Sermon Notes

3 1 What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are. But that’s also why the world doesn’t recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who he is or what he’s up to. 2-3 But friends, that’s exactly who we are: children of God. And that’s only the beginning. Who knows how we’ll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we’ll see him—and in seeing him, become like him. All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus’ life as a model for our own.4-6 All who indulge in a sinful life are dangerously lawless, for sin is a major disruption of God’s order. Surely you know that Christ showed up in order to get rid of sin. There is no sin in him, and sin is not part of his program. No one who lives deeply in Christ makes a practice of sin. None of those who do practice sin have taken a good look at Christ. They’ve got him all backward. 7-8 So, my dear children, don’t let anyone divert you from the truth. It’s the person who acts right who is right, just as we see it lived out in our righteous Messiah. Those who make a practice of sin are straight from the Devil, the pioneer in the practice of sin. The Son of God entered the scene to abolish the Devil’s ways. 9-10 People conceived and brought into life by God don’t make a practice of sin. How could they? God’s seed is deep within them, making them who they are. It’s not in the nature of the God-born to practice and parade sin. Here’s how you tell the difference between God’s children and the Devil’s children: The one who won’t practice righteous ways isn’t from God, nor is the one who won’t love brother or sister. A simple test.

If the epistle of 1 John were a breaking news story on a major reputable broadcast news outlet, the headline would be: “GOD IS LOVE!” (In bold print and in all caps!) That would be the chyron that flashed across the television or a smart phone. The first sentence the news anchor read would be: “We are sorry to break into your regular programming, however, we’ve just received this breaking news. In an overwhelming show of tender care, fierce concern, and heroic compassion for humanity, God has definitively shown Divine love by sending Jesus of Nazareth as a love letter to the world. Viewers please note: the tape we are about to show you is not for the faint of heart. The lengths through which God goes to express this deep devotion is not mealy mouthed nor simply a gesture. This love is not eros (romantic or sexual love), philo (familial love) or even storge (the love experienced among the closest of fraternity brothers or sorority sisters.) This love is agape…it is bloody. It is an unbounded, unrestricted, unrelenting love that ultimately shows its boundless nature through the bleeding body of Jesus. Parents, you may want to send your children out of the room as we roll this tape!”
Make no mistake about it, “God Is Love” is the organizing principle, flashing headline, and simple, yet profound theme of the Johannine Epistles as a collective literary witness, and of the Gospel of John. Further, 1 John chapter 3 also makes it clear that those who embrace the message of God’s agape love in Jesus Christ, will live like they are beneficiaries of this agape love. Thus, the writer asserts a life of sin—literally continuously, habitually missing the mark—is not the life of a child of God. To be children of God means we understand that sacrificial agape love of God naturally requires that we love one another sacrificially as well. After all, children reflect the character of their Father.

The Johannine Epistles (1 John, 2 John, and 3 John), along with the Gospel of John are called “The Johannine literature” in the New Testament and biblical scholars consider them to have been influenced by the “Johannine School of thought.” While 2 John and 3 John assert they are authored by “the Elder,” 1 John does not have an authorial subscription. However, the author asserts he was an eyewitness to Jesus’ earthly ministry. In the early Church, because of the widespread familiarity with the Gospel of John, many people assumed the same person who wrote the Gospel of John—they believed that person was John the son of Zebedee—also wrote the Johannine Epistles. Later, the writer of Revelation was also conflated with the author of the Gospel of John as well.
If the author of the Johannine Epistles wrote the gospel, then the epistles are dated after the gospel and were likely composed around 100 CE. Regardless of authorship, the Johannine Epistles share a concern for several key theological themes such as nature of Christian community (Ecclesiology), the nature of Christian conduct (Christian Ethics), the nature of how Jesus overcomes sin and brings salvation (Soteriology/Christology), and the nature of how God’s love shapes humans—as the creation of God—into Children of God; those who reflect God’s love by loving others.

