1 John Chapter 3

Let me start off with a favourite chorus of mine that we seldom sing today anymore.

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!
~ 1 John 3:1a ~ 

Some versions used the word, “lavished” instead of bestowed or given. The love that the Father has freely and abundantly given to us… so that we should be called the children of God.

Just stop for a moment and think about that! Do we even think of this great grace and mercy as we go about our daily lives? Do we take it for granted and never even consider what this truly means?

This verse or song kept on going through my mind as I was reading today’s chapter. The repetitive words keep echoing throughout the chapter (and very much this epistle) and we see the apostle of love, John, emphasizing to us over and over again to us. When someone emphasizes something repeatedly, you must know that this is actually very important.

I used the NIV translation for the next 2 verses as it makes it easier to understand:

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.
~ 1 John 3:2-3 ~

Now that we are children of God, what happens next?

Verse 2 speaks about what we will be has not yet been make known. But we will know when Christ appears again. In fact, we shall be like Him and we shall see Jesus as He is!

Verse 3 tells us then if we have this hope, in Him, we need to purify ourselves. Because Jesus is pure.

We have the privilege of being called the sons of God.

But we also have responsibilities to fulfill as the sons of God.

John follows by telling us about sin and how, we as sons of God, should deal with it. Jesus came to take away our sins and even though that is true, we do and might continue to commit sins. BUT …

Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.

~ 1 John 3:6 ~

If we want to remain as His child, we must strive not to commit sin. John is telling us to make resolute efforts to not sin. And the way to do it? We must purify ourselves and be holy.

This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.

¹¹ For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 

~ 1 John 3:10-11 ~

Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child. Nor anyone who does not love one another.

We know what we should do. The question is : do we strive to do it and show that we are indeed His child.

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