Daily Thought

Three times in this chapter, John refers to ‘the children of God’ (KJV reads, ‘sons of God’) in a way that would be unrecognizable to Old Testament prophets. They would have been able to recall, ‘Ye are the children of the Lord your God’, Deut. 14. 1, but were more comfortable being called the children of Israel, for they had not the Spirit of adoption in their hearts, enabling them to cry, ‘Abba, Father’, Rom. 8. 15. Three different verbs are associated with this term: ‘to call’, v. 1; ‘to be’, v. 2, and ‘to be manifested’, v. 10. John contrasts (1) the child of God’s knowledge with that of the world, v. 1; (2) what we are now with what we shall be, v. 2; (3) the children of God with the children of the devil, v. 10.

What a name to have called upon us! No earth-born love could have conceived of, nor could any earthly power have conferred such privilege, v. 1; John 1. 12, 13. The verb ‘to call’ is a reminder of the Father’s gracious initiative, 1John3. 1. The world that did not recognize the Lord Jesus as the One sent by the Father, does not understand the relationship into which God’s call has brought His children, v. 1.

The phrase ‘now are’ declares unambiguously that the place in God’s family is not a distant goal but a present enjoyment, v. 2. The slave that God had reached and saved still toiled in the same fields, but his destiny was now different. He could not fully explain the difference between his lot as a slave and what he will be ‘when he (Christ) shall appear’, but he did know that when he would see Christ, he would be like Him. This is the Father’s will for His child, v. 2.

Two family traits evident in the children of God are that they do what is righteous and they love others in God’s family, v. 10. These are the two features that make manifest that they are not the children of the devil. The devil ‘was a murderer from the beginning’ and ‘a liar’, John 8. 44, so his children might hate the children of God and their righteous manner of life, 1 John 3. 12-15. If he is to be true to his calling, the child of God should love like his Father and, like his Lord, be willing to sacrifice everything for his brother, vv. 16, 17.