1 What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are. But that’s also why the world doesn’t recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who he is or what he’s up to.
In the initial verse of this pericope, John asserts the astonishing thing about God’s love is not that God loves, but how God loves. Literally, the Greek word horao, which the Message version translates as “what marvelous,” literally means, “look” or “perceive” or see this with your spiritual mind!” Sometimes, it is translated as “behold.” Thus, it is an exclamation of astonishment, of surprise. Look at this, Can you see this…this love represented like this? It is the strangeness of God’s love that is in view in this whole thing. How different it is opposed to how the world cares for people.
“How is God’s love different,” John asks? Then he responds, “It makes us the children of God. Theologically speaking sin—always missing the mark—was our condition when God found us, and we would still be like that if God had not found us. It is spiritual hubris that makes us think of ourselves as some kind of special catch that God has made, or how fortunate He ought to feel that we have consented to join His side! No, “How great is the love the Father has given us so freely! Now we can be called children of God.”
That is the extent of God’s love. God loves the whole world! So much so that God desires that that enemies should become children and that children should become mature sons and daughters. God is the Creator of all humanity but not the Father of all humanity. We only children of God by our profession of faith in Jesus Christ! Further, John makes it clear: when the world does not recognize us as God’s children, it is because they don’t know our Father, nor Jesus.
2-3 But friends, that’s exactly who we are: children of God. And that’s only the beginning. Who knows how we’ll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we’ll see him—and in seeing him, become like him. All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus’ life as a model for our own.
When John describes God’s love as marvelous, he’s telling us how wonderful, how immense, how amazing God’s love for us is. Now, he elaborates on that marvelous love.
That love changes our identity. Jesus’ love transforms us; Jesus’ love redeems us; Jesus’ love molds and shapes us; Jesus’ love raises us to a place of divine assurance that, no matter what happens to us in this life, He’s able to deliver us.
That love gives us new security. Latch on to the word, “know.” “We know”—there’s not a shadow of doubt. “We know” —it’s an absolute certainty. “We know”—there’s no question about it. John uses the same word, in 1 John 5:13, where we read, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” Jesus offers us a secure salvation; one we can depend on. This world is so precarious; so much about this life is unknown. But, based on the authority of the Word of God, we can know that our eternal souls are secure, simply because of the great love of God. It is a gift from God that enables us to be like Him.
That love transforms us. The gift of Jesus’ love is the only gift that changes us. Paul says the same thing, in I Corinthians 13:12: “Now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” For those who know the great love of Christ, we have the knowledge that we will be with Him.
4-6 All who indulge in a sinful life are dangerously lawless, for sin is a major disruption of God’s order. Surely you know that Christ showed up in order to get rid of sin. There is no sin in Him, and sin is not part of His program. No one who lives deeply in Christ makes a practice of sin. None of those who do practice sin have taken a good look at Christ. They’ve got him all backward.
Beginning with verse 4, the writer now shifts into a discussion that identifies the nature of sin as an attack against God’s intended order and Divine program. The reference to eternal life makes clear that John is addressing Christians. He wants to make clear that anyone who indulges in sin is lawless—literally ignoring the law of agape love.
Indulging in sin does not mean that the person ceases to be a Christian, but that he or she ceases to act like a Christian. They are no longer behaving like the Christian that he has become. Eternal life is no longer abiding in him, and he has slipped back, temporarily, into the control of the Devil. This can and does happen repeatedly—loss of the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Please note: In the context of Johannine literature, the sin is the lack of agape love; failing to love people the way Jesus loved people. When we fail to ask the question, “What would Jesus do? And How would Jesus love? We are sinning and missing the mark!
7-8 So, my dear children, don’t let anyone divert you from the truth. It’s the person who acts right who is right, just as we see it lived out in our righteous Messiah. Those who make a practice of sin are straight from the Devil, the pioneer in the practice of sin. The Son of God entered the scene to abolish the Devil’s ways.
Jesus Christ’s love results in the laying down of life, a surrender of self-interest. Because Jesus laid down his life for us, we ought to be laying down (present continuous tense) our lives for each other. We cannot die for another, but we can live for one another. “Give our lives,” here means the voluntary surrender of the right to meet our own needs in order that we might meet the needs of another. It is the giving up of self in order that we might minister to another. That is the quality that marks genuine love.
In contrast, if we can see others in need—physically, emotionally, or spiritually—and pass them by unconcerned, then all our words and our fine talk about love are useless (1 Corinthians 13:1).
*The great indicator of false Christianity is that we talk much about love, but we have built barriers of isolation around ourselves, and refused to let others see our inner lives, and refused to seek out and find them. Because we have become isolated units, refusing to blend hearts together, we have lost the glory of body-life through which Jesus Christ intends to manifest the glory of his Spirit at work. God only works through a body, and therefore it is essential that we take down these isolating barriers and stop pretending to be something we are not; to be willing to admit our faults and our failures, and to pray together, and to stop being critical and judgment-al, pointing the finger at those among us who fall or stumble, and gathering our skirts of righteousness about ourselves to pass by on the other side, lest we be contaminated by them. That is phoniness.
9-10 People conceived and brought into life by God don’t make a practice of sin. How could they? God’s seed is deep within them, making them who they are. It’s not in the nature of the God-born to practice and parade sin. Here’s how you tell the difference between God’s children and the Devil’s children: The one who won’t practice righteous ways isn’t from God, nor is the one who won’t love brother or sister. A simple test.
In the final verses of the lesson, John says the problem that is evidenced when we struggle with sinning—harmatia in Greek which means missing the mark—is that we have not embraced the life practice of agape love and the discipline that it brings. Sometimes, this is an involuntary experience on our part which occurs because: 1) when we have been ignored or misunderstood or mistreated, we feel that we are not properly appreciated and from that comes a sense of condemnation in our spirit (this is under consideration here); 2) when we do something intending to bless and help someone else, but they misunderstand and denounce us, and we feel condemned, guilty, and hurt over it.
“What is the remedy?” John says that we must know that we are living truly. We must lean on of our relationship to Christ. Righteous ways come from being connected to Jesus Christ who cared for the least, the lowly and the left out! This is the simple test—to love each other like God in Jesus loved us.