(1 John 3:1 NKJV) Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
Behold - Not translated in the NIV. It is the Greek word (idete, eido, i'-do), which means, "look at."
This word means, “behold you.” The writer wants everyone to take notice. Another way to put it is “Behold, all of you.” The young people used to say, “Yo!”
What is it that John wants us to see? What is it that John wants us to behold?
He wants us to behold or to see “what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us…”
The kind of love that John is talking about is a strange kind of love, an unusual kind of love, a kind of love to which we are not accustomed.
There is “fair-weather” love – When the storms come the love and the lover goes.
There is selfish love or love driven by selfish motives – As long as they are getting what they want they are around, but when the well dries up, they’re gone.
As long as you are 36-24-36 and a brick house he stays but if the foundation begins to shift, watch out!
The word “manner” speaks of something foreign. The first part of verse one could also be translated, “Behold, what foreign kind of love…”
It is an out of this world love. (i.e., other worldly)
It is not of this life or from this place. (i.e., unearthly)
John is in essence saying, You may have known the love of a mother, the love of the child and the love of a husband or wife but the love of God is on a different plane altogether!
God’s love is a:
Great love – Ephesians 2:4, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us…”
Giving love – “For God so loved the world that He gave…”
Sacrificial love – “He gave His only, one of a kind, unique Son…”
Pursuing love - Hosea 11:4, “I drew them with gentle cords, With bands of love, And I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck. I stooped and fed them.”
On Time love - Romans 5:6-7 – “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.”
Demonstrating love – Romans 5:8 – “…God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
An Enduring Love - Rom 8:35-39 – “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
This is the love of God.
I’ve can remember the feeling I had as a boy when watching TV shows like Leave it to Beaver. I wanted a Dad who, like Ward Cleaver would talk with his boys and teach them things and warn them of danger and spend time with them. All I could do is look and dream.
If John would have penned the words, “Behold, what manner of love the Father has…” and stopped there all we would be able to do is look and dream. We would only be able to imagine His love from a distance, like the child who watches all the other children get ice cream from the ice cream truck.
But thankfully, John continues…
Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us…
A minister one day sat in the vestry of his church to meet anyone who needed help with some difficult passages of Scripture. Only one came. "What are you having trouble with?" asked the minister. The man answered, "My problem is with the ninth chapter of Romans, where it says, 'Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated,'"
"Yes," said the minister, "that is a hard verse to understand; but which part of the verse is difficult for you?" The latter part, of course," said the man. "I cannot understand why God should hate Esau."
The minister replied, "That verse has given people trouble, but my difficulty has always been with the first part of the verse. I never could understand how God could love that wily, deceitful, supplanting scoundrel Jacob."
If we stopped to think about it, every one of us could say the same thing about ourselves. “How could God love a sinner like me?”
The suffering Job says, "What is man, that You should exalt him, That You should set Your heart on him” (Job 7:17 NKJV)
John writes that God bestowed His love on us! Yes, this out of this world kind of love! This great love, sacrificial love, forgiving love, pursuing love, on time love, demonstrating and enduring love!
Bestowed – To give something to someone—He gave us His love!
Titus 3:4-5 - “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared…He saved us…”
Rom 5:5 - “ … the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
The word “bestow” is in the perfect tense – indicates the gift becomes a permanent possession of the recipient.
Jeremiah 31:3b - "…I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.”
Romans 8:39 – Nothing “… shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
How do we know that God has bestowed this great, out of this world kind of love? His love was proved by what He did for us. He has called us His children!
…that we should be called children of God.
In the 1950’s the world was shocked by the murders of five missionaries killed by Aucas of South America. One of the wives of the murdered missionaries, Elizabeth Elliott, wrote the history of that event in a book called Through Gates of Splendor. And she did more. She went herself to live among those murderers and win them to a new way of life in Christ.
Elizabeth Elliott displayed an act of unselfish love but it was nothing compared to what God did for us. He took us into His family and made us His children.
