1 John 3:1-3 New King James Version
3 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore, the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
First Impression
New Creation, Different, Children of God, Wow. This short passage is packed with glorious power and blessings. I had hopes of studying more verses going into the lesson, but this was more than enough.
From verse 1: Great Love, Lavished on Us, Children of God – Give examples of how God lavished this great love on you.
Wife and kids, Jesus and salvation, people and pursuit, missions. If you believe in God, then every good and marvelous thing in your life comes from Him and you are aware of it. All the trouble in my life seems to come from me trying to step outside my role of follower following Christ.
Describe the depth of the father-child relationship in your heart.
Give, Live; enough; baby stage; two way. (I did a better job taking notes this week.) When the kids were little, we read a bunch of material and it leaned toward the concept of life centers: Self centered, Marriage centered, child centered, Christ centered, etc. My heart grew to hold the love for my kids. My sin nature still wants to be self-centered. My “natural” first step out of myself is for my wife. That has been a learning process I never fully grasped. This child centered “phase” directly impacted on my self-centered desires, and it got me started thinking how to balance the desire to devote my life to my kids and keeping my own life standing such that the kids were not overwhelmed with my “parent driven goals” for them.
As I read, I learned that I needed to be Christ centered and all this self, spouse, and child issues would be taken care of. God as my spiritual Father would know how to take care of the girls because His love for them would always exceed mine. I know God loves me and I base my hope for great things while I continue to live on the great things He has done to date. The Calvin and Hobbes I used with the daily devotional today had Calvin thanking his mom for saving him from himself. That is how I see God helping me as my Father.
From verse 1: Does not know us, does not know Him – How does this not being known playout in your life and how do you respond?
Humbling, refocus. Interestingly enough, I have a hesitancy to learn about other religions and how their beliefs impact the behavior of their followers, and rereading this question made me realize that other people probably are not that interested in really knowing what Christians believe either. American culture seems to me to have a certain arrogance about it that everyone else should know how to appreciate what “we” do or have that should be “awe” worthy. “My $100,00 truck should be treated with respect!” rather than “What idiots spends $100,000 on a truck?” or simply dismissing the idea that a truck has any non-functional value. I do not want to study Islam to be a better witness. Therefore, I must assume that others are ignorant of Christianity and work to make sure that I do not allow knowledge biases to negatively impact my witness.
From verse 2: Not yet been made known – Describe your thoughts on what we will be.
None. I guess I simply chose to be literal and accept I could not know, so have not thought about it.
From verse 2: We shall be like, we shall see – Why does John introduce this unknown that will not be known in time to act on it?
Confident expectation, encourage, confidence. My big kid had a college related interview and had no idea of what it was going to be like. There was no specific thing she could have done that would have prepared her for what it was other than a real interview. But she wanted to be prepared none the less. When we know we cannot be prepared, we can release the expectation of personal success and learn to rely on God to carry us through to victory. Having confidence in Him allows us to recognize and pass Him the glory.
From verse 3: Has this hope – What is the hope you have that you describe to others?
Joy, Peace, not of this world, no worry. One of the ideas that ran through the last Dune book (if not all of them) was that some thoughts do not lend themselves to being communicated in words. As many words as we dream up to describe this hope, they are all too insignificant to do justice to the reality. Part of the path is becoming aware of the awe we need for God and His gift to us.
From verse 3: Purifies himself, is pure – What does purify and pure mean to you biblically, and in your personal life-”ly”?
Biblically, Holy and of God. Personally, it means trying to not fall to temptation and to take actions to avoid them. The image of putting on Christ’s robe before standing in front of the judgement seat runs through my mind. Purity is something I cannot fulfill, but Christ has. Our relationship with Him is necessary and sufficient.