Last 5 Days
Children of God!
2:28 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. 29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.
3:1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
In chapter 3 verse 1, John commands us to See! Behold! Pay attention to this! John wants us to focus our attention to this truth. We are called to be children of God! Children of who? The most high and living God, maker of the heaven and the earth, the God who spoke and the earth came into presence, this God calls us His children! In 2 Corinthians 6:18, God says He will be father to us, and we shall be sons and daughters to Him. Romans 8:17a tells us that now we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. We will inherit the kingdom of God and we will reign with Christ in the last days.
The reason, John tells us, that we are given the title is because of the love of God. We were meant to die an eternal death, die a slave to sin because of our wickedness. God could have just been compassionate to save us from eternal death and put us as servants in His eternal kingdom, but no, we are lavished with the title to be children of God. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. God loved us so much that he was willing to give up His begotten Son in order that we are saved, and more than salvation, we are called sons and daughters of the most high King!
We wish to take a least a little bit of credit for becoming children of God, but here, John tells us that we are able to escape sin not because of our works. If left on our own accord, we are only practitioner of sin and lawlessness. Jesus appeared to take away our sins and in Him there is no sin. We can be identified as righteous because Christ died for us so that we become the children of God!
How do we identify who are the children of God? Christ has given us the capacity to do two things. (1) to practise righteousness and (2) to love our brothers. Both righteousness and love are two sides of the same coin. Righteousness without love makes one a religious Pharisee. Love without righteousness makes one a partner in evil. Real love is the greatest righteousness and real righteousness is the greatest love. In Jesus, we found the complete understanding of love and righteousness.
Dear brothers and sisters, by God’s grace alone, we became the children of God. The children born of the Father bears the traits of the Father. We who are called the children of God also bear the traits as children of God. Therefore, we are given the ability and capacity to resist sin and love our brothers. We might think it is useless to fight against our sinful nature and to love the unlovable. It is not true, as children of God, God has given us sufficient grace to live a holy life and to become faithful witnesses. Will you act on the privilege that God has given to you, to love and to live a righteous life?
