See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ² Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. ³ And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

⁴ Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. ⁵ You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. ⁶ No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. ⁷ Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. ⁸ Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹ No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. ¹⁰ By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

1) What do the references to “children of God” and “God’s children now” imply?
The apostle John is reminding his audience of their true identity as being fully adopted sons and daughters of the Most High God. Believers in Jesus no longer belong to the Enemy Satan, but it’s easy to forget or lose sight of who we really are in Christ because we are still living in the world, which is ruled by Satan. John wants to remind his readers of the vastly deep love God has lavished on us by extending sonship, literally heirs with Christ Himself, to our estranged hearts. He reminds us that we are adoringly adopted by a perfect Father. The “now” refers to that moment when our hearts step across the line of faith and choose Jesus for our salvation, making Him Lord and Leader of our lives as we acknowledge how desperately lost in our sin we are without Him. This identity isn’t a one-time moment, but an ongoing one. Christ’s salvation completely changes us and moves us from owned by Satan to owned and set free by the Almighty Father God.

2) What exactly “will we be” when Christ appears?
John says that we will be like God. Not that we will “be” God or know everything that God knows, but that one day our transformation that began at the moment we trusted fully in Jesus for salvation, will be 100% complete. We will have “grown up” to sincerely love like Jesus, which is at the heart of being made new in Christ. We will be completely blameless, fully righteous and without any hint of sin. We will love like God first loved us!

3) Am I still a child of God even if I still sin?
Jesus came to abolish sin and sin’s grip on us forever, which is exactly what happens in our hearts when we give them over to Christ in total surrender. We are a new creation, we have a new heart, we are no longer slaves to sin, meaning that we have no obligation to follow through on sinful desires. Rather, we have the full power of God living inside of us, which gives us the ability to choose love over sin. BUT, we still live here in the world, which is ruled by our archenemy Satan Himself and we can forget our true identity. Sometimes because we lose sight of Whose we are, we fall into sin, but that doesn’t negate our adoption. John’s point is not that we will never sin if we are really adopted, but that our hearts will long for loving like Jesus instead of lusting after sin’s desires.

4) Is there evidence for truly belonging to God?
Yes! Verses 9-10 make it clear that the evidence of belonging to God is found in our hearts, in our actions, in how we live out our lives. John points us back to Jesus’ words that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. The greatest evidence of a new life surrendered to Jesus is a life of love. Not just loving those who love us, but loving the unlovable, loving others enough to share Christ, loving sacrificially the way the Father has loved us!

1) What do the references to “children of God” and “God’s children now” imply?
Being adopted by God carries significant weight of identity for us. Consider that today, in the middle of your laundry, your child’s rebellion, your relationship conflicts, your heartache, your loss, your heavy burden, you are God’s. You are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. You have access to the Father’s throne. You do not walk alone. You do not journey without hope. You have zero obligations to react sinfully, to act with selfishness, to grieve without hope, to stay empty. You have the same power that raised Christ from the dead alive and working inside of you. Will you surrender to the truth of who you are or will you lean into the lie of who you were?

2) What exactly “will we be” when Christ appears?
We aren’t perfect yet, obviously! But we are being continuously transformed! It can be too easy to make a list of all the ways we still fall short of honoring God, all the things we should do to manufacture Christ-likeness in our day-to-day, but we are called to shift our focus from where we are to where we are going. Like both of the sons in the prodigal story, we need to be reminded that it’s God’s responsibility to transform us. We cannot work hard enough to please Him. The most that we can do is fall into His arms and hold tightly onto His love and how He sees us….as His beloved child, whom He will one day fully transform into being exactly the person of perfect love He designed and intentioned for us to be. It’s His work, not ours. His glory, not ours. His love, not ours.

3) Am I still a child of God even if I still sin?
Knowing that we are adopted as children of the Father God, means that when we do choose sin over love, we have ready access to forgiveness. Dropping down to verses 20 and 21, John reminds us that when our hearts condemn us (or when we become aware of our sin), we have confidence before God who truly knows the identity of our hearts. Ever feel like you’ve messed up so much that God won’t take you back? Or maybe that you’ve walked away for too long and now God is mad at you? Stop holding onto the lie that we aren’t fully adopted and already forgiven and made righteous; we are infinitely loved and can never be removed from adoption status. Instead, take your cue from the prodigal son and run home!

4) Is there evidence for truly belonging to God?
Take deep, satisfying comfort in knowing that we can fully know we are adopted! And it looks like Jesus-Love. These aren’t just “good deeds”, kind words, or random acts of kindness. It’s a transformative, sacrificial love like Christ’s. It’s something we can’t manufacture on our own based on emotion or feelings of kindness for others. It’s much deeper and rooted in knowing our true identity as belonging to Christ. It loves deeply because we have been deeply loved. It’s a lifestyle love and one that you can progressively see increasing in proportion to how closely you are following Jesus. The more we focus on giving our everything to Christ, the more He changes us to love like Him!

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Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Find super awesome stuff like “origin”, “definition”, and even all the different ways that single word has been translated into English! If you want to be geeky, you can even click the word and hear its original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!

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Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.

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