THE GREATNESS OF GOD’S LOVE GAVE AND MADE - 1John 3:1-3
1John 3 v 1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called children of God, and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us because it did not know Him. 1John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that when He appears, we shall be like Him because we shall see Him just as He is. 1John 3:3 Everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
THE ABSOLUTE GREATNESS OF GOD’S LOVE
Verse 1 begins with an invitation. John asks us to see. This word means all the following – “see, look upon, experience, perceive, discern, to be beware of. It means "to see with the mind" (i.e. spiritually see), i.e. perceive (with inward spiritual perception and understanding)”. I believe that places before us a responsibility to come to grips with the intensity of God’s love.
There is a position that men and women can be elevated to, a position almost inconceivable to the human mind, the uneducated human mind. On the other hand in heathen cultures, the gods are so high above men, and so obscure, that people can not even think of any form of connection with them. The best they can do is to live their lives appeasing the gods through offerings, sacrifices, and self-mutilation and pain. Thus is the hopelessness of paganism.
In Christianity, almost the opposite is true. It is not man reaching out to God. It is God reaching down to man. It is not God requiring of man, anything. It is God who has provided a perfect way of approach to Him. The first verse in this 3rd chapter defines the position between God, and His creation of man and woman, very clearly. Paganism might consider an acceptance of man through the offerings and efforts he makes, but it is only the God of creation who has established relationship. That relationship is so profound that it is almost inconceivable that any higher power would do that, but there is one word in the verse that cements that relationship. Do you know what that word is? It is not a difficult question – the word is “love”.
Now John could have written, “See what love the Father has bestowed upon us,” but the Holy Spirit did not allow him to do so. The verse qualifies that love, so that John wrote – “See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us.” That is going way beyond just love, to give us the measure of that love. The NASB uses that term, “how great a love”. The KJV uses “what manner of love” and the NIV uses “what great love”. The ESV says “what kind of love” and the excellent Holman says, “Look at how great a love”. John uses ???p?, that deep word for love that signifies a moral preference, or if you like, the preferential love of God. God has preferred you and me and demonstrated that love through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, dying for your sins, so that the entrance to His glorious presence might be opened without any penalty or wall of prohibition. The word to describe that love is p?tap?? (potapos), which always implies astonishment and admiration. We are just astounded, just speechless, just amazed, just shocked that God could love what He created in His image, in such a way. That is what John pens, and our bumbling English language struggles to understand the depth of the original Greek.
God gave. It was His greatness of the deepest love that GAVE. But that deep love then MADE. Yes, He made us as new creations in Christ.
I am going to read out the words of a hymn, a wonderful hymn that is becoming lost in this shallowness of singing in churches today. It was written by Frederick Martin Lehman who was born in August 1868 in Mecklenburg, Schwerin, Germany, and died in 1953 in Pasadena, California. He came to Christ at age 11. While walking down a country lane, a “cornucopia of glory” descended all around him. The weight of conviction was gone and joy and praise was upon his lips.
The poem has 3 stanzas. The first two stanzas of this song, and the chorus, were written by Frederick after he had to return to manual labour in 1917 in order to make a living. His daughter helped him compose the music. The last stanza was found etched on a wall by a patient in an insane asylum who had passed away, but it was traced back to Rabbi Hertz in his “Book of Jewish Thought”. Hertz borrowed the words from a poem written in 1050 by Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai for the synagogue Pentecost celebrations.
Here we go. Just listen to the words and take them in, as it attempts to fathom the depth of the Father’s love.
The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell.
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure -
The saints’ and angels’ song.
When hoary time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall;
When men who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call;
God’s love, so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
TRYING TO QUALIFY LOVE
Look at the first verse of third John again. It depends on what version you have, but there is a word there I want to mention. If you have a NASB it is “bestowed”; if an NIV, it is “lavished”; if a KJV, it is “bestowed”; if an ESV, it is “given”. It is interesting what translators have done here. The Greek word is correctly translated as “given”. It is the act of God where love has a recipient; that is, we receive what God has given. Salvation is the gift of God, not of works. In fact it is the gift of love. God loves and God gives. The reason we have these other translations other than “has given to us” (ESV), is that the translators are attempting to grasp the depth of God’s love which is poured out on us; not only the depth of that love, but the extent of it. We will never understand the depth of God’s love, and eternity in the New Jerusalem will only enhance our appreciation of it.
NOW THE RESULTS OF THAT GREAT LOVE
After the magnificent introduction John has penned, he goes on to state what this overwhelming love has done. The result of that love is that we have the right to be accepting of the term “children of God”, and John adds, “and such we are” or we certainly are”. HELPS – Word Studies says of this word “children” – “anyone living in full dependence on the heavenly Father, i.e. fully (willingly) relying upon the Lord in glad submission. This prompts God to transform each one into His likeness. The Greek “téknon” illustrates how we must all live in utter dependence upon the Lord (moment-by-moment), drawing guidance (care, nurture) from our heavenly Father. It emphasises the childlike (not childish, but childlike) attitude of heart that willingly (gladly) submits to the Father's plan.” God wants dependant children. He does not want know-alls or schemers or dishonest children or those who want to be independent of the Father. He wants His children to be as gentle lambs led by the Great Shepherd of the sheep.
