Look! This is really cool -- the mind-boggling love gift that God the Father has given to us. He called us his “children” -- and indeed that is who we are. Of course, the world doesn’t recognize the family resemblance but that’s because they’re unfamiliar with the Father!
2 Dear friends, we ARE God’s children and it remains to be seen where that will lead us. We do know that when the curtain is pulled back and we again see Jesus we will be seen to be like him. The family resemblance will be glaringly obvious. 3 In light of what we confidently expect to happen, we busy ourselves cleaning up our lives, so that at the big reveal moment we’ll truly look like we belong to the ultraclean Jesus. 4 Everyone who indulges sin is on the wrong track by God’s standards. Sinful living is fractious -- for sin is by definition fractious.
5 Surely you know that Jesus was shown to remove sin -- even though he himself was sinless. 6 Everyone connected with Jesus rejects sin. Any person who continues to indulge sin hasn’t really seen him or known him.
7 So dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you. The righteous person is the one who acts in the right way -- who lives in accordance with the righteousness of Jesus. 8 But those who make a practice of sin are straight from the devil, who has been sinning from the get-go. The Son of God came to cancel the devil’s sinful ways.