We’ve been in the book of 1 John for a few weeks, and it has been great. So far, John has explained how we can know that we have fellowship with God, how we can know that we really have a relationship with God. He was trying to assure people who maybe had been a little confused by all the different messages they had heard from the culture around them.
He said that there are two things that will help you know for sure that you have fellowship, a relationship, with God. The first is that you know God. You know God in an ethical way, meaning you love Him and do what He says; and you know God in a doctrinal way, meaning you have faith and trust in Jesus, you believe what the Bible says about Jesus and you have placed your trust and your life in Him. So if you know God, you love Him, obey Him, have faith in Him, trust Him. If you know God in this way, you have fellowship with God.
John also adds to that that you must also dwell with God. You must know Him, and you must dwell with Him. For John, this means living a life of repentance of sins, resistance of temptation, and a renewal of the Spirit within you. For John, this means continuing to walk in the light of God, instead of the darkness of the world, choosing the things of God and not the things of the world.
John has been saying that if you know God: you love Him, you obey Him, you have faith and trust in Jesus; and you dwell with God: you live in repentance of sins, you resist temptation, your Spirit is being renewed, and you walk in the Light of God, then you do in fact have fellowship, a relationship with God.
Let’s hear the Word of God this morning in 1 John 3:1-10. “See how great a love the Father has given us, that we would be called children of God; and in fact we are. For this reason the world does not know us: because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope set on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. 4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and 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 remains in Him sins continually; no one who sins continually has seen Him or knows Him. 7 Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; 8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one who has been born of God practices sin, because His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin continually, because he has been born of God. 10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother and sister.”
The first thing that John says here, the most amazing thing about this entire passage is this first thing, “See how great a love the Father has given us,” This one truth is at the root of everything that John says. See how great a love the Father has given us. John is asking us, those who are hearing and reading this Word, to reflect back on the love that God has shown you.
John wants you to remember that God has loved you so much that He sent Christ to take on your sins, every wrong thing you’ve ever done, on Himself and to die on the cross for those sins. John wants you to remember that by being resurrected from death, Christ Jesus offers the forgiveness of sins to you freely, and that by accepting that forgiveness of sins and coming into fellowship with God that you also are given eternal life and life to the fullest here and now. John wants you to remember all the blessings you might have, and all the painful and horrible situations that you were rescued from, and all the good that has flourished out of those situations. John wants you to remember all the ways that God has shown His great love to you.
John says that it is because of this great love that we are called children of God. This isn’t a term that he’s applying to everyone. Not everyone is a child of God. John is applying it only to those who, as John has previously talked about, have fellowship with God, a relationship with God. If you have fellowship with God, you are also a child of God.
What does it mean to be a child of God? Is it just that we have fellowship, a relationship with Him? What is so important about being a child of God? John uses the word teknia for children. When he does that, what he’s stressing is that this isn’t a legal relationship, we aren’t adopted as children of God; rather, John is declaring that we have been born of God, reborn as spiritual children, and so, because we are born of God, we will grow up having God’s characteristics.
I think about my own children. I can pinpoint my own characteristics in each of them. Hannah and Jeremiah have my eyes. Abigail has my hair texture. Abigail and Jeremiah both have my hair color. Chloe has my smile and my eyebrow shape and my nose. Hannah has my skin tone. I can see bits of my physical characteristics in each of them. But it goes beyond physical characteristics. Abigail has my tenacity and sense of perseverance. Jeremiah has my curiosity for learning. Hannah has my love for music and especially singing. Chloe shares my emotional vulnerability and empathy. Each of them has taken a little piece of who I am as part of who they are.
It is the same in my relationship with God as a child of God. I see His creativity in me. I see His tender heart toward children in me. I see His love for wisdom and truth in me. And if you are a child of God through having fellowship with Him, you can probably see little pieces of who He is in you as well. I think that’s just so amazing, that the characteristics of God rub off on us when we are in fellowship with Him.
