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1 John 3 "Children of God"
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you, He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. (1 John 3:1-9)
Last week we mentioned that Greek, the language of the
New Testament, has four different words for love. It is clear that the
love of God is different than the love of this world. God’s love
is something very different than any love that we have experienced before.
John tells us one way that we can see just how different God’s
love is. God’s love is so great that He would allow us to be called
His children. Even though God created the world and everything in it,
that does not mean that everyone in the world is His child. A child
grows up to be like his father, resembles his father. Many people remark
that looking at Keita is just like looking at a little version of me.
Lately, I think that he is starting to look more like Rie, but still
his mannerisms and facial expressions take after me. There is no doubt
that Keita is my son. But there is quite a lot of doubt that we are
children of God. There are very few people in this world who people
would take one look at and say, "Oh, he reminds me so much of Father
God." The only one who truly was a child of God was Jesus who always
did what the Father was doing. How then do we get the right to be called
children of God? Because Jesus came to take away our sins; all the things
that separate us from God. And the good news is that anyone who receives
Jesus, who believes in His name has the right to be called a child of
God. A child of God is not born of the flesh or of the will of man,
but of the will of God. Jesus said that which is born of the flesh is
flesh, but what is born of the Spirit is spirit. If you want to be a
child of God, you cannot do it on your own. You have to receive it as
a gift from God and be born again.
When I was still a small child my parents divorced. My mother remarried
and before I ever really understood what was going on I had a new father.
I have often thought since I grew up how great a man my step-father
is to have taken in us three children and placed us alongside his own
and loved us the same as them. We do not have his blood, we do not look
like him, we do not even have the same last name. But I am his child
and he is my dad. It is the same with us and God. We really do not look
much like Him now. But nevertheless He allows us to be called His children.
I did not really understand this about my step-father when I was young.
All I knew was that I had a father who loved me. Likewise we really
do not understand very much about God. But as His children we have a
wonderful hope. Some day when we see Him face to face and everything
is revealed to us we will be like Him. We who were nothing, will grow
up to be like our Daddy.
The funniest thing about having children is that watching them is like
watching a mirror. You see yourself in them over and over again. Children
are born mimics. The way that they learn is to imitate their parents.
As they get older we become the models to them of what an adult should
look and act like. They might go through a stage of rebellion but sooner
or later they come back to what they saw us doing when they were kids.
When you are born again your model becomes Jesus and your hope is become
just like Him. I think Keita is Gracie’s model now. Anything that
he is doing she has to do too. If he is playing Nintendo she wants to
play Nintendo. If he is playing with the Legos she wants to play with
the Legos. This usually results in destruction and a very frustrated
big brother. I wonder if Jesus gets frustrated with us. I am sure that
our efforts to be pure and righteous are often just about as futile
as Gracie trying to "help" Keita build. But the important
thing is that we keep on trying to be like Him. John wrote, "Everyone
who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure."
It is a mark of those who are truly born again that they really want
to be like Jesus.
However, the opposite is also true. It is a mark of those who don’t
really know God that they don’t care about being holy. John states
it very strongly, "Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known
Him." And again he says, "Whoever has been born of God does
not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he
has been born of God." How can this be true? Remember John told
us in the first chapter that we are deceiving ourselves if we say we
have no sin, that we are calling God a liar if we say we have not sinned,
and that we should confess our sins to God so that He will forgive us.
What does he mean by saying that those who are born of God cannot sin?
To really understand this, again we need to look at the original Greek.
The tense of the verb "to sin" means "to continue in
sin". Every single mention of the word in this passage is "continuing
sin". The Bible is very clear. Everybody sins. Christians and non-Christians
sin.
The word for sin in Greek is "harmartia". It means "to
miss the mark". What does it mean to continually miss the mark?
It means that we really have no idea what the mark is in the first place.
It is like trying to shoot baskets in a darkened gymnasium. If you shoot
an awful lot of baskets you might get lucky and make one in. But most
of the time you will miss. But if you turn on the light your chances
of making a basket are improved many times over. This is exactly what
being born again means. God’s seed, His Spirit is in you and the
light has been turned on in your life. Now you know where the basket
is. Not only that but you also have the greatest coach in the world.
He will tell you when you are doing something wrong and point you in
the right direction. I like this illustration a lot because I know that
even though I can see the basket doesn’t necessarily mean that
I will make one in every time. But my chances are much higher, I will
get closer and I will do my best to improve. Now if somebody comes into
that lighted gym and starts shooting baskets in the opposite direction
I might start to wonder if they need glasses, or if their headband has
slipped down a little too far. This is what John is saying. If someone
continues to miss the mark without any improvement then it is very likely
that they don’t know God at all and they need to be born again.
In this the children of God and children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous. Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment. (1 John 3:10-23)
So, if we are born again, if the Spirit of God is in our
hearts, if the light has been turned on in our lives, then we know what
the mark is that we should be aiming for. It is to be like God. Just
what the children do, trying to be like their parents. And we know that
God is love, and so the love of God is the mark that we must try to
hit. Like I said in the beginning, the love of God is very different
from any other love that we have known. This is why it is so hard for
those who are not born again to hit the mark consistently. But we who
are born again know love, because Jesus Christ laid down His live for
us. The love of God is self-sacrificing. God’s love disregards
all benefits to self and instead gives up those benefits to somebody
else. John says that if you have this world’s goods and see a
brother in need and shut up your heart to him, how does the love of
God abide in you? God gives without expecting anything back in return.
In the Old Testament God commanded the Jews many times to take care
of three groups of people; the widows, the orphans and the strangers
in the land. These are the people with no way of taking care of themselves
and no one else to watch out for them. I believe that God wants us to
love these people more, simply because they are in the worst position
to ever pay us back. I am very impressed with a little woman in the
Japanese service named Mrs. Miyamoto. She runs an after school club
for children with Down’s Syndrome. These children will never be
in positions of power, they will never be rich, nor will they be successful
in the eyes of the world. She will never be repaid by them, but instead
she has found that showing God’s love is compensation in itself.
In Japan there is no such thing as a free gift. If someone gives you
a gift it is considered an obligation to give something back in return.
But this is exactly what God wants from us. He wants us to give as He
gives. To love as He loves. Expecting nothing in return. Lord, help
us to hit the mark.
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