28 And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 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. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.REFLECTIONSWritten by Vincent ChanI find in these few paragraphs something very helpful. In many ways, it’s nothing new. And yet, it’s something that I need to be reminded all the time. What is it? It’s that knowing who we are in Christ helps shape how we live for Christ.Verse 28 reminds us that because God is righteous we are called to practise acts of righteousness. 3:6 reminds us that we are called to put off sin. However, here is the important part. Both of these ‘instructions’ are preceded by the reminder to ‘abide’ (2:28, 3:6).The idea of abiding is not that we need to get into Jesus or to some how reach him. Instead, it’s the reminder that we’re already in Jesus. It’s a call to remember who we are, the status we’ve been given and the identity that we have as children of God. When we keep remembering this, it helps us to abide and practise righteousness and put off sin. Let’s make that real. Today I’m going to be tempted to live for myself. There’s going to be moments when I not only sin, but I want to sin. Maybe it’ll be slacking off when I should be working. Maybe it’ll be to harbour bitterness against someone when I should pray for them. How will I put off that sin and practise my righteousness? By reminding myself who I am, in other words, by abiding in Christ.ABOUT THE AUTHORVinno is a minister with our Fairfield Services.