanctification, March 30

Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.—1 John 3:3.

In the life of the disciple John true sanctification is exemplified. During the years of his close association with Christ, he was often warned and cautioned by the Saviour; and these reproofs he accepted. As the character of the Divine One was manifested to him, John saw his own deficiencies, and was humbled by the revelation. Day by day, in contrast with his own violent spirit, he beheld the tenderness and forbearance of Jesus, and heard His lessons of humility and patience. Day by day his heart was drawn out to Christ, until he lost sight of self in love for his Master. The power and tenderness, the majesty and meekness, the strength and patience, that he saw in the daily life of the Son of God, filled his soul with admiration. He yielded his resentful, ambitious temper to the molding power of Christ, and divine love wrought in him a transformation of character. . . .
Such transformation of character as is seen in the life of John is ever the result of communion with Christ. There may be marked defects in people’s characters, yet when they become true disciples of Christ, the power of divine grace transforms and sanctifies them. Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, they are changed from glory to glory, until they are like Him whom they adore.
John was a teacher of holiness, and in his letters to the church he laid down unerring rules for the conduct of Christians. “Every man that hath this hope in him,” he wrote, “purifieth himself, even as He is pure.” “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.” (1 John 3:3; 2:6.) He taught that Christians must be pure in heart and life. Never should they be satisfied with an empty profession. As God is holy in His sphere, so fallen human beings, through faith in Christ, are to be holy in their sphere.
“This is the will of God,” the apostle Paul wrote, “even your sanctification.” (1 Thessalonians 4:3.) The sanctification of the church is God’s object in all His dealings with His people. He has chosen them from eternity, that they might be holy. He gave His Son to die for them, that they might be sanctified through obedience to the truth, divested of all the littleness of self. From them He requires a personal work, a personal surrender.—The Acts of the Apostles, 557, 559.