We Shall Be Like Him
    The formative years of my faith lived in the 80’s when catch phrases and clever sayings were the preacher’s delight. Maybe they still are. Phrases such as “If He’s not lord of all, He’s not lord at all” and “God said it, I believe it, that settles it” peppered the sermons I heard. I get it, it’s very enjoyable to say clever things, and even more enjoyable to speak truth in a clever way. Unfortunately, not all of the clever sayings that came over the pulpit during that time were true, at least not wholly true.

    One such phrase that I heard preached during my formative years that rang true to me and served as a motivational pry bar in the hands of the preacher was, “You’d better learn to love that person sitting next to you (in church) because you’re going to spend eternity with them.” Was this true? Well, partially, maybe. Perhaps the words of John the apostle can bring some clarification and shed some light on this saying,

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)

    We shall be like Him. The person you are sitting next to in church today is not the person you will be spending eternity with. What a small and powerless hope it would be to think that you and I, unseparated from our character faults and the unsanctified areas of our lives, would simply be making a transfer from one dimension to another with no change. Yuck! But no, we shall be like Him! We shall be like Jesus, for we shall see Him as He is - not as we think He is, not as we imagine Him, but as He truly is.

    So what now do we have to motivate us to love one another? Nothing, nothing but love. The believer you know, the person you are sitting next to in church, the person who just annoyed you, is on their way (through the process of sanctification) to being like their Lord. But they have not arrived. None of us have. Yet while they have not arrived, we must realize one very important thing - they are a child of God; right now, they are a saint. And that is the motivation of love, not that we’d better love them lest we find ourselves in an eternal game of avoidance, but rather because of who they are - a child of God.

    Clever sayings may be fun and help us to remember a point, but scripture alone is wholly true. It is above our experiences, feelings, and “I’ve always been taught that ...” He has poured His love into your heart and has loved you before you ever thought of loving Him. And now you may put on love, cloth yourself with it, and love your brother and your sister.


Scripture References

We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:5)

And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (Col 3:14)

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