"And every the [one] having this hope upon Him is purifying himself, just as that One is pure."
-Pure. No blemish or stain or contamination whatsoever. We who are following Christ are in this magnificent purification process, all the impurities of sin and brokenness gradually, slowly yet surely being smelted out of our lives for good. For good. Our world is filled with this stuff called ‘ore’. Iron ore, gold ore, various kinds of rock like bauxite, hematite, magnatite - which essentially are precious metals which are completely intermingled with what amounts to waste rock. Basically, the metals are contaminated. And it is entirely possible to obtain pure precious metal from these ores, but the process usually involves heat. A lot of heat, enough to melt rock, a melting and breaking down of the ore so as to be able to separate out the waste from the precious metal and produce something which is pure gold. Completely uncontaminated. That is what is happening to us, John says. When the Pure One is finished, we will more closely resemble Him. Understandably this is a very stressful process for the ore, which is why the ore needs to reminded (often?) of its true potential, needs to keep in mind a bit of how the process works. Purification, refining is not a quick or an easy process. But the results are absolutely worth it. In the words of Kenny Bania, that's gold, Jerry! Gold!
-Now, that which cranks up this whole purification process in my life is hope. Hope. We all hope for something, hope IN something. Could be a relationship, in my spouse or kids. Could be in my IRA, or my job. Or my house. My health. Where is my hope? The purifying begins when I first place my faith, my hope and trust in Jesus, this One Who is purity incarnate. He comes into my life and wants to bless me and make me more like Him - which means refining. Gonna get rid of those nasty contaminants. So gotta turn up the heat. Here comes the stress. Hardship. Breaking. Loss. All kinds of circumstances which actually challenge my hope but which ultimately secure even greater hope and trust in this One Who is my Great Golden Hope and Perfect Purifier. As long as I keep my eyes fixed on this One Who authored and perfected this whole faith thing (Hebrwes 12.1-2), I will find that while the process isn’t easy per se (it could in fact be compared to running a marathon), it is tremendously effective at producing more of Him and less of me in my life. Paul declared, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (Galatians 2.20). He must increase, I must decrease (John 3.30). More of Christ-in-me, and less of me-in-me - pure Jesus. That’s both Who He is and what He’s up to, and that’s what the world needs.
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