BEHOLD WHAT MANNER OF LOVE.
1 John 3:1 “Behold what manner of love the father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him.”
With the word “behold” the inspired apostle appropriately commands our earnest attention to the enthralling theme of the father’s love. Though the subject of the greatness of God’s love exceeds all human comprehension, he, nevertheless, here exhorts us to look at it, to ponder it, to study it, to weigh it, to meditate upon it and to rejoice in it, because out of the mercy of God through our Lord Jesus Christ we have already experienced upon ourselves the bestowal of it.
We attempted with the help of the Holy Spirit to emphasis that, this love is more important than all the spiritual gifts exercised in the church body. Great faith, acts of dedication or sacrifice and miracle working power have little effects without love. God cannot even let his power down in high volume today because of the absence of love. God fears that his power in the hands of an unmerciful and unloving person can be dangerous. We focused on the revolutionary command of Christ, that changed the law- love your neighbor as yourself to a new version which is loving one another as I have loved you. The question is, do every one deserved to be loved? Let us even forget about others, do you as a person deserved to be loved in a first place? The difference between a wretched sinner and saint is the restoring love of God. This love emphasized nothingness from our side and sufficiency from God. It is the love that flourishes on the soil of continual dependence. Our survival and growth is premised on continual asking for guidance and breaking of our ignorance at the fountain of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. To love as he loved us should be our heart desire. Amen.
2. THE PURPOSE OF GOD’S LOVE.
1 JOHN 3:1-3 “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. 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. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”
In order to grasp the meaning of the goodness of our father’s love, we must consider the purpose of his love. It is that “we should be called the sons of God”. We see the purpose of this love fulfilled when sinners are made sons of God. When rebels against heaven are made children of the heavenly father, and when the enemies of God are by grace transformed and brought in to the blessed family of our redeemer.
Called sons-who calls us? The father calls us son- it is the father’s love which has made us sons, it is the wonderful bestowal of his love on us. He delights to acknowledge us as his sons- that we should be called the sons of God.
The sons of God, our Lord, calls us Son-Hebrews 2:13 ‘Behold I and the sons which God has given me’. In this our Lord acknowledges his redeemed ones as the gift of his father and calls on the whole world to witness it.
The Holy Spirit calls us Sons, John 1:12 ‘For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.’ All the children of God have these two things. They have both the leadership of the Spirit and the witness of the Spirit.
The Angels calls us the sons of God, Hebrews 1:14 ‘Are not all angels ministering Spirit sent to serve those who will inherit salvation? In ministering to the heirs of salvation, the angels happily acknowledge every child of God. The angels know whom we are and are therefore assigned the task of not only ministering to our needs, but also of gathering and separating on the last day and will throw the imitators or “fake sons” into the fire.
With all these affirming our Son-ship, why care about names others may call us? What more can we want? What can separate us from this wonderful love? What shall we give in exchange for that love? What is so dear that we cannot let go because of that love? May we not act like the sons of devil, while God has called us his son- Behold what manner of Love?
3.THE REGENERATING AND ADOPTING LOVE.
1 JOHN 3:1-3 “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. 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. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”
Our wickedness makes us as it were, heavy as lead and tear us downward with great weight and pressure towards hell and if God should let us go, we will immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf and our healthy constitution, our own care and prudence, our best contrivance, and also our righteousness would have no more influence to uphold us and keep us out of hell, just as a spider web would not stop a falling rock.
Were it not for the sovereign love and pleasure of God, the earth would not bear any one of us for one moment, for we are a burden to it, for we brought on it curse, and because of us the ground is cursed and all creations is operating under a curse and groaning for liberation. There are black clouds of God’s wrath now hanging directly over our head, full of dreadful storm and big thunder and were it not for the restraining hand of God they would immediately burst forth on us.
The sovereign pleasure of God for the present, stays his rough wind, otherwise it would come with fury and destruction would come like a whirlwind and we would be like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor.
Behold what manner of love- it is a regenerating love and adopting love. Our text says ‘we are called sons of God’, and it also says ‘now we are the sons of God’. The Father in love has made us his children through the grace of regeneration, granting us the new birth whereby we have been brought into his holy family and made partakers of the divine nature.
We are sons by adoption, God having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will and has set forth his Spirit in to our heart whereby we cry ABBA FATHER.
We are in the Holy Family by the grace of adoption as well as by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit- have we the experience of that touch of the Holy Spirit, do we have and experience the warmth of that Holy Family and can we of a truth testify that we belong to him. Our being churchy would not be a substitute to that experience, our services and offerings cannot be a substitute to that experience, because they do not mean the same thing.
What manner of Love and how will you escape God’s judgement if you neglect such great love?
4. KIND OF LOVE.
1 John 3:1 “Behold what manner of love the father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him.”
With such an engaging subject presented for our meditation, let us begin with the greatness of God’s love. What kind of love is this?
This love is not the general kindness of the creator which in his wise providence he liberally and mercifully exercises toward all creatures. It is not the common grace that is given to the godly and the ungodly alike. It is not his love that brings sun and rain on all. There is a great difference between God’s dealing with us as a creator and his dealing with us as a father. He is not the father of the birds; he is their creator. Neither is he the father of all men. Though He, nevertheless, is the creator of all men and all men are under His providential care. But he is the father of all those who have been born again and who truly believed in His Son.
What then is the manner of this love? It is that love which God peculiarly exercises in regard to his own children.
It is his free love. It is that love which finds all its springs in God and in which there is no other cause outside of him. Because there is everything in us to move God to hate us. Therefore, His love for us is free to us without any cause of merit on our part.
It is an everlasting love. That is without beginning and without end. He loved us before the foundation of the world. We the unworthy ones are loved with love which had no beginning and will have no ending.
It is a providing love, because from eternity and out of free and unchanging grace the father provided His Son to be our savior. 1 John 4:10 “Here is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
What a manner of love that we should be called the Sons of God.
5. A REDEEMING LOVE.
1 JOHN 3:1 “Behold what manner of love the father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him.”
There is no want of power in God to cast sinful people in to hell fire at any moment. Sinners hands cannot be strong, when God rises up. The strongest have no power to resist him, nor can any deliver out of his hand. They are like a great heap of light chaff before the whirlwind or a large quantities of dry stubble before devouring flames. The sword of divine justice is every moment over our heads because of our sins. And divine justice says, “cut down”.
Behold what manner of love that a sinner like us could be spared by the sword of divine justice.
IT IS A REDEEMING LOVE. This love could not allow us to lie under the curse and bondage of our sins exposed to the penalty of the Holy Law. Neither did this love merely pitch us a line with the instructions to grab hold and try to reach safety the best way we could. Nor did he simply stand and plead, exhort, warn and teach us how we might attempt to save ourselves. Thank God, we would have all perish had this been the case.
What did he do? Out of infinite love, the Bible declares- Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, cursed is every one that hanged on a tree.
WHAT MANNER OF LOVE IS THIS? IT IS A REDEEMING LOVE. How will you escape God’s judgement if you neglect such great love?
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