1 John 3:1
See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.
I know it’s popular for people to say, “We are all children of God,” and that presents a very pantheistic view of things, one that the Bible completely refutes. John would later provide an explanation of this scripture when he wrote his Gospel.
John 1: 12,13
But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
Children of God are born of God, not of man. Jesus explained this to Nicodemus in John 3 when he stated that he must be born again. Luke’s genealogy takes us all the way back to Adam; when he lists Adam in Luke 3:38, he refers to him as a “son of God” because he was a direct creation of God. When we believe and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we too become Children of God, direct creations of God, by becoming “born again.”
The world is not composed of children of God because they have not been born of God, which is the point John makes in this first verse. To be a child of God, you must be “born again.”
Please don’t confuse this with Jesus being “the Son of God.” Jesus tells us he is the Only begotten son (John 3:16) in the Greek, which means he is of the same essence as God, and the title son refers to their relationship in the Trinity. Because of Jesus’ divine nature, his connection with both God the Father and mankind is unique, as he is both God and man, the Son of God and the Son of Man.
OK that is just the first verse of this chapter
1 John 3:2
Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.
John discusses Christ’s return, indicating that we will be like him when he comes back. It is also implied what happens to us after we die. Remember, when Jesus rose from the dead, he walked through walls, vanished and appeared suddenly, seeming to travel effortlessly and instantaneously from place to place, yet he still ate and drank and had flesh and bone to touch. Paul writes that when the rapture occurs, we will be changed instantly (1 Corinthians 15:51,52). Think of it this way: if you have a photograph of someone, you see it and recognize them, but it is merely a two-dimensional image, while we are three-dimensional
1 John 3:3-10
And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.
4 Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God. 5 And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him. 6 Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.
7 Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. 8 But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. 9 Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God. 10 So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.
John emphasizes that we have a new nature, characterized by purity and love for God. If you are truly “Born again,” then your nature is changed. You now “feel” it when you break God’s heart; it affects you differently. Before, you were blinded by the world, the flesh, and the devil, but now you understand who God is and His great love for you. We must recognize the world system we stand against, the flesh we overcome, and the devil we resist—he must flee because he has been defeated in our lives, only to return if we allow him. We can cast out the devil, but we must overcome the flesh and stand against the world system and mindset. If we choose to act as if, normally, but deliberately treat others like the world does and disrespect God, it indicates that we are not truly Christ-followers. Our love for God and others should always prevail, and God’s love triumphed for us when Christ was born into this world, lived a life to show us the Father’s heart, took all of our sin on the cross, and rose again, demonstrating He is in control (sovereignty)!
1 John 3:11-13
This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was righteous. 13 So don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.
What was the real difference between Cain and Abel (Genesis 4)? Both were worshipers; they brought offerings to the Lord. However, Abel offered the best, while Cain brought only some. It was a matter of the heart. Abel’s love for God was reflected in his offering of the best; Cain took his relationship with God for granted. He desired the same relationship and blessings that Abel had, without giving God the love that Abel showed Him. It just doesn’t work that way. God loves us all deeply, but it is our own hearts that either hinder or nurture our relationship with Him. Rather than Cain accepting responsibility for his lack of love toward God and striving to deepen his love for Him, he became jealous of Abel’s relationship and turned into a murderer.
John is challenging each of us to look at our own hearts and, instead of being jealous or accusatory toward others, ask the Lord to help us fall more in love with Him so we can genuinely “feel” and live in that love and pour it out to others as well as always giving our best to God.
1 John 3:14-19
If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead. 15 Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them.
16 We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person?
18 Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. 19 Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God.
Our love shows that we are no longer under condemnation, destined for eternal death (punishment and judgment of hell and the lake of fire), but are now destined for eternal life. We are alive, while the world is in death’s grip. However, we must keep attending to our own hearts. As Jesus said, if a man hates his brother, he is a murderer, and if you live this way, you demonstrate that you are not truly a Christ-follower or are heading in the direction of turning away from Christ. Jesus said…
John 15:13-15
There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.
Our love is not just in words, but our actions should reflect those words and our hearts, just as they did in Able’s life. Our love is evident in the way we give, care for one another, respond to each other’s pain and wounds, and how we aim to build each other up. We are brothers and sisters in Christ, sons and daughters of God, and our lives should reflect the Father’s heart, as Jesus said we should lay down our lives for one another.
1 John 3:20-22
Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything.
21 Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. 22 And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.
The Holy Spirit is speaking through John: I know you are not perfect, and you are truly battling sin in your life, but don’t let that stop you. Christ’s shed blood covers all your sin. He knew you would sin; that is why He came in human form—to show He understood. He stood in the place of your sin so you could, regardless of your feelings, come boldly to God. He isn’t saying we should just keep sinning and not feel it. He already dealt with that, saying that if you deliberately sin, with intentionality, then you really aren’t a child of God. God is saying you are my kids; you love me, and I love you. I know you sin, but I need you to know how much I love you. Ask, and I’ll bless you with your answers. Just know and understand my love for you, so ask boldly!
1 John 3:23,24
And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.
John wraps up this line of thinking with this conclusion….believe in the name His son, Jesus Christ. He phrased in that way because there were many different views of who Jesus is and this phraseology means that we are to believe exacting who God says Jesus is, who Jesus says that He is and simply who Jesus actually is. Many will say he is this or he is that but the Holy Spirit made it clear that Jesus is God, came in flesh, lived a sinless life, died and rose again and is the second person of the trinity, as the same nature functioning as the son, our kinsman redeemer, so we could be redeemed by Him not of our own works but his grace.
As we live lives full of His love for us, we continue to walk in the fullness of life with Him. We display that life through the evidence of the Holy Spirit active in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, meekness, kindness, faithfulness, and self-control. We witness, as do others, the Holy Spirit’s fruit in our lives.
I know this discussion of love, grace, and truth can be difficult, but Jesus exemplified it for us in the story of the woman caught in adultery in John 8.
God wants us to understand His great love for us.
It is a matter of the heart that is reflected in our actions.
When we sin, it goes against our new nature, but we must understand that we will sin as we grow in Him.
When we sin, we need to understand how much God loves us. He knows we are in a battle but wants us to be assured that we are the ones He loves the most. So, He asks us to come boldly and ask for what we need, and He will make it happen!
Our lives are always to reflect Jesus in every way, being little Jesus’ to a dying and hell bound broken world. So we live understanding who he is and we live with the fruit of the Spirit as a witness to our being Christ-followers!