How To Know Whose Child You Are

Alba 8-4-2024

HOW TO KNOW WHOSE CHILD YOU ARE

I John 3:4-10

Have you heard this story? A young man shopping in a supermarket noticed a little old lady following him around. If he stopped, she stopped. And she just kept staring at him. She finally overtook him at the checkout, and she turned to him and said,”I hope I haven’t made you feel uncomfortable, it’s just that you look so much like my late son.” He answered, “That’s okay.”

“I know it’s silly, but if you’d call out ‘Good bye, Mom’ as I leave the store, it would make me feel so happy.” She then went through the checkout, and as she was on her way out of the store, the man called out, “Goodbye, Mom.” The little old lady waved, and smiled back at him.

Pleased that he had brought a little sunshine into someone’s day, he went to pay for his groceries. “That comes to $171.85,” said the clerk. “How come so much? I only bought five items!” The clerk replied, “Yeah, but your Mother said you’d be paying for her things, too.”

The lesson here? Be careful whose child you seem to be. We all exist in this life as a result of two people, a father and a mother. Whether we claim that relationship depends on several things. If the parents are abusive or show no love, a child is likely to disassociate with them.

At times children have to be taken out of a bad situation which may even lead to adoption. Then the birth parents are no longer the parents. When that happens, the child is given a brand new birth certificate which shows that the adoptive parents are the “real” parents of that child. Still there may be some hereditary characteristics that continue in the life of that child. If they are positive characteristics, that would be good. If they are not, then there is trouble.

The apostle John speaks to the issue of parentage in I John 3:4-10 where he writes: “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.

“Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

“Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.”

John tells us that there are ways we can know who is a child of God and who is not, and therefore whose child we are. It is quite simple. Heredity will show. Because...

1. There Are Only Two Options

John says that there are only two classifications of people that matter. We are either of our Father, the holy, righteous, and glorious God of all creation, or we are of our father the devil, the one who has come to steal, kill, and destroy.

In Matthew 12:33 Jesus said, “A tree is identified by its fruit. If a tree is good, its fruit will be good. If a tree is bad, its fruit will be bad” (NLT). You can't expect it to be different. It works the same with people. Just as tree will produce fruit based on the kind of tree it is, people show their heritage.

I am sure that you have noticed that apple trees always produce apples. You don't plant an apple tree and expect to get lemons or oranges. The tree will only produce according to its kind. So, if the fruit looks like an apple, smells like an apple, feels like an apple, tastes like an apple; it is an apple! If is looks like a lemon, smells like a lemon, feels like a lemon, tastes like a lemon; it is a lemon.

In the orchard of life there are only two trees, the tree of God or the tree of the devil. Thankfully by God's grace we can all become part of the tree of God, receiving His righteousness through Christ, and then produce acts of righteousness.

But just by claiming that we are from the tree of God does not make us part of that tree. The people who sin without thinking twice, with no conviction, and no change, they have no relationship with Jesus at all. We can say we are an apple all we want, but if we have the look, smell, taste, and feel of a lemon, we are not an apple. We are a lemon.