1 John 3:1-10 (2)

Become What You Are

The US Army has used a similar phrase with great success:

Be All You Can Be

The advertising agency providing this material is probably proud of themselves.

But listen to this phrase:

John 1:12–13 HCSB

But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.

In the first letter of John, which we have been studying for a few Sunday’s now, I John 3:9,

The Letters of John (2:28–3:10 Distinguishing the Children of God from the Children of the Devil)

...is the second of ten references to be being born of God in 1 John (2:29; 3:9 [2×]; 4:7; 5:1 [3×], 4, 18 [2×]).

Being ‘born of God’ has a specific and clear meaning and application for us.

READ 1 John 3:1-10

Be What You Are

1 John 3:1 (HCSB)

Look at how great a love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children. And we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know Him.

Who are we, really?

The first word in this text, translated ‘Look’ ‘Behold’ ‘See’ is our English attempt to capture an idea from Greek culture. One observer noted:

“The [Greeks] enjoyed in high measure the gift of seeing, of contemplating. They were a people of the eye, with a fine sense for what was seen in different forms and at different spiritual levels,” Rudberg, 162.

Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich, eds., Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964–).

John, using his power with words, invites all who are born of God to ‘see,’ which

John, 1 John, 2 John, & 3 John (Commentary)

...means “perceiving,” “recognizing,” even “appreciating.”

who we truly are - children of God!

We are not like the world

Comprehending that we are ‘born of God’ means that the world around us will not know what to make of us.

John says, the world will not ‘know’ us. the world cannot understand or comprehend who we are.

This is not a cause for concern. It is a cause for celebration!

We will be ‘like’ Him when we see Him as He is

There’s that word again - ‘see.’

Our goal, like the Apostle Paul, is to ‘perceive,’ ‘recognize,’ and ‘appreciate’ Jesus that we might know Him.

To know Him, as Paul expresses it is to

Philippians 3:10 (HCSB)

...know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death...

As we ‘perceive’ and ‘recognize’ Him we are in the process of being transformed, or as John describes it ‘purified as He is pure.’

Jesus came to ‘take away sins’

We are to remind ourselves daily - even hourly - that we MUST see Jesus as John did when he sees Jesus -’one like a slaughtered lamb’ taking the scroll from God’s hands and opening it (see Revelation 5).

Even as we gaze upon Jesus when reading the Gospels, never lose sight of His self-giving sacrifice on the cross - not for His sin, but for ours.

John harbors no illusions that his audience will live a ‘sinless’ life (remember 1 John 1:7-9)

And yet, the cross and resurrection are meaningless if we as believers - and as some in John’s day - act as though sin is insignificant.

1 John 3:6 HCSB

Everyone who remains in Him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen Him or known Him.

As we come to ‘know’ and ‘see’ Jesus more clearly, we will recognize the devastating impact sin makes on us as individuals, families, and communities.

We are people of Truth

As those ‘born of God’ we are a distinct people from those not born of God.

John only recognizes two groups of people:

Those born of God

Those born of the devil

Our identity is determined by our paternity.

We do not deny that we sin. Let’s be up front and honest.

The problem we confront is as old as Genesis 3.

Instead of acknowledging our sin, being honest and open, like Adam and Eve we shift the blame.

1 John 3:9–10 (HCSB)

Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because His seed remains in him;

he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God. This is how God’s children—and the Devil’s children—are made evident.

Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother.

Because God’s ‘seed,’ that is His Holy Spirit, indwells us we are given the increasing capacity to choose NOT to sin.

Throughout Scripture we are reminded that though created in the image of God sin has corrupted our nature.

Adam and Eve were not created with a corrupt nature, but as a result of their deliberate sin, all their descendants are born with a corrupt nature.

Remember these words from the opening of John’s account of Jesus’ life:

John 1:12–13 (HCSB)

But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in His name,

who were born, not of blood, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.

As God’s Children we have the capacity to NOT SIN.

In the original language of John’s era, the verbs he uses about ‘doing’ sin or ‘not doing sin’ suggest that what is at issue are habits, regular practices, acts that we choose to do over and over again.

As those ‘born of God,’ we are yet in process.

We are not yet what we will be.

And yet we have the capacity within us to be all God has created us to be as those born of Him

REFLECT AND RESPOND

Unlike the US Army we don’t have to attend ten weeks of ‘Boot Camp’ to be what we are.

Being born of God, though, means at least the following:

Regularly consider the vast love of God

Every night before I sleep, I am making a habit of writing down at least three reasons to be thankful.

Honestly, there are some nights it’s hard to find three!

Every day there is reason to remember the vast love of God.

Remember from where you came

John makes a clear distinction between those born of God and those born of the devil for a reason.

But for the grace of God we would still be displaying the characteristics of the devil.

But for the grace of God we would be trying to figure out this complicated thing called life without Him, His Word, and His people

Recognize your identity

Those who believe in their heart that God raised Jesus from the dead after He died for your sin, and you confess Jesus is Lord, you are born of God.

As one born of God you are not all you will yet be, but you are different from this world.

You are distinct in that your relationship with God distinguishes you from those who don’t know Him.

Have you been ‘born of God?’

You can know for certain.

It isn’t about ‘praying a specific prayer.’

It isn’t about showing up at church regularly, reading your Bible every day, praying daily, and the other activities we often confuse with being a child of God.

No, being born of God means this:

You are different than you once were...

Instead of reveling in and celebrating sin, you confess your sin and repent, knowing for certain that you are loved by God with a love that is too vast to measure;

Instead of trying harder and harder to ‘be’ good, you are deliberately looking to Jesus, knowing that the longer you consider, see, look upon Him, the more like Him you will become

Finally, instead of anxiously wondering if when the trumpet of the Lord sounds, you’ll be there, you live with a confidence and assurance that no matter what, nothing can or will separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus.