DEVOTION
THE 1ST LETTER OF JOHN
CHILDREN OF GOD/LAVISHED LOVE
1 John 3:1-3
3:1 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. 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 he
appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 Everyone who
has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
NIV
Just to consider if we did not have parents, or rather our parents were
dead. At an early age in our life, we would have been called an orphan, a
parentless child. In some cases, we might have an extended family member who could
take us in, but in many cases, as an orphan, we would become a ward of the
state. Still, those who have been raised in a home by parents have somewhat of
an understanding of parental love. Here, John speaks of how great the love of the
Father has lavished on us, simply by calling us his children. We remember we
have been born of him, as John has put it. We may have started out having been
born in the flesh through natural means, but we now have been born again of the
Spirit, which is by supernatural means. Those are the words Jesus used in his
talk with Nicodemus.
John 3:5-7
5 Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth,
no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.
6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
NIV
John is very aware that those who have been born of the Spirit are now
considered by God as his children and he wants to make sure we know that to the
fullest. Although Paul speaks because of or in His love, He predetermined
to adopt us as his sons, or children through Jesus Christ, the meaning is still
the same. We are children of the Most High God through accepting Jesus Christ
as our Savior, and thus having been born again in the spirit. As an earthy
parent, we love our children no matter what. They can do everything right, but
that is highly unlikely. Many times they may well disappoint us, or disobey,
but that never disturbs our love for them. We have heard, and it is very
disturbing, a mother yelling at her child, “If you don’t stop that, I won’t love
you anymore”. This is a self-centered parent, unlike God who died on the cross
because of His great love for us, so we could be called children of God. Even
when we disobey, His love for us never is diminished. We can have complete
confidence in His love for us. Those who are children of the world are in an entirely
different family and have no idea of how our family operates, they do not know
us, nor do they know our Father. This idea of what we will become is fascinating
to consider, and we will leave that for our next adventure into this passage.
So, for now, we will just relish in the fact that God loves us so much, that he has
lavished his love on us, that we should be called children of God.
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