YOU GOT LOVE
(1John 2:28-3:4)
Almost every household here in America is equipped with a fast computer to enjoy this technology that is sweeping the whole world—the internet. Anyone who subscribes to America OnLine or AOL, is familiar with the phrase: “You Got Mail.” They even made a movie out of this popular phrase. If you have AOL as your email provider, everytime you have a new message and as you log in, AOL alerts you: You Got Mail!
If America OnLine is your ISP: Internet Service Provider, Jesus Christ is my ISP: Immutable Salvation Provider. So if AOL alerts you that You Got Mail; Jesus Christ alerts you—You Got Love! My friends, with Jesus Christ you got love that is unconditional. Love that is so great. Love that is beyond measure. Love that cannot be counted. Love that cannot be bought. Love that cannot be bribed. Love that is unfailing. Love that is forever.
“How great is the 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.” (1John 3:1)
The last 2 verses of Chap 2 relate to the first three verses of chap 3.
True faith always results in good deeds— for true believers whose faith are in Christ, consistently do what is right. Persevering in their relationship with Christ and continuing in the faith keeps them truly ready for Christ’s return—confident and unashamed. Why? Because it will be embarrassing to the owner when He comes back and found us living our lives not in accordance to His will—
• telling other people about Jesus Christ
• studying His word
• coming to church to worship and fellowship with other believers
• exercising the gifts He has given you
• helping others to grow in the faith by teaching them
• praying with fellow christians and praying for them
It is one thing to claim that Christ is in us; it is quite another to live a life that shows Christ is in us. In other words preaching is one thing, practicing what we preach is another. John is telling us that the way we recognize true believers is by their lives and not by their lips.
John emphasizes that people do not become children of God by doing right; instead, doing right is a sign that people have already become God’s children. For everyone who does what is right has been born of God. So if Christians are born of God, therefore we are His children. And great is His love for His children.
See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children, and we really are! But the people who belong to this world don’t know God, so they don’t understand that we are his children.
My friend you are God’s precious child if you are in Christ. You are His son. You are His daughter. I am His child. We, who are in Christ are children of the Living God, the Maker of the universe, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the Almighty God, All-Powerful God. We are not hoping to become His children. We are not expecting to become His children. WE ARE HIS CHILDREN. But how does one become a child of God?
All of us are created being of God. You, me, were all created by God. All human beings born of natural birth are God’s creation. HOWEVER, the bible says that not all are children of God!
“Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. (John 1:12, 13)
• In verse 12 who are given the right to become children of God?
- those who received Him
- those who believed in His name
Who should you receive and to believe in order to be given the right to become a child of God?
- Jesus Christ. If you read from verse 1 to verse 18, you will find out that this passage of the scriptures clearly speaks about Jesus Christ.
Who gives the right to a person to be a child of God? God. It is God who grants this right. It is a gift of God.
What does the word “right” here means? (exousia in Greek)
- authority or permission to become children of God
- freedom of action that every child can enjoy
- anytime you can reason with your parent
- anytime you can open the refrigerator and see what’s inside. A visitor cannot do that.
- anytime you can eat.
- you can basically do anything so long as within the rules set by the parent.
- right to act
- represent Him as ambassador
- proclaim Him as our Father, giver of life
To become a child in a physical sense, one must be born of a biological parent. To become a child of God, one must be born again. This is known as the new birth, or conversion, or being saved. In verse 13, it tells three (3) ways new birth does not take place, and the one way which it does.
Three ways we are not born again:
• Not of natural descent (not of blood) - a person does not become a christian through having christian parents. Salvation is not passed down from parent to child through blood stream. To be born-again is not through biological process. It is not by having the same DNA.
- parents you need to share the gospel to your children
• Not of human decision (not of the will of the flesh) - a person does not have his own power to produce the new birth. Although he must be willing in order to be saved, yet his own will or decision it not enough to save him.
- friends you need to share to gospel to your relatives or to your community
• Not of a husband’s will (not of the will of man) - Does a person becomes a christian by being married to a christian? Does a lawn mower becomes a car by parking it inside a garage? No man can save another. A preacher for instance, may be very anxious to see a certain person born again, but he does not have the power to produce this marvelous birth.
- husbands, wives, you need to share the gospel to your spouse
The One way we are born again:
• Born of God - Only God has the power to produce this new birth in us. He alone has the power to save us. He alone has the power to convert us. He alone has the power to cause us to be born again.
Therefore, if God is the one who grants a person the right or the authority or the permission to become a child of God, no one can ever become a child of God by his own power, merit or ability. It is not by good works, not by church membership, not be doing one’s best but by receiving Him as Lord and Savior, by believing that He is the Messiah, the Son of God.
Most of the time we take for granted the privileges we have as Christians. Like, I can, at anytime, approach God and ask for almost anything. That doesn’t mean He gives to me everything that I ask for. Those that I ask that He believes would be to the best of my interest, He gives to me. The same way how I approach my earthly father. I can come to him at anytime and ask for almost anything. But not all that I ask he gives. He only gives to me those that I ask which he believes would best benefit me.