The Bible says, “For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us…” (Titus 3:3-5)
In 1 Timothy chapter one, Paul describes himself as the type of person you would not want to have as your child:
“…although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent aggressor; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” (1 Tim 1:13-15)
Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God!
A tender word is used for "children." It is the Greek word teknia, meaning "born ones." This word is used in the Scripture by both the apostles Paul and John.
When Paul uses it he is concerned with our public position as sons:
Rom 8:16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
Rom 8:17a and if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ…
Because we are “children of God” we are legal heirs to the promises of God our father.
However, John is concerned with our nearness as born-ones of the Father.
1 John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!
God has called us His “born ones;” His children.
As King, He could have referred to us as merely His subjects.
As Master, He could have confined us to the realm of servitude as His slaves.
As Lord of heaven, He could have related to us as only His tenants
As Creator, He could have associated with us as simply His creation.
As our Savior, He could have referred to us primarily as His debtors.
BUT! Because He is Father, He chooses to call us His little “born ones”—His children.
Just think of the intimacy expressed by a loving parent to his or her little born one. How a mother uses loving words, warm embraces, nurturing and caring for her little born one. Multiply that great love by infinity and you have the love of God for one of His little born ones.
Isa 66:13 As one whom his mother comforts, So I will comfort you; And you shall be comforted in Jerusalem."
Jesus had this kind of love for the inhabitants of Jerusalem who did not want to follow Him:
Mat 23:37 - "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
Psa 103:13 As a father pities his children, So the LORD pities those who fear Him.
Psa 103:14 For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.
…and such we are!
The KJV and NKJV omit the last part of verse one. But other translations have the expression, “and such we are!”
John is saying, we are not only called children of God---we are children of God.
Not only does a Christian carry the name “child of God,” we have the character or essence of sonship.
The child of God can say emphatically, “I am a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ.”
We don’t hope to be…we don’t expect to be…but every believer can glory and rejoice and constantly thank and praise God that he is God’s child.
John writes in verse two: “Beloved, now are we children of God…”
Now don’t let your excitement be misdirected. Don’t let your boasting be self-absorbed. Some would have you to boast in that you are a “child of the King.” The emphasis being that “I am a King’s Kid.”
But we don’t boast in ourselves, we boast in the wonderful Father that we have who would make us, undeserving and unworthy as we are, His child.
A song published in 1877 by Harriett E. Buell (1834-1910) communicates this wonderful truth:
I once was an outcast stranger on earth,
A sinner by choice and an alien by birth;
But I've been adopted; my name's written down-
An heir to a mansion, a robe, and a crown.
A tent or a cottage, why should I care?
They're building a palace for me over there!
Though exiled from home, yet still I may sing:
All glory to God, I'm a child of the King.
Chorus:
I'm a child of the King, a child of the King!
With Jesus my Savior, I'm a child of the King!
John writes at the end of verse one, “Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.”
World – kosmos – people of this world system of evil headed by Satan
Know - ginosko, - to "know" experientially
Now that we know the Greek, let’s put together what John is saying. What he is saying is so profound.
He is saying, “The world can’t get into us because it did not get into Him.”
He is saying that the people of this world system of evil headed by Satan cannot come to an understanding and appreciation of the nature of the person we are. Why? Because unsaved people do not have a saving relationship with God and hence an understanding of God.
Paul puts it this way:
1 Cor 2:14 - The natural man or the man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
In our text, John is saying that Christians are foreign to the unsaved because God is foreign to them.
While I applaud Christians across the nation for trying to impact the legislative process and adopt a federal marriage amendment to the Constitution, they are “barking up the wrong tree.” It is impossible to convince an unbeliever of the spiritual principles behind God’s creation of the family and marriage.
I believe that if Christians spend the kind of money they are spending to lobby Congress on reaching the unsaved of our nation with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then the laws that are already on the books to uphold morality and righteousness will not be as readily threatened.
