#FamousChurchSample

“As He is, So are you.” Yes, God desires for His church to be famous in the world, but it’s important for us to understand God’s purpose behind glorifying people. Since the dawning of the church, God’s people have been inclined to doubt what God has given to them. It’s easy for people to say that God loves them and even easier to believe Jesus gave His life for the world. However, it’s really, really hard for people to personally embrace the truth that Jesus died as us, so that we could live as Him. Look at the verbs in this passage: Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17). The word "is" may seem overly simple, but it's important to explore the tense in which it is used—the present indicative. Indicative tenses are used to state facts, and this is a present indicative verb. In other words, it is referring to Jesus’s current condition—not the fasted Jesus, not the beaten Jesus, not the dying Jesus, not the buried Jesus, but Jesus who has been raised to glory, placed above all things, and seated at the right hand of God—GLORIOUS, PERFECTED, RIGHTEOUS, POWERFUL, and ETERNAL. Just as HE IS, so are WE NOW! Are you living out the fullness of Jesus’s present condition?