God's Kids

1  John 3:1-10

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ² Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears,  we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ³ Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

⁴ Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. ⁵ But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. ⁶ No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

⁷ Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. ⁸ He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. ⁹ No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. ¹⁰ This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

What a marvelous description of the children of God. By describing us as God's children, John also gives some indication of who is not a child of God. Look again at what he says. 

1. If someone's life is controlled by sin, he is of the devil, and therefore not of God. 

2. Anyone who doesn't do what is right is not a child of God. 

3. Anyone who does not love his brother is not a child of God.

However, the first part of the chapter brings hope and joy to those which the Father calls his children. John says, "That's exactly what we are because the Father's great love has been lavished upon us." Look at some of the attributes mentioned.

1. When Jesus appears, we are going to be like him. 

2. No one that lives in him keeps on sinning, because God's seed remains in him. 

3. The child of God is on that shows love to his brother. (Read 1 John 3: 11-24)

The last verse of the chapter, verse 24, sums the entire issue, "Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us."

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