When we SEE Him, we will be LIKE Him, because we'll see Him as He is. Until then: all we have is knowledge about Him. We can know Him, personally; hear His Voice; walk with Him and even obey His Commands... we cannot see Him in this life. Moses saw the mere residue of Him having walked past Him and had to cover his face for 40 days and nights because no one could bear the glory that emanated from his face. Knowledge will cease (along with prophecy and tongues) when we SEE Him. Until then: God's Gifts abide in His Body.
John 1:
1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2. The same was in the beginning with God.
3. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5. And the light shineth in darkness;
and the darkness comprehended it not.
10. He was in the world, and the world was made by him,
and the world knew him not.
11. He came unto his own,
and his own received him not.
12. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13. Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
John 17:
24. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am;
that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the
world.
25. O righteous Father,
the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee,
and these have known that thou hast sent me.
26. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
2 Peter 1:
15. Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.
16. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but
were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
1 John 1:
1. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which
we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
2. [
For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;]
1 John 3:
1. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God:
therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
2. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
The world does not know them as sons of God, just as the world had not known the Son, in its unbelief.
They are now the sons of God, but await its manifestation before an unbelieving world - it does not yet appear that way to the world what they shall be.
He is relating that they know that when He shall appear they shall be like Him, for they shall see Him as He is - as John and his fellow apostles had been eyewitnesses of His majesty.
The world did not see Him as He is.
