Review of 1John 3

by Pastor Ayo Sparks

… IT’S A FAMILY AFFAIR!

1 John 3:

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

God would not necessarily have to save us. He could have “formed” another Adam with whom to start the New Creation. But out of love, He condescended to becoming an Adam to redeem and save the offsprings of the first Adam! He paid the price; He gave His life to buy us back from being Satan’s to God’s heritage in Christ Jesus.

Having that done, He didn’t necessarily have to make us His children, yet, that’s what He has done! With amazement we look at what He has done on in our behalf, what He has made us and what He has made available to us. At the root of it all, all we see is how much He loved and loves us!

Love made Him to offer Himself for us. Love made Him to adopt us as His own. As the Father, we are his sons. As the Son, we are His Brethren and He our Friend and Brother. As the Holy Spirit, He is our Companion and Comforter. He identifies with us and gives us a place in all realms of His Trinitarian existence. That’s what love can do! Now we know who we are – members of the family of God in Christ Jesus. Our cooperate relationship with God is family-based, God undertaking paternal responsibilities over us all!

Love doesn’t seek its own but the good of others. Anything contrary to that is simply “self” in charge! God is love, the height and the depth of His love is demonstrated in all He has done for us in defiance of the cost!

It was risky for God to have become a man just to identify with us in our sinfulness, weaknesses, shortcomings and unworthiness. It is even much more risky for God not just to make us His present identity in/to the world, to reveal Him to the world in all of His attributes and characters.

We therefore can say: Christianity is God revealing Himself to us so that we can reveal Him to the world.

The writings of John can be so confusing to many believers especially as touching his expressions on the subjects of commandments and sin. God’s commandments to us, aside following the voice of the Spirit per time, are all revealed in the words of Jesus and they are all centered around loving one another (as you would/should love God), serving one another (as you would/should serve God). In one word, LOVE! John is passionate about the believers manifesting God’s nature and character, not just to the one but amongst ourselves in the household of faith. Whatever is not light (God’s Personality) is darkness and whatever is not Love (God’s nature, disposition and attribute) and whatever is not Love is sin. That’s John’s conclusion or understanding.

You can’t have been born again (now in the light) and still be living as though still in the world (walking in darkness). You can’t have accepted and experienced the love of God manifested in/through Christ as still be manifesting hatred – that’s sin!. The impartation of/from the Spirit of God (Who is Light and Love) controls your natural dispositions which naturally makes you manifest the nature and the character of God. That’s John’s mindset or reasoning!

Both John’s conclusion and reasoning are right. Looking at the first three verse, we are now sons of God but our true identity is hid in Christ. When we see Him, we’ll be like Him! That is, to manifest or live like Him, we must first see Him. How do we see Him now? In His word of course! Believers who are not growing in the knowledge of Christ cannot manifest Christ. His revelation that you have will determine His manifestation to and through you.

Since our true identity is in Christ, if we don’t study to know who we are, the world will give us wrong idea of who we are because, they world doesn’t know us! We that are to reveal the God to the Godless world shouldn’t be influenced or controlled by the world that doesn’t know God. All that is expected of us is to deliberately and diligently consistently seek to grow in the knowledge of who we are in Christ.

When light dawns, darkness drowns. That’s why all forms of the works of the flesh are subdued the more the light of Christ dawns on our hearts. In other words, the impartation of the revelation of Christ is self-purifying!

John 3:

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall seen him as he is.

And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

The purification here is the outcome of your hope in Him which propels you to continually behold Him. And as you do, you’re made to become as He is, in your soul – pure, even as he is pure!

When your hope of living right is place in Him, the revelation of His Person will empower you to manifest accordingly, as He is. Give attention to word study and you’ll see that the emotions that lead you to sinful practices will be soon suppressed and the character of the word you study will inform your daily living. Even though John understands that, as members of the family of God, no sin can be charged against the believer in Christ (as Christ has manifested to take away our sins and has destroyed the works of the devil), his emphasis however is the life and the nature of God finding practical expressions through us_ light to the world and love demonstrated to all!

This is no struggle anymore as we give diligent attention to the word. When they word is richly stored up in our hearts the Spirit of Christ supplies the grace to live accordingly. Grace!