I John 3:1-3
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.3 All who have this hope in Him purify themselves, just as He is pure.
I John 3:1-3 OUR FATHER GOD LOVES US AS HIS CHILDREN
Springford Baptist Church: June 20, 2021
FATHERS’ DAY
Every family is different. Some people have had very loving and positive relationships with their fathers. Some have not. Some have not even known their fathers.
On this Fathers’ Day, we can recognize how much God our Father in heaven loves and cares for us. God loves us as His own children! He wants us to know Him. He wants us to listen for His voice and to know that we belong to Him as his deeply loved children.
There are some people I know who have deliberately stopped listening to the news. They find it both frustrating and upsetting. They find that it is filled with detailed reporting on the covid pandemic, on political and social corruption, human violence, and natural disasters that result in destruction of homes and property and loss of lives.
Admittedly this does appear to be the content of most news headlines.
In a world, where the wrong often does seem so strong, there is good news and I want us to focus on this good news and its implications this Fathers’ Day.
We are loved! We are tenderly and fiercely loved by God our Father!!
Do we believe this? Do we experience the reality that God loves every one of us without exception and unconditionally?
Some conversations I have with people reveal an attempt to be good enough for God to love. This would be a very discouraging pursuit if that was necessary. If we could only be sure that God our Father loves us when we are pleasant and when we say and do loving things and make no mistakes and have no regrets then where would that leave any of us?
What is emphasized here in I John 3 is not to focus on our shortcomings, but on His great love.
In fact, His love for us is so great that He chooses to call us children of God.
There is a wonderful thing that is meant to happen in family. We belong. Parents continue to love children no matter what. And if human parents love their children through misunderstandings and hurts and disappointments how much more can we trust that God consistently loves us as His children.
John emphasizes that it is not just that “we are called children of God” (vs. 1) “that is what we are” (vs. 1)
And it is trusting this truth that leads to knowing we are extravagantly loved by God.
You can be told that something is true, but trusting that it is true is another matter.
What might interfere with us trusting and as a result knowing, believing and experiencing God our Father’s intense and immense love for us as His children?
Sometimes we think of human relationships where love and acceptance is conditional, where we only feel loved and lovable when we please another person and satisfy their expectations of us.
God is much more than this!
God’s love for us is not confined by human definitions of love.
Notice at the end of I John 3:1 the explanation, “The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.”
How can people understand us as Christians if they do not know Christ whom we follow? The world does not recognize us or take us seriously because it has no idea who Jesus is or what He is up to. The world does not know how much we are loved by God.
vs. 2 Being children of God, everlastingly loved by Him is only the beginning. There is more. “what we will be has not yet been made known.”
But there is something that we do know and place hope in.
vs. 3 “when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
This anticipates a time when faith will become sight. What we have trusted to be true and what we have experienced as children of God, deeply loved by him will all be verified when Jesus returns for us.
And what happens in the meantime?
vs. 3 “All who have this hope in Him purify themselves, just as He is pure.”
Notice that it is not that we as lavishly loved children decide it doesn’t matter how we think or behave.
Children who are loved and love their parents in return, respect them and want to please them. Children who are loved and love their parents in return, do not just selfishly live to please themselves.
Neither should we as deeply loved children of God. We are called to a high standard of purity because He is pure!
Do we believe that God loves us? Do we believe that God our Father wants what is best for us as His children? Will we trust our loving God with every detail of our lives? How will the way that we live each day be different if we are convinced of our Father God’s eternal love for us?
In closing, I want to share a very personal story with you. I was at a spiritual retreat and participating in a guided reflection where we were asked to close our eyes and to consider that God was right there with us. Each of us was invited to experience God with us and to be open to what we saw and heard.
This was my experience of God:
I was sitting in God’s lap like a child and God had His arms around me. In those moments, I felt overwhelmingly loved. I had my head pressed up against God’s chest and could hear His heartbeat. And to my delight His heartbeat was my name being repeated over and over: Lola, Lola, Lola.
I share my very personal encounter with God because I want you to know that God our Father’s loving heartbeat for each of us is this. We are His children and out of His infinite love for us His heartbeat is our own names over and over repeated. This confirms that we are always on God’s mind and always in the heart of our Father God.