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1 John 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.”
The new birth produces lives marked by righteousness in imitation of the righteousness of Christ (1 John 2:29). This new birth is not something that we can work up in ourselves, for we are sinful by nature. Rather, the new birth is a gift, the fruit of an extraordinary love. This love is so remarkable that John pauses in today’s verse to summon his readers to wonder at it.
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (3:1). John is asking his readers to stop and to gaze with fresh eyes on what God has done for them. The phrase “what kind of love” stresses the unusual character of this love, its surpassing quality. In love, God takes those who were His enemies by nature and adopts them as His own children. By the new birth, believers do not become merely God’s servants, His subjects, or His admirers. They become His sons and daughters.
John adds, with simple emphasis, “and so we are.” This is no metaphor that exaggerates the nearness of God. The status of the people of God as His children is not a polite fiction or a sentimental description. It is the actual standing into which they have been brought through the work of the Son. The believer is, in fact, a child of the living God, with all the privileges and intimacy that the relationship implies.
The verse goes on to explain why this glorious status is not always recognized: “The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” The world failed to recognize Christ when He walked among men in His earthly ministry. It looked on the eternal Son of God and saw only a Galilean carpenter, eventually executing Him as a criminal. Those who belong to Christ should not be surprised when the world likewise fails to recognize them as children of God. The world’s blindness to the Son extends naturally to those whom the Son has called brothers and sisters.
This is a great encouragement to those whose Christian profession brings them suspicion or rejection from the surrounding culture. Such treatment is not evidence that something has gone wrong but is precisely what we should expect. The world that did not know Christ will not know us. Yet our true identity is not what the world says of us but what the Father says of us. He calls us His children, and that is what we are.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Let us pause today to wonder at what we so easily take for granted. The Father has loved us with such love that we are called His children, and we truly are. Whatever the world thinks of us, may we walk through this day in the steady consciousness that we belong to Him.
For further study
- Romans 8:14–17
- Galatians 4:4–7
- Hebrews 12:5–11
- Revelation 21:7
The bible in a year
- Isaiah 56–58
- 1 Thessalonians 5