Exploring 1 John: Children of God
1 John 3:1 - Look to the Son to see the blazing, blinding Light of God’s love!
”See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.“
1 John 3:1 NASB1995
I would like you to stop what you are doing and contemplate the first part of this verse in 1 John 3. The love of the Father is so great that we can be called His children! He has bestowed this love on us. Let’s look at that word “bestowed”, which comes from the Greek word δίδωμι or dídōmi, with the following Biblical usages: Strong’s G1325 is used 413 times in the New Testament:
to give
to give something to someone
of one's own accord to give one something, to his advantage
to bestow a gift
to grant, give to one asking, let have
to supply, furnish, necessary things
to give over, deliver
to reach out, extend, present
of a writing
to give over to one's care, intrust, commit
something to be administered
to give or commit to some one something to be religiously observed
to give what is due or obligatory, to pay: wages or reward
to furnish, endue
to give
to cause, profuse, give forth from one's self
to give, hand out lots
to appoint to an office
to cause to come forth, i.e. as the sea, death and Hell are said to give up the dead who have been engulfed or received by them
to give one to someone as his own
as an object of his saving care
to give one to someone, to follow him as a leader and master
to give one to someone to care for his interests
to give one to someone to whom he already belonged, to return
to grant or permit one
to commission
Wow!! There are lots of usages of this word. In this case it is God bestowing or delivering a gift, handing over His love to us and giving us His Son as our own. Whatever anxious feelings, dread, fear, suffering, and grief that may be affecting you, ponder this and know that this is TRUE. It should give you great joy, great solace and deep peace, that you are His child, adopted by Him, because you believe. You know Him, the world does not know Him.
I really like the commentary from Enduring Word about this gift; Guzik’s commentary relies on another translation, where the word “see” in the NASB1995 is replaced by “behold”, which is more emphatic (read this carefully, because there many nuggets of great ideas to digest):
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Having just mentioned being born of Him, John speaks in amazement about this manner of love that makes us children of God. He wants us to behold it – that is, look at it and study it intently.
It is of great benefit to the Christian to take a good, intense look at the love of God bestowed on us.
Bestowed on us speaks many things. First, it speaks of the measure of God’s love to us; it could more literally be translated lavished on us. Secondly, it speaks of the manner of God’s giving of love; bestowed has the idea of a one-sided giving, instead of a return for something earned.
What is it that makes us slow to believe the love of God? Sometimes it is pride, which demands to prove itself worthy of the love of God before it will receive it. Sometimes it is unbelief, which cannot trust the love of God when it sees the hurt and pain of life. And sometimes it just takes time for a person to come to a fuller understanding of the greatness of God’s love.
Behold means that God wants to see this love and He is not ashamed to show it to us. “‘There,’ he says, ‘you poor people that love me you sick people, you unknown, obscure people, without any talent, I have published it before heaven and earth, and made the angels know it, that you are my children, and I am not ashamed of you. I glory in the fact that I have taken you for my sons and daughters.’” (Charles Spurgeon)
Do you have sinful attitudes or lack of understanding that can prevent this love from reaching you? Disbelief, lack of trust, pride, lack of knowledge of His word, these can all stand in the way. Look at His love and be filled with wonder!
Enduring Word continues to examine this passage, now talking about being called Children of God:
That we should be called children of God: The greatness of this love is shown in that by it, we are called children of God. As God looked down on lost humanity, He might have merely had a charitable compassion, a pity on our plight, both in this life and in eternity. With a mere pity, He might have set forth a plan of salvation where man could be saved from hell. But God went far beyond that, to call us the children of God.
Who calls us the children of God?
The Father does (“I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the LORD Almighty,” 2 Corinthians 6:18).
The Son does (He is not ashamed to call them brethren, Hebrews 2:11).
The Spirit does (The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, Romans 8:16).
There is a sense in which this is a totally “unnecessary” blessing that God gives in the course of salvation, and a demonstration of His true and deep love for us. We can picture someone helping or saving someone, but not going so far as to make them a part of the family – but this is what God has done for us.
In this, we gain something in Jesus Christ greater than Adam ever possessed. We never once read of Adam being called one of the children of God in the sense John means here. He was never adopted as a son of God in the way believers are. We err when we think of redemption as merely a restoration of what was lost with Adam; we are granted more in Jesus than Adam ever had.
If we are truly children of God, then it should show in our likeness to our Father and in our love for our “siblings.”
It is important to understand what it means to be the children of God, and that everyone is not a child of God in the sense John meant it here. God’s love is expressed to all in the giving of Jesus for the sins of the world (John 3:16), but this does not make all of humanity the children of God in the sense John means it here. Here he speaks of those who have received the love of Jesus in a life of fellowship and trust with Him; But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name (John 1:12).
We are invited into His family! This is more than Adam ever received. God doesn’t pity us, He loves us, so His plan of salvation is truly remarkable and goes beyond just a rescue plan; we should show His love in our likeness to the Father and in our love for “siblings” and “neighbors” (and enemies).
