Dear friends, now we are children of God. We don’t know yet what we will be. But we know that when Christ appears, we’ll be like him, because we’ll see him as he really is.
And that’s not all. We have the first signs of what the Spirit will give us fully, but we also are groaning inside as we wait for our adoption to be finalized.
I truly expect and hope that I won’t be ashamed in any way, but that I’ll be brave enough so that now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether I live or die.
The words “once more” show that the things that can be shaken (that is, created things) are going to be taken away. Then the things that can’t be shaken will remain.
These have come to show that your faith is genuine. This will bring praise, honor, and glory to God when Jesus Christ returns. Your faith is worth even more than gold, because gold can be destroyed even after fire has made it pure.
See what great love the Father has given us: We’re even called children of God! And that’s what we really are. The world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him.