1 John 3.1
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.”
Every Christian should make a regular practice of stopping to reflect on what it means to be a child of God, and to think deeply about the reality that we are so loved by the Lord that he brings us into his family and makes us his children. The father-child relationship is intimately close and incredibly special. It is something a Christian should never take for granted.
This is what John means in this passage when he encourages us to “see” the incredible love the Father has given us. He wants us to see how amazing God’s love is, and he wants us to see how incredible it is to be called God’s children. This recognition and understanding of God’s love for us, as well as our status as his children, should motivate us to obedience and excellence in our lives.
In the book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul prays that we would see and understand God’s love for us. He prayed “that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3.17-19)
John says “see what kind love the Father has given us,” and Paul prays that we would understand “the breadth and length and height and depth” of that love. These are vitally important instructions, because we must not see God’s love for us through the lens of the world’s definition of love. We must see God’s love through his definition.
Satan seeks to distort the truth about God’s love. The devil knows that “love” of some kind is going to be part of our lives, and he knows that we are powerfully influenced by our notion of love. We do things based on who and what we love. Therefore the enemy wants us to be misguided by a counterfeit version of love. One of the evil one’s greatest victories is to get people to operate their lives on the basis of a distorted definition of love.
It is imperative, then, that we see and understand the truth about God’s love; that we know what it is and how it works. Like Paul prays, that we understand the breadth, length, height, and depth of God’s love for us. Like John’s admonition: See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.
Many things in this world try to distract us from seeing the truth of God’s love for us. So let me repeat. Every Christian should make a regular practice of stopping to reflect on what it means to be a child of God, and to think deeply about the reality that we are so loved by the Lord that he brings us into his family and makes us his children. The father-child relationship is intimately close and incredibly special. It is something a Christian should never take for granted.
God’s love for us is our foundation. It is the anchor for everything in our life.
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8.35, 37-39)