I also have to include this marvelous commentary about that love and its power that I found on Precept Austin from Alexander Maclaren, who was a Scottish Baptist Minister and Bible expositor:
We are called upon to come with our little vessels to measure the contents of the great ocean, to plumb with our short lines the infinite abyss, and not only to estimate the quantity but the quality of that love, which, in both respects, surpasses all our means of comparison and conception. Properly speaking, we can do neither the one nor the other, for we have no line long enough to sound its depths, and no experience which will give us a standard with which to compare its quality. But all that we can do, John would have us do—that is, look and ever look at the working of that love till we form some not wholly inadequate idea of it.
We can no more ‘behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us’ than we can look with undimmed eyes right into the middle of the sun. But we can in some measure imagine the tremendous and beneficent forces that ride forth horsed on his beams to distances which the imagination faints in trying to grasp, and reach their journey’s end unwearied and ready for their task as when it began. Here are we, ninety odd millions of miles from the centre of the system, yet warmed by its heat, lighted by its beams, and touched for good by its power in a thousand ways. All that has been going on for no one knows how many aeons. How mighty the Power which produces these effects!
In like manner, who can gaze into the fiery depths of that infinite Godhead, into the ardours of that immeasurable, incomparable, inconceivable love? But we can look at and measure its activities. We can see what it does, and so can, in some degree, understand it, and feel that after all we have a measure for the Immeasurable, a comparison for the Incomparable, and can thus ‘behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us.’
So we have to turn to the work of Christ, and especially to His death, if we would estimate the love of God. According to John’s constant teaching, that is the great proof that God loves us. The most wonderful revelation to every heart of man of the depths of that Divine heart lies in the gift of Jesus Christ.
The Apostle bids me ‘behold what manner of love.’ I turn to the Cross, and I see there a love which shrinks from no sacrifice, but gives ‘Him up to death for us all.’ I turn to the Cross, and I see there a love which is evoked by no lovableness on my part, but comes from the depth of His own Infinite Being, who loves because He must, and who must because He is God. I turn to the Cross, and I see there manifested a love which sighs for recognition, which desires nothing of me but the repayment of my poor affection, and longs to see its own likeness in me. And I see there a love that will not be put away by sinfulness, and shortcomings, and evil, but pours its treasures on the unworthy, like sunshine on a dunghill. So, streaming through the darkness of eclipse, and speaking to me even in the awful silence in which the Son of Man died there for sin, I ‘behold,’ and I hear, the ‘manner of love that the Father hath bestowed upon us,’ stronger than death and sin, armed with all power, gentler than the fall of the dew, boundless and endless, in its measure measureless, in its quality transcendent—the love of God to me in Jesus Christ my Saviour.
Can you look into the Sun? Of course not! You risk immediate blindness as a result of staring at that bright and blazing orb that God placed there to power our planet. Steve and I were fortunate to have witnessed the total solar eclipse last month and everyone there was very cautious about putting on the viewer glasses and filters on cameras and telescopes the minute that totality is nearing its end.
But you can look into the Son! We turn to Jesus and His redeeming sacrifice as a way to truly understand God’s abiding love. The world does not understand or know Him. The more we meditate on the love of God and our fallen and sinful state, the more we should step away from the world, too. Here is a final short commentary from Enduring Word on the world not knowing us.
Therefore the world does not know us: Because of our unique parentage from God, we are strangers to this world (or should be).
This shows the great danger of a Christianity that works so hard to show the world just how much like the world they can be; we can not be surprised or offended to find out that the world does not know us.
Because it did not know Him: Ultimately, we should expect the world to treat us as it treated Him– rejecting Jesus and crucifying Jesus. While it is true that Jesus loved sinners and they, recognizing that love, flocked to Him, we must also remember that it was the world that cried out crucify Him!
Christians are accused by the world of a variety of things in this day and age (and this is nothing new). We are bigots, haters, stupid, anti-intellectual, anti-science, no fun at parties (or anywhere), boring, followers of an imaginary being, insane, Bible thumpers, theocrats, supremacists…the list is endless. My advice to believers is take the distractions like these epithets and throw them far away from your attention and instead gaze upon the unspeakable brilliance of an unchanging, all powerful God who LOVES you. The world will never know you or Him, but it can ponder the reflected light that you pour out that comes from Him and then perhaps wonder about it.
My next devotional examines 1 John 3:2 - We shall be like Him.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - How can I, with eternity ahead of me, ever plumb the infinite dimensions of Your Love? I can look upon Your Son, Jesus as the reason for that Love, which is and must be our First Love, forever. Amen.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
The Blue Letter Bible was accessed on 5/2/2024 to review the lexicon for bestowed.
Commentary from Enduring Word by David Guzik is used with written permission.
Precept Austin was accessed on 5/2/2024 to review commentary for 1 John 3:1.