If by God’s grace a marriage protection amendment is made to the Constitution it will be seen by many who do not know God as Christians forcing their way of life on others.
(1 John 3:2 NKJV) Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
The reason the world can’t get into us is because it does not get into Him.
In verse two John writes, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be…”
Before leaving my job to work full time as pastor of New Vision I worked for over 22 years for one of the largest defense contractors in the world. While working there we would have regularly scheduled “All Hands” meetings where during one of the segments our leadership would compare our present state with future projections.
Sometimes he would show side-by-side the fighter planes of the present with the fighter planes of the next generation that were currently on the drawing board and would roll off the assembly line in about 15 or 20 years. Our company was so certain of their future production they invested millions of dollars into the research and development that would bring these concepts to reality.
Before I left the company I was able to see some of the products that were only “ideas” on some engineer’s computer 20 years earlier.
What John is doing here is taking his two thoughts of the present and future condition of God’s children and placing them side-by-side and focusing on them in light of the fact of our being the children of God.
He says that both our present and future conditions are certain, being rooted in the fact that we are children of God.
He writes, “…it has not yet appeared” – This means it has not yet been made manifest. It is in the aorist passive – The aorist tense in the Greek refers to a snapshot of something in time. John is saying that our future condition was never manifested on any occasion. There is no snapshot of this condition.
John writes, “…what we shall be” – Here he is referring to “something unspeakable.” No one has ever died, been changed, went to heaven and then returned to tell about it.
John is writing that it has not yet appeared—It has not yet been made manifest—There is no revelation on this and in the absence of such revelation, he continues at the end of verse two, “we know (because of the inner witness of being God’s child) that if “what we shall be” were manifested, we would be shown to be in the likeness to the Lord.
“but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
It would help us to understand what John is saying by examining what he means when he says, “when He is revealed.” John is referring to what is called the Rapture.
The word “rapture” means caught up. The Rapture is that event in Bible prophecy when Jesus returns from heaven and appears in the clouds to call up His children. He summons the bodies of the departed believers to be reunited with their spirits that have been in heaven up to this point.
Then He calls up Christians who are alive at that moment to meet Him in the air. He proceeds to change the bodies of both the living and the dead believer into the glorious kind of body that He has and all this occurs in the time that it takes for an eye to twinkle.
(1 Th 4:16 NKJV) For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
(1 Th 4:17 NKJV) Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
(1 Th 4:18 NKJV) Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Back in our text, John says:
…we shall be like Him…
This statement has to do with physical likeness, not spiritual likeness.
If you know Jesus Christ as Savior you are already spiritually like the Lord—we call this sanctification. You have been sanctified or set apart to be spiritually like Jesus Christ.
1 Cor 6:11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
The word sanctification also refers to the present work the Spirit of God is doing in the life of the believer. You are more spiritually like the Lord each day through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.
Heb 2:11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,
However, one day we will be ultimately sanctified as we are transformed into the physical likeness of the Lord:
(Phil 3:20 NKJV) For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
(Phil 3:21 NKJV) who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
“change/transform” – to change the outward expression by assuming one put on from the outside
In other words, this is not a change from the inside out but a change from the outside in.
(1 Cor 15:51 NKJV) Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed;
(1 Cor 15:52 NKJV) in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
(1 Cor 15:53 NKJV) For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
I am looking forward to this day.
Every so often after a hard day of work I cannot wait to get home so I can strip off my clothes and get into something more comfortable.
On this day God will strip off the mortal and put on immortality. He will strip off the corruptible and put on the incorruptible.
Over the last month I’ve been trying desperately to lose some weight. I’ve been working out several times a week. I’ve changed my diet and have been trying to discipline my body and bring it into subjection, as Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 9:27.
Now let me tell you some good news! Everything that I’ve been trying to do through blood, sweat and tears God is going to do “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye…”
This corruptible body will put incorruption:
* Obesity will be no more!
* Hypertension will be no more!
* Diabetes will be a thing of the past!
