1 John Part 8

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. 1 John 3:1-3

I could write a book on how truly great the Father's love is to call us his children. We deserve separation and hell. And it's amazing that He doesn't want that for us. His love truly must come before his anger in order to want us to be with him. How does he see us as anything better than annoying pests? The perfect love of God is the only possible answer. I can't be stupid or annoying or sinful enough to exhaust his love for me. Praise be to my Father!

It's also interesting that the world seems to take this for granted. We're all God's children, right? We may all be created by God, but it's only through Christ's sacrifice that we can be adopted into God's family. We have to be adopted to be called children of God; it's not the birthright of a sinner. If you tell a non believer this, make sure you explain it. Tell them you have to be adopted.

And that is what we are! (1 John 3:1b) The fact that we are children of God seems so exciting and unbelievable to John that he has to repeat it. It's almost a verbal way of him pinching himself. We are, we really are children of God!

Why aren't you understood, liked, or respected by the world? Because the world doesn't know God and his ways. Many people talk about the world hating us because Christians don't act like Christians. This is true to a point, but I don't think we should go around feeling guilty because people don't like us. There's a spiritual element to the world's hatred of Christians that goes beyond the objective judgments of worldly people. The world hates what God loves and there's not a lot we can do about it.

John moves on to talk about the great hope we have because we are children of God. We are going to be transformed to be like Christ. I don't know exactly what that means, but I know it's really good. Our bodies and minds will be new and different, and isn't that what you long for? I know I do. To be without the daily struggles of my corrupt mind and body is one of the most freeing things I can think of.

Should be live differently here since we know we will be like Christ someday? Absolutely. John tells us to purify ourselves because of this great hope. We are preparing ourselves to meet Christ face to face and to be like him. In a sense our lives are like a great preparation or practice of purification for living with God for eternity.