36. 1Jn3_1-2 Love Bestowed

The beginning of chapter 3 is a break from John’s first point that God is light to the theme that God is love. Chapter 1:1-4 is a summary declaration of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God. This doctrine of Christ is foundational in having a right relationship with the Triune God and biblical fellowship with one another. Verse 5 is John’s thesis statement for His first point. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. John contrasts the wrong response to sin with the biblically correct response to sin vs 6-10. He contrasts the wrong response of disobedience to His commands with the correct response of obedience. He contrasts the love of the brethren with the love of the world. And closes out the section with a warning of anti-Christs and the affirmation that God has equipped us to stand in opposition against it.

Inserted in the midst of this are arrows of Divine Christology. The blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all our sins. V7. We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins. You have been anointed by the Holy One. Jesus is the Christ. He is the Son of the Father.

We have the foundation of doctrine, our proper response to it, and our opposition against heretics and heresies set against it. John’s Second point is God is love and how we are to respond to His love. This is where our text takes us this morning

1Jn 3:1-3  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.  (2)  Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.  (3)  And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

There are three major points in these three verses: 1) God’s Proclamation. 2) God’s Purpose. 3) God’s Plan This morning, we will be looking at the first point.

I.God’s Proclamation – v1

A. The Call to Attention – See, Behold

1. Defined - means to discern clearly (physical or mental), and does not call for the reader to merely "see" but also to have an actual perception of the object. When the Greek word is used of seeing God, it also conveys the idea of knowing Him. "See" or "seen" is coupled with knowing in the following verses.

Joh 1:18  No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

Joh 14:7  If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

It, therefore, conveys more than looking at a thing. It is see, ponder, and know.

2. Who is to see?

The verb is a second-person plural, meaning that anyone who reads this letter, specifically Christians who read this letter, is commanded, not suggested, to keep what follows as an object of attention and meditation. Friday, Connie and I were talking, and she mentioned how Chaotic everything seemed to be, and she is right. It seems the world is in turmoil, and often, there is personal turmoil as well. This is the devil’s ploy to distract us from the very thing John calls us to see.

3. When are we to see?

The tense of the verb is an emphatic “now.” It is meant to be immediate, effective, and urgent. It should be a priority in our Christian life. When we contemplate the subject, why wouldn’t we? Consider the manner and kind of love the Father has bestowed upon us. I have read that it takes three weeks to form a habit. Make a commitment to yourself to do it. Choose a time to start, and perhaps set reminders throughout the day to meditate on the kind of love God has shown us. His love is as multifaceted as a diamond with many cuts. Every facet is beautiful, but together, we see it as the priceless treasure it truly is.

Psa 77:6-15  I said, “Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart.” Then my spirit made a diligent search:  (7)  “Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable?  (8)  Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time?  (9)  Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” Selah  (10)  Then I said, “I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High.”  (11)  I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your wonders of old.  (12)  I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.  (13)  Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God?  (14)  You are the God who works wonders; you have made known your might among the peoples.  (15)  You with your arm redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph. Selah

4. Why are we to see, ponder, and know the kind of love the Father has bestowed upon us?

Other than the obvious; it is an explicit command, the verb is in the middle voice. What does that mean? It means that the subject initiates the action and receives the benefit from that action. So you can understand it in this way. “You” is implied in the second person plural verb “see”, as a middle voice, it is implied ‘for yourselves” You see for yourselves the kind of love God has bestowed upon us. You may ask, “What is the benefit?”. The purpose of this letter is assurance of salvation. 1Jn 5:13  “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.” Our assurance of salvation is bound up in the love of God.

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Rom 8:32)

As Christians, we are painfully aware that even though we are redeemed, we still yet struggle with sin. We feel at times like sin is holding our head underwater and we are quickly running out of air. Once enemies of God but now reconciled we still cast a longing eye toward power of remaining sin until we feel its fangs in our flesh and our hearts are filled with anguish. We often doubt our own salvation. Surely, we say to ourselves, if I were a Christian I would not have such struggles and temptations. The benefit of seeing, pondering, knowing the love of God is that it is packed full of precious magnificent promises.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. (1Jn 1:7)

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

(1Jn 2:1, 2)

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. (1Jn 3:16)

These are just a few verses of many God has put forth in His word for the benefit, comfort, and encouragement of His children.

B. The Nature of the Father’s Love – see what kind of love

When the Greek word for “What kind” is used, it always implies astonishment. It is an exclamation of how great! How wonderful! The NASB translates it as “how great”. It speaks to the quality of the object. In this case, the object is love. We have talked about before the different terms of love: paternal/maternal, husband/wife, sibling love, and agape love. This is the love that God has for us and that we are to have for Him and for one another. It is a commitment to love that does not take into account the value of the one loved and seeks their highest good without the expectation of any personal gain. The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write:

1Co 13:4-8  Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant  (5)  or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;  (6)  it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  (7)  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  (8)  Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

Whenever an attribute is ascribed to God we must always remember that that word finds its perfect definition in Him. God is love. It is as holy as He is holy. It is as unlimited in holiness as He is. It is unlimited in quality as He is. It is limitless in quantity as He is limitless. This is meant to take our breath away in the splendor and wonder of it all. But it will only be wonderful to you if you have a correct understanding of who you were and humility concerning what you, even now, deserve.