* Heart disease will be history!
* Cerebral Palsy will be done away with!
* Gout, arthritis, osteoporosis and hardening of the arteries will be annihilated
For John writes, “when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
Do you hear what John is saying? He is saying, “We shall see Him (Jesus) as He is…”
When we think of Jesus, the picture that naturally comes to our mind is an image that we have seen of a painting or an actor playing the role of Jesus in a movie. We see an image of a man with long hair. Now listen as I read a description of Him from the book of the Revelation:
Rev 1:13 and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.
Rev 1:14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire;
Rev 1:15 His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters;
Rev 1:16 He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.
Rev 1:17 And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, "Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last.
Rev 1:18 "I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.
John could hardly find the words to describe Jesus in all His glory so he has to associate what he sees with what he knows from his experience.
When we try to describe to someone something that is very large we say something like, “It was as big as an elephant.”
When John saw Jesus in His glorified state he “fell at his feet as dead.” This ought to give us some idea of what he was feeling being in the presence of the glorified Jesus.
Now, when John tells us that we will see Jesus “as He is” he is saying that we will see Him in His glorified state as God the Son. The Bible says in Deut. 5:23 that in times past people had a fear that if they not only saw God but heard His voice they would most surely die. Hebrews 12:29 says that our God “is a consuming fire.”
It is during the Rapture that God will retrofit our bodies, enabling them to withstand His holy presence.
It is only at the Rapture will we be able to see our Lord as He is now; for physical eyes in a mortal body could not look on that glory and stay alive; only eyes in glorified bodies.
And this is the reason we shall be like Him; for only in that state can we see Him just “as He is.”
Are you looking for Him? Do you want to see Him? Are you one of little “born ones”?
How many of us have ever seen the president of the USA?
When I was growing up, the president was the most important man in the entire world and if one would be blessed enough to meet him—what a blessing it would be!!!
It is natural that when we hear of a great person or a person who is well-known that we should want to see this person in person.
I remember about twenty years ago when my wife was singing with this group who had to record a spot that was going to be on TV. While at the studio, she ran into Stan Stovel and couldn’t wait to get home to tell me that she saw “Stan Stovel.”
While taking Precious to John Hopkins for a check up, she ran into Dr. Ben Carson and couldn’t wait to get home to tell me that she saw him.
Years ago it was announced that President Reagan would be visiting my job. Most everyone wanted to see him. It didn’t matter whether you were Republican or Democrat—after all, he wasn’t only president, he had been a movie star too.
The day he visited our manufacturing facility I saw him but it was only from a distance because of the crowd.
A few years later it was announced that Vice-Presidential candidate Dan Qualye would be visiting our job.
I couldn’t wait to get down to the airplane hangar to get a glimpse of his face and to shake his hand and if my memory serves me correctly, I did shake his hand!
This feeling becomes even more powerful when we have any connection with the person; when we feel the person has been a personal blessing to us.
I’ve waited in line to shake hands with RC Sproul, Tony Evans, Dr. Bob Cook, Jerry Vines, and John MacArthur—men who have made an impact in my life since becoming a Christian and over the years of my ministry. Sometimes the lines were so long I never got to see some of them.
Is there someone in your life who has impacted you in a big way but you have yet to meet him or her face to face? Do you have a desire to meet that person one day?
Do you have an even more intense desire to meet the Lord Jesus Christ face to face?
Preaching on the subject, 19th century preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon said,
We owe to none so much; we talk of none so much, we hope, and we think of none so much: at any rate, no one so constantly thinks of us. We have, I believe, all of us who love His Name, a most insatiable wish to behold His person.
The thing, for which I would pray above all others, would be forever to behold His face, forever to lay my head upon His breast, forever to know that I am His, forever to dwell with Him. Ay, one short glimpse, one transitory vision of His glory, one brief glance at His marred, but now exalted and beaming countenance, would repay almost a world of trouble.
