A. Likeness to God to Be Perfected at the Second Coming (3:1-3)

Just as the Word who became flesh was not welcomed when he appeared in human history because the world did not know who he was (Jn 1:10-11), those who share his character likewise will go unrecognized. They travel incognito, as he did. Nonetheless, God’s intention to have a creation in his own likeness is now being fulfilled. The perfected replica, however, must await the Consummation.

Yet this goal provides a powerful magnetic force that even now draws those who have been born into the family of God toward ever closer conformity to the divine likeness. This truth is one of the major emphases of Wesleyan theology as it speaks of the image of God as the telos toward which the lifelong process of sanctification is moving the faithful believer.

While the point is not explicitly made, it seems clear from the repeated incarnational emphasis that John is thinking of the Father’s image being most fully present in the Son as the paradigm of full maturity. “Being like him when he appears” has this connotation. Subtly, John has moved from speaking about the Father to speaking about the Son. In a word, this implies that holiness is Christlikeness.