1. WE ENTER INTO THE FAMILY OF GOD.
We call each other brothers or sisters although we did not come from the same biological parents. Because we are God’s children by virtue of what Christ has done on the cross for us. Remember Jesus Christ said:
Mark 3:33-35 "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?" Then he looked at those around him and said, "These are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother."
All born-again believers, whether they are residing in Africa, India, Japan, Philippines, Malaysia, South America, Europe, or the Middle East, are all brothers and sisters in the Lord. We are not only His friends but we are also His brothers, sisters, and mother. We have our earthly fathers and we also have our heavenly father!
I believe we need to be addressing one another brothers or sisters for that is biblically correct and it actually is one of the many blessings that the children of God are to enjoy. We are building relationships. We are not building some kind of a club or an organization with membership fee. But we are building relationships with fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Our membership into the family of God was paid for by the blood of Christ that is why we can also say that christians all all blood-brothers (including women) because of the blood of Christ shed on the cross. Although this term may sound archaic but I believe it represents well of our position as christians saved by faith in Jesus Christ.
2. WE ENTER INTO THE FAMILY OF BELIEVERS
We become members of the local church, which is the FFACC. The benefits or the privileges for belonging to God’s fellowship are manifested through the activities that you willingly perform in the service of God. Where else in the entire universe are we going to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ other than the church?
• you sing in the worship team
- you are able to play your favorite instrument
- you are able to write songs for the Lord
• you teach the children
- as you teach you get to study deeper
• you lead the Bible study
- you get to study as you teach
• you lead the men’s group
- you get to attend conferences with your fellow brothers in the Lord
• you lead the women’s group
- you get to attend conferences with your fellow sisters in the Lord
• the youth gets to enjoy their time together by going to regeneration
• prayer team
- where can you find a group of people where there is so much love and care other than the church.
- there is always someone available to pray with you and for you
- there is someone who is ready to listen to your problems
- there is always someone willing to walk alongside
3. WE ENTER INTO A NEW RELATIONSHIP
All the religions of the world teach in quantifiable terms but not in quality. How is that? There is not a religion known to man that does not speak in terms of ceremony or ritual. And when you talk about ritualism, it speaks about quantifiable terms, let’s say the more you pray the more you become righteous. If you pray 10 times a day and I only pray 9 times, that makes you more righteous than I am. If you give $100 in the offering plate and I give $10, that makes me a lesser believer in the religion that we believe in. In other words, all man-made religions teach that the more I do, the more I become.
Illustration:
Credit is good but we need cash. We need to see cash before we can believe that our credit will stand.
Christianity is different. It is about relationship. It speaks about the quality of relationship we have in the One who alone can make us righteous—Jesus Christ! The foreign righteousness of Christ is credited to us if we would put our faith in Him. If in fact christianity is quantifiable, it is immeasurable. It is based on the unfailing love of God that its length, width, depth and height can never be measured. If we talk about the infinite love, it is beyond measure because infinity is eternity. No man can measure eternity therefore, christianity is unquantifiable. And if we talk about the quality of our relationship with God through His Son, it is perfect. No quality control can reject it. It is not something that we return to the maker for refurbish or for repair. It is perfectly sealed by the Holy Spirit guaranteeing that our relationship with Him as His children can never be broken. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Not even Satan! Because God Himself, Jesus Christ, came down to earth to perform the perfect sacrifice in our place. Amen!
Furthermore, the love that God the Father lavished on us is the agape kind of love. It is unconditional. It is like saying, though we sin, yet He still loves us. God does not have to wait for us to love Him so He can love us back. No. He loved us first that is why we learn to love Him back.
It is an unusual kind of love, a kind of love that we are not accustomed. Because for us it is different. We need to receive love first before we can give love. Most of the time we don’t even know how to love others because our motives are different.
Credit is good but we need cash!
What makes it amazing is that God demonstrated His love by giving His Son to die for us. It is hard to explain or describe this kind of love because it is not a prepositional term. Rather it is relational term. We need to experience this kind of love to be able to understand and appreciate it. We are relational being as God Himself is relational being. When we read about love in the “love chapter” 1Cor 13 says: Love is patient, love is kind . . . it is hard to explain how patience can be relative to love and so with kind until we truly experienced being patient and being kind.
Conclusion:
Becoming a child of God is an experience which the Holy Spirit can make it real for us; and only the Holy Spirit can do that. Until He confirms it to your heart, you can never say you are a child of God. In the human family, love is greatest motivating force and so is the love of God that can cover a multitude of sin. When human love is genuine love, it is a beautiful thing, it is a noble thing. Sometimes we can make sacrifices for each other. But God’s love for His children far exceeds anything we can experience on the human plane. God’s love convicts us to obey His word. God’s love motivate us to live for Him. A segment of a poem written by Annie Johnson Flint:
. . . God has promised strength for the day,
Rest for the labor, light for the way,
Grace for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love.
Prayer:
Our Father, how great is the love you have lavished on us that we should be called your children. That is what we are, your children. We know that we neglect to act like your children, to talk like your children, and to live like your children. We pray that you help us live our lives according to your will. Also, the privileges you have given us, we sometimes miss to enjoy because we would rather live our lives our way and not your way. As you are always a Father to us, help us that we be as children to you, obeying you always in all things. For we pray this not by might nor by power but by your Spirit, in Jesus we pray. Amen!