One song writer has penned the words,
Oh, I want to see Him, look upon His face,
There to sing forever of His saving grace;
On the streets of Glory let me lift my voice;
Cares all past, home at last, ever to rejoice.
I want to see Jesus because I know that when I see Him I will be like Him.
I want to see Jesus because I know that when I see Him, “the former things will be passed away.”
I want to see Jesus because I know when I see Him, I will have been caught away from this wretched place and saved from the wrath to come.
Douglas Miller sang a song years ago with these words:
And when I see Jesus, Amen…
When I see Jesus…. A- Men…
All of my trials,
all of my troubles…
All of my heartaches,
all of my disappointments will soon be over,
when I see Jesus, A-men…
When I see the man who died for me…
The one who set me free…
The one who opened doors for me…
The one who made a way for me… A-MEN…
Lastly, in verse three of our text, John speaks of a purifying hope
(1 John 3:3 NKJV) And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
What hope is he referring to? This hope we have “in Him.”
This hope, this expectation of His return to get us;
This hope, this expectation of seeing Him;
This hope, this expectation of being like Him…
Do you have this hope?
Do you know how so often after a tumultuous thunderstorm occurs that the sun will come out shining? Sometimes God grants us grace to see a beautiful rainbow. God says in Gen 9:16, "The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." He says the rainbow is a reminder that“…the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.” (vs. 15)
After a life of trials, troubles, heartaches and disappointments the “Son” will come. Don’t ever ask God to remove your trials. Ask Him to see you through your trials in order that you might see the Son.
This is the hope that John is writing about. Our hope “in Him.”
If you have this hope, John writes that it should have a purifying effect on you because He is pure.
You should want to live a pure life because you know that in order to see Him, you have to be like Him. Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8 )
Let me close by sharing from the journal of Martha Snell Nicholson who, for more than thirty-five years wrote beautiful Christian poetry. A number of years before she died she wrote about her hope in the coming of the Lord. This is what she wrote:
The best part is the blessed hope of His soon coming. How I ever lived before I grasped that wonderful truth, I do not know. How anyone lives without it these trying days I cannot imagine. Each morning I think, with a leap of the heart, "He may come today." And each evening, "When I awake, I may be in glory." Each day must be lived as though it was to be my last, and there is so much to be done to purify myself and to set my house in order. I am on tiptoe with expectancy. There are no more gray days -- for they're all touched with color; no more dark days -- for the radiance of His coming is on the horizon; no more dull days, with glory just around the corner; and no more lonely days, with His footsteps coming ever nearer, and the thought that soon, soon, I shall see His blessed face and be forever through with pain and tears.
(1 John 3:1 NKJV) Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! And such we are! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
(1 John 3:2 NKJV) Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
(1 John 3:3 NKJV) And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
He is coming soon. Are you one of His “born ones”? Are you a child of God?
He is coming soon. Do you hope for His soon return?
Do you hope to see Him?
Do you hope to be made like Him?
Does this hope make you strive to live a pure life?
Jesus is coming for those who are children of God.
You do not become a child of God by human birth.
You do not become a child of God by human desire.
Call to Discipleship
The Bible says in Romans 3:23 that “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
You have sinned when you have broken God’s holy commands. You say “What commands?”
If you have ever told a lie you have broken God’s 9th commandment against lying. You are a liar.
If you have ever stolen anything you have broken God’s 8th command against stealing. You are a thief.
If you have ever looked at a person to lust after them the Bible teaches you have broken God’s 7th commandment against adultery. You are an adulterer.
The Bible says that one day you will stand guilty before a holy God and He will judge all liars, thieves and adulterers in Hell and the Lake of Fire for eternity.
But like the commercial says, “There is good news.” The Good News is that Jesus Christ, God’s own Son paid for your sin when He suffered and died on the Cross. The Bible says that if you repent, that is, turn away from and forsake your sin, and trust in Jesus Christ as the One who has paid for your sin, you shall have eternal life.