Are we so full of ourselves that we think we merited in some God’s favor? Was our life so bad that it was only right that He should save us? Is our mentality “I was a victim,’ and therefore, it is my right to be rescued? Have we convinced ourselves that we have been in the faith for so long that somehow our good deeds have surpassed our evils? Do we have such a high view of ourselves that that? I read a quote somewhere that said in each of us lies that capacity to commit every sort of sin. Do I have it in me to become the next Hitler, Stalin, or Pol Pot? If what this quote said is true, then yes. We know from Scripture that to look upon a person to lust for them is committing adultery. To be angry with someone is committing murder. There is such a thing as righteous anger, but are we going to claim we are always righteously angry? How many murders have we committed? How many adulteries? How many times have we coveted something of our neighbors? Our sins are heaped mountains high, and God would be just to condemn us all. But instead, He has bestowed upon us immeasurable love.

It is the kind of love that set in motion His redemptive plan made before the foundation of the world where, in love, He predestined us to be conformed to the image of His beloved Son. God’s love is a love that works visibly, transforming results.

Alexander Maclaren said, “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.”

This love has been bestowed. The NIV translates the Greek word as lavished on us. Means to give, to bestow, to confer, to make a present of, to put something into another's possession. It also conveys the added sense that the granting is based on a decision of the will of the Giver (in this case, our Father) and not on any merit of the recipient (saved sinners). This love is a gift that cannot be earned or purchased (it is priceless)! Beloved, don't fall into the trap even after salvation of trying to earn the Father's love! You can't do it! God bestows it upon those who do not deserve it. The 1828 Noah Webster's Dictionary has an excellent definition of give as "to pass or transfer the title or property of a thing to another person without an equivalent or compensation." What a great description of the Father's gracious love. Notice that this love is not bestowed on you but us reflecting John's humility ("the disciple whom Jesus loved" - Jn 21:20) to include himself among the recipients of this amazing divine love. It is in the perfect tense, meaning that it is an action completed in the past with ongoing consequences. We are the permanent objects of His love. In this fallen world, it is possible for one spouse to lose the love of the other. It is possible for children to lose the love of their parents and the parents of their children. This is the pollution and stain of sin. Even in us, we have known periods where our love was cold toward God. His love bestowed on us never varies in degree of quality or quantity to the greatest of the least of all those whom He calls His children.

C. The Result of the Father’s Love – that we should be called children of God. And so we are.

Romans 5 speaks of our relationship with God before salvation. We were enemies. Eph 2 states we were sons of disobedience. Rom 5:8-10  but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  (9)  Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.  (10)  For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Justified and reconciled, who could hope for more? Yet, God was pleased to make us His in adoption. God has proclaimed that we are children of God, and so we are. Justification is a legal proceeding, and so is adoption. In adoption, all the blessings and benefits are legally bestowed upon the one adopted, and he or she takes on the adopted parent's name. Conferred on us is the name of our Father – God. Every name comes with a reputation. We could delve into book after book describing each attribute of God, never covering the fullness or greatness or the glory and majesty or the power of who He is. Demons quaked in the presence of the Son of God. James said that even the demons believe in God and shudder. We are His in reality and not just in the declaration. And implied in this is a moral response.

Rom 8:12-17  So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.  (13)  For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.  (14)  For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  (15)  For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”  (16)  The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,  (17)  and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

We are to reflect the character of the One who adopted us. In Thomas Watson’s book the 10 Commandments he said that it is possible to rob God of His glory. Glory is an intrinsic part of who He is, so how is it possible that glory could be taken from Him? It is not the glory can be taken from God but our actions in this life as children of God can certainly reflect poorly on His name. His reputation can be diminished in the sight of the people of this world as a result of our sin. The world slobbers all over itself at the prospect of the public sin of a Christian. We have seen it over and over again. I wonder if this was on Paul’s mind when he wrote in about Christian having lawsuits against one another in secular court. 1Co 6:5-7  I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers,  (6)  but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers?  (7)  To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?

D. The Mystery of the Father’s Love - The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

What is meant here? Knowing, in this context, has a greater meaning than knowing information or knowing about a thing. This ‘know’ is relational. We all know President Trump on one level. If someone were to ask about him, we could give some details. There is no relational aspect to what we know, not like his family and close friends. It is not that the world doesn’t know us. It is that the world hates us.

The fact that we are children of God and as family members of this divine family are called to be imitators of Christ and to manifest His light and life to "a crooked and perverse generation". And as we do, that is the very reason they do not know us. The idea, then, is that the world absolutely does not know we are children of God. Are you surprised (like I am) when someone finds out you are a believer and their entire affect and relationship with you changes from that day forward? If you have walked with Jesus for a few years, you have undoubtedly experienced this subtle but surprisingly painful form of "hatred", but John says don't marvel when this occurs. Stand fast in grace and in faith based on the Truth, for our redemption is drawing nigh, beloved!

Joh 6:37-44  All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.  (38)  For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.  (39)  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.  (40)  For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”  (41)  So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”  (42)  They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”  (43)  Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves.  (44)  No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

Joh 15:18-19  “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.  (19)  If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Why is it a mystery? Because it cannot be known unless the Lord reveals it. It cannot be embraced unless the transforming grace of God works the miracle of salvation.

Though once dead in our trespasses and sins, yet now made alive and brought into the household of God. May we behold with constant wonder and amazement the infinite love of God lavished upon us being proclaimed children of God from the mouth of our Father. As He spoke in the days of creation, “Let there be…and there was”. He speaks, “You are children of God” and so we are.

And the people of God say - Amen