We are starting a new series this evening in which we are going to examine God’s love and how his love is to change who we are and how we live. Now it is important to remember the purpose that the apostle John has for writing his first letter. John says he writes these things so that our joy may be full (1 John 1:4). John also states at the end of this letter than he is writing these things so that you may know that you have eternal life (1 John 5:13). One of the important ways that we can have complete joy and know that we have eternal life is by knowing the love of God. You might remember that the apostle Paul prayed that God’s people would know the love of Christ that surpasses understanding so that you may be filled with the fullness of God (cf. Ephesians 3:19). Grasping the love of God in Christ is everything for sustaining us for our walking with God in this life. So open your copies of God’s word to 1 John 3 and we are going to begin our study there.
See God’s Love (1 John 3:1)
Notice the first sentence because it is powerful and worthy of a complete sermon unto itself. “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God.” John tells us that we need to see the kind of love the Father has for us. John is telling us to look at the sort of love the Father has for us. You need to see this! You need to see this love! I am afraid that sometimes we are not looking at this. We fail to look at the kind of love the Father has given to us. We miss it. We look at so many other things and fail to look at the immeasurable nature of the Father’s love for us. We do not look at the massive size and greatness of the Father’s love. What are we supposed to look at exactly to see the kind of love that the Father has for us? John tells us that you can see the kind of love the Father has for us that we should be called children of God. God has chosen us to belong to his family. God has decided to adopt us so that we can call him our Father. We come together and stir one another to love and good works by seeing the kind of love the Father has given to us.
But I want us to also notice that this is not a theoretical idea. John does not merely say that we should see the love of the Father that we can be children of God. Look at the rest of what he tells us. “And so we are.” See the kind of the love the Father has so that we are not only called children of God but that is exactly what we are. We have that relationship. See God’s love and see who you are because of his love. You are his children.
Now John makes what appears to be a side point but it will be a point he will come back to later in this chapter. Look at the end of verse 1. The reason the world does not know us and understand us is because they do not know God. When we see the kind of love God has for us and we live as children of God then the world is not going to want a relationship with us because they will not understand us because they do not know God. If you are a disciple of Jesus then you have experienced this. Your values, your thoughts, your desires, and your actions do not match the values, thoughts, desires, and actions of those who do not know God and they do not understand you. It is not that we are actively breaking relationships with the world but that deep relationships are unable to be formed because we just do not understand each other because we are children of God.
You Are Children of God (1 John 3:2)
We are children of God now (1 John 3:2). We need to see that we are in his family now. We have been called children of God (cf. John 1:12-13). Grasp your place in God’s family! See the importance of belonging to God! Now look at and think about the rest of verse 2. Now I don’t think John is now telling us that when Jesus returns in glory that we will see him in his glory and be like him. We can go to other passages like 1 Corinthians 15 where we learn about God transforming our lowly bodies into glorious bodies when Christ returns. But I think another point is in view here and it is powerful. Here is what John is telling us. We are children of God now but we have not remotely seen what this means. We cannot begin to understand what it means to be children of God. But when Christ comes then our status as God’s children will be fully observed. The point is not that we will have resurrected bodies like Jesus, though the scriptures do teach this (cf. 1 Corinthians 15). The point is that we will be children of God like Jesus is. Listen to how the writer of Hebrews emphasized this stunning point.
It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters…. (Hebrews 2:10-11 NRSV)
The point is that we have so strongly been brought into this relationship with the Father that Jesus and each of us share the one Father. We have the same source. We are of one family. But keep reading what the writer of Hebrews says. Notice that Jesus is not ashamed of us to belong to the Father and call us his brothers and sisters with him. Now come back to 1 John 3:2. What it means that we are children of God now as not yet been revealed. We do not see it and we cannot understand that we have been made sons and daughters of God. But when Christ appears, then we will see it. Then being children of God will be brought to completion because we will be like him and see him as he is. See what kind of love the Father has for us that we are children of God with Jesus, not in a lesser way, but in every possible way as he is. We share in the heavenly calling (cf. Hebrews 3:1). But who can begin to grasp all the implications of this status that God has given to us? But we know this. When he appears, we are going experience all that it means to be truly be children of God.
A Living Hope (1 John 3:3)
This makes sense of the first conclusion that John draws for us. Everyone who has this hope in God’s love that we are his children and desire to fully experience everything that this relationship has to offer purifies himself. Why do we need live pure lives? Why do we need to purify ourselves? Why can’t we live how we want to live and do what we want to do? We purify ourselves because we have this hope that we are God’s children now and we have not begun to see how amazing this relationship is. We are his children but we have no idea what that is going to mean for us. But we live with this hope and listen to what Jesus says because he is pure and we want to be brothers and sisters with him.
When my children were younger we tried to explain to them the dynamics of the family relationship. We told them that if they would listen to us and do what we ask of them, then they would experience the blessings of the family. We told them that there would be future blessings like we would help with a car, college, weddings, etc. But we also warned them that if they lived their lives in a way that we did not approve, then they would forfeit the blessings of the family. We said that we would still love them. But we would not help with any extras in their lives. They would have to go down the hard path and take care of things for themselves. When one of my daughters was a younger teenager she was not experiencing these blessings and questioned them. Where are these supposed blessings? We told her to wait and they would be coming. She could not see what it meant to fully be part of the family if she did right. But then she reached the age of maturity and she had listened to us. So she has experienced those blessings. She had a hope of what all of this meant and she continued to listen to us.
This illustrates the idea that I believe John is trying to show us. You are children now. There is so much more to come. Those who have this hope purify their lives just as Jesus is pure. The scriptures are regularly calling for us to purify ourselves (cf. James 4:8; 1 Peter 1:22). Notice that this is a decision we must make. We must decide that purity and holiness are the goals for our lives. The reason we choose to not embrace the life of sin is because we have a hope that is not seen. The reason we choose to avoid the sinful ways of the world is because we have a hope that is not fully realized. The reason we choose purity is because we are children of God.
So here is the message that John wants us to think about. You are preparing for eternity now or else you have no hope. You are purifying your life now or you do not have the hope of what this relationship status will be when Christ returns. You will strive for holiness in your life or you do not see what kind of love the Father has given to you. We will never have the motivation to lead holy and pure lives until we see who we are (children of God) and what kind of love God has given to us granting us this status. I want us to think about how John taught this to us. We purify ourselves because we understand who we are. We purify ourselves because we are children of God. We know who we are and that changes how we will live. John says that everyone does this. Everyone who has this hope seeks out holy living.
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15 ESV)
What I want us to do as we conclude this lesson is to evaluate our lives and take inventory in these next couple minutes. What defilements are you holding on to in your life? What sinful habits are you continuing that need to be purged? What sinful attitudes do you have that need to end? What life changes do you need to make to steer yourself toward a life of holiness? What needs to be purified out of your heart and out of your actions? What changes do you need to make today and have those changes stick? What lies need to stop? What hidden behaviors need to change? What are you doing in your life that shows you do not belong to Jesus? Friends, everyone who sees what kind of love God has for us purifies themselves. Everyone who knows they are children of God purifies themselves. Everyone who hopes to see the full blessings of belonging to the Father just as the Son and our Savior is purifies themselves just as he is pure.
Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14 ESV)