Children of God.

1 John 3:1–24 NASB95

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. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous. Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

Intro:

We are children of God. (1-3/13)

If you are a Christian, then you have been adopted as a son or daughter of OGd.

You are a child of God

You don’t belong to you anymore

When you put your faith in Christ, you are no longer your own, you belong to God.

Therefore, you will be at odds with the world. (13)

When you give yourself to Christ, you are no longer identified by the world’s system, so the world will hate you.

You are supposed to be different from the world, so you will not be liked by the world.

What do children of God do? (4-12/14-24)

If you are no longer defined by the world, but belong to Christ, then that implies that you will act like a child of God.

Children of God run from sin. (4-10_

If you are a child of God, you are supposed to flee from sin.

God hates sin, and so you, as a child of God, are supposed to hate all sin as well.

You’ll never be able to do this perfectly, until Christ returns, you will struggle with sin.

But, “struggle” is the operative term!

Fight against it! Always work to love God better by following Him better!

If you are defined by sin, and you won’t give it up because it’s too much a part of you, maybe you should question if you are a child of God, or of the world.

Children of God love one another (14-24)

The church is supposed to be defined by our love.

Not firm doctrine (although that’s important), not awesome worship (although that’s important), not fiery preaching (although that’s important), but by love!

We’re not just supposed to say we love each other, we’re supposed to love each other in action.

Examples

We can do this because of the example that Christ gave.

We live now because we have eternity in mind. (1 John 2:24-29)

We live differently than the rest of the world because we know this isn’t it.

Samuel Beckett play, “Breath”

Christians are not as concerned with now, because now is temporary. We are concerned with eternity.

So, we’re supposed to live lives that are sacrificial; we give up living like the world because children of God live knowing that our time here is not permanent, and it’s not ours. It belongs to God.

Application: Ask yourself, are you living like a child of God? If not, what needs to change.