And what John says next is even more amazing, that we do not yet know all of what it means to be children of God, but that one day, when Christ returns, we will be like Him and then we will fully understand what it means to be like Him and to be a child of God. We have some hints throughout Scripture of what that will look like, like 1 Corinthians 15:42-49 which says, “It is the same with people who are raised from the dead. The body will turn back to dust when it is put in a grave. When the body is raised from the grave, it will never die. 43 It has no greatness when it is put in a grave, but it is raised with shining-greatness. It is weak when it is put in a grave, but it is raised with power. 44 It is a human body when it dies, but it is a God-like body when it is raised from the dead. There are human bodies and there are God-like bodies. 45 The Holy Writings say, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” But the last Adam (Christ) is a life-giving Spirit. 46 We have these human bodies first. Then we are given God-like bodies that are ready for heaven. 47 Adam was the first man. He was made from the dust of the earth. Christ was the second man. He came down from heaven. 48 All men of the earth are made like Adam. But those who belong to Christ will have a body like the body of Christ Who came from heaven. 49 Now, our bodies are like Adam’s body. But in heaven, our bodies will be like the body of Christ.” (NLV)
The point that is made here is that part of being a child of God, of being like Christ means that one day we will receive a SPIRITUAL body that is imperishable, glorious, powerful, and bears the image of God. In fact, Ephesians 4:24 says, “and to put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” So we understand this to mean that being like Christ, being a child of God means that we are in the likeness of God, we bear His image, and we are being made new in righteousness and holiness of the truth. God is creating His righteousness in us, His holiness in us, His truth in us. Philippians 3:21 says that being a child of God, being like Christ, means that one day we will have a glorious body.
So we know that these are some of the ways we will be like Him, and even now are like Him in some measure. Don’t you think it’s amazing though, that as incredible as all these things are, that God has even more in store for us as children of God? There’s more He wants to do for us! There’s more He will do for us, now, and some day when He appears again.
John then spends verses 3-10 explaining a very simple truth. That since you are a child of God, which you are if you have fellowship with God, then you should purify yourself. He goes on to say that if you do not live as a child of God, if you do not practice the things of God, then you do not actually know God. And John has said it previously in his letter that if you claim to walk in the light but continue acting as one who is in the dark, then you are not actually in the light. So, we see it is important to purify yourself, as John says.
John says that children of God should purify ourselves because we HOPE in Him. We have placed our hope in Him because He hears us when we cry out to Him and talk to Him. We have placed our hope in Him because He has mercy on us when we deserve punishment. We have placed our hope in Him because He speaks to us through all of life’s circumstances. We have placed our hope in Him because He is working in us to make us new. We have placed our hope in Him because we know that what He has said is true because we have seen it, and so we know that He can be trusted. We purify ourselves because we hope in Him.
We purify ourselves because He is pure. As children of God, being made like Christ, we purify ourselves because He Himself is pure. We are called to be like Him, and so we must do that in anyway that He calls us to.
We purify ourselves because we are born of God. We are reborn in His image and remade anew. And since that is the case, since He is working in us to remake us into a new creation, we have to stop trying to live like the old creation! We have to stop trying to live life like we did before we were reborn. We have to stop acting like orphans and start acting like children of the Creator of the Universe!
How? John boils it down to one thing: TURN AWAY FROM A LIFE OF SIN. That’s it! If you have fellowship with God, a relationship with God through Christ, you are a child of God, and if you are a child of God, stop trying to be a child of the world. You’re not. Stop choosing sin. Stop choosing destruction. Stop choosing chaos. Stop choosing death. Stop choosing evil. Stop choosing all the things that only take you away from God. That is not who you are meant to be.
I do a little devotion with the kids each school morning as we’re waiting in the drop off line for them to start their day, and it’s a series all about being a child of God. This is what it means to be a child of God: it means I am chosen, I am not alone, I am forgiven, I am free, I am found, I am new, I am alive, and I am God’s treasure. Are you? Then be who you were meant to be.
1. Grow Up with God: Examine your own life in light of 3:1-10. To what extent do you act like a child of God, and to what extent do you act like a child of the devil? Spend some time in confession, if necessary. From what habits do you need to purify yourself?
2. Grow Deeper with the Body: What should a church do if a member is practicing sin? See Matthew 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 5:1-13; and 2 Corinthians 2:5-11.
3. Go Out: What is the motivator for what Christ did for us, according to 1 John 3:1? How will you share that truth with a pre-Christian in your life this week?