Passage: 1 John 3:1
The Big Idea
“Behold what manner of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God!” Nothing changes the heart like meditating on God’s love for us. That love is lavished on us, one-sided, undeserved. Two things stand in its way: pride, which insists we must deserve love, and unbelief, which can’t reconcile God’s love with life’s pain. The cure is humility and faith. The Father, the Son and the Spirit all call us God’s children, and as His children we learn to love our brothers and sisters with a love the world can’t understand.
Behold (3:1)
John writes: Behold what manner of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God! That’s why the world doesn’t know us: because it didn’t know Him (1 John 3:1).
Behold. Look closely. Study it.
- Nothing changes the heart like spending time meditating on God’s love for us.
- This calls for intense, careful attention.
What manner of love the Father has bestowed on us.
- Bestowed means lavished, poured out generously.
- It’s also one-sided. It comes entirely from Him.
What Blocks His Love?
What stands between this love and our hearts?
- Pride. “I should deserve love. If I don’t deserve it, I’m not worthy. And if I’m not worthy, then I’m unworthy.” That’s hard to accept.
- Unbelief. It refuses to believe the love God has declared and shown, because it looks at the pain and suffering of life and can’t reconcile the two.
The solution: humility and faith.
Called Children of God
That we should be called children of God!
- God has adopted you.
- He has given you His name, His family and His home.
The word behold also shows that God wants this seen, and He isn’t ashamed to show it. Spurgeon imagined God saying to His people: “There, 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.”
Who calls us children of God? The whole Trinity:
- The Father does: “I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters” (2 Corinthians 6:18).
- The Son does: He isn’t ashamed to call us brothers and sisters (Hebrews 2:11).
- The Spirit does: He testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children (Romans 8:16).
And how did we become His children? To everyone who received Jesus, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12). It’s a gift, received by faith.
Loving the Family
Now, as God’s children, we love our brothers and sisters with a purity and passion the world can’t understand.
C.S. Lewis offered practical advice in Mere Christianity: don’t waste time worrying about whether you “love” your neighbor; act as if you do. He observed that when we behave as if we love someone, we soon find ourselves loving them. When we harm someone we dislike, we dislike them more; when we do them a kindness, we dislike them less.
And as we keep beholding the Father’s love for us, that love overflows into how we treat His other children.
Grace Takeaway
Stop and look at it. The Father has lavished His love on you, not because you deserved it, but because He chose to. Pride says you have to earn it; unbelief says your pain proves it isn’t real. But the Father, the Son and the Spirit all agree: you are a child of God. He isn’t ashamed of you. He has announced it to heaven and earth. Behold what manner of love!