Of course, that prompts us to ask if we are still living as children or if we have placed ourselves outside the reach of the Father. Do you remember Saul? He was so humble, and God used him, but then he rose up and took a position which was not his to take, and took all control to himself, then his end was disastrous. That which should characterise a child of God is dependence, humility and submission. The KJV translates as “sons of God” and is the only version to do so. It should be “children”.
Let us look at a passage in John’s gospel – {{John 1 v 8 “He was not the light but came that he might bear witness of the light. John 1:9 There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. John 1:10 He was in the world and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. John 1:11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him, John 1:12 but as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, John 1:13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”}}
Look at verse 12. It says that all those who received Him into their lives through believing in Him, the Lord Jesus Christ gave them the right to become children of God. This right is the authority to be recognised as children of God. It is not the authority we take upon ourselves; it is the authority bestowed upon us by the Godhead. Because God has given that right to us, we can recognise for ourselves, the position God has given to us. We are children in His family, and we serve as children. Our Father loves us and cares for us.
We must also look at verse 13 in the John passage, chapter 1 verse 13. What it says is that our birth was NOT of any physical origin, but of a spiritual origin and we were born of God. We had nothing to do with it. This fact is confirmed by Peter in {{1Peter 1 v 23 “for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God.”}}
*** Beware lest you think you were important in your salvation. We are merely recipients of the grace of God. All the glory belongs to God. ***
THE WORLD WANTS NOTHING TO DO WITH US
Let us leave chapter 1 of John’s gospel there for a while and return to our key verse for today. The end of the verse says this – “For this reason the world does not know us because it did not know Him.”. This is a theme of John because in the gospel, he points out that this same principle operated for the Lord, and if it applied to the Master, then it applies also to the servant. In verse 10 of the very passage we looked at, John explains, {{John 1 v 10 “He was in the world and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. John 1 v 11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.”}} Jesus was rejected by the world in much the same way as happens when a man builds up a company from nothing and provides for the workers showing them kindness, but they openly reject him, kill him and take over the factory.
Do you remember what was written by Isaiah? Here it is – {{Isaiah 53 v 2 “He grew up before Him like a tender shoot and like a root out of parched ground. He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. Isa. 53:3 He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”}} There is this very telling parable written in Matthew that deals with the rejection of the rightful Owner of the universe –
{{Matthew 21 v 33 Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers, and went on a journey, Matt 21:34 and when the harvest time approached he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce. Matt 21:35 The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third. Matt 21:36 Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first and they did the same thing to them, Matt 21:37 but afterward he sent his son to them saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ Matt 21:38 When the vine-growers saw the son they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance,’ Matt 21:39 and they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Matt 21:40 Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?” Matt 21:41 They said to Him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.” Matt 21:42 Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone. This came about from the Lord and it is marvellous in our eyes’?}}
If the world hated Jesus, it will hate you as well. It will trample over your beliefs; despise what you hold true; legislate against what is decreed by your Lord. Christians are passed over for promotion, not invited to some gatherings (not that we want to go to the world’s parties). Jesus prepared his disciples for the world’s rejection, and that includes us – {{John 15 v 18 If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. John 15:19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world and I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.}}
The world has become so bad right now – August 2022 – that it is rapidly not only turning against Christians, but against the very faith of Christianity itself.
Again, John takes this rejection theme up – {{1John 3 v 11 This is the message which you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another, 1John 3:12 not as Cain who was of the evil one and slew his brother, and for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous. 1John 3:13 Do not marvel, brethren, if the world hates you.”}} There is something in the mind of the unsaved that is not neutral towards Christians. Rather, it is hostility, and the Lord tells us not to marvel at this when it happens.
JESUS IS A MIRROR THAT REFLECTS MAN’S SIN
As always, the Lord is our example. Why do you think the world hated Him and rejected and killed Him? It was because He was a mirror. How do I mean that? His goodness, His righteousness stood opposed to their evil and dark hearts, and reflected their own badness back to their sight, and they did not like what they saw. They rushed to kill him. A few years later, the crowd did not like what they saw of themselves as Stephen spoke and they disposed of him by stoning him. In that they thought they could paint the mirror over and see no reflection of themselves. The bible is a mirror that shows up the sin of the individual, and the individual does not like it. A similar thing happens with the child of God. The child of God exposes the bad in people to the sight of those people.
Christians who are of the world are really betraying the Lord. We must never use the world’s means to do the Lord’s work, yet I feel it is done increasingly in churches today. People are careless in their attitudes to God. This is not right. We must never be conformed to the image of the world. It was just a joy to be at Keswick (Convention in Australia) and see so many really dedicated to the Lord who put Him first. The word “consecrated” we read of over and over in the Tabernacle, means “set aside for the Lord”. If you want to be consecrated for the Lord, the world will hate you, and what you stand for. Again, the Lord confirms this in two verses we just had – {{John 15 v 18 If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. John 15:19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world and I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.}}
THE COST OF FOLLOWING THE LORD
Some people think the cost of following the Lord is too high. “Be comfortable Christians and don’t rock the boat,” is their lifestyle. If you want to follow the Lord, you may (you will) encounter hardship. Have you ever thought about this verse in Timothy – {{2Timothy 3 v 12 “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”}}
What happened to the great heroes of the faith in the Old Testament? This is what happened to them – {{Hebrews 11 v 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection and others were tortured, not accepting their release, in order that they might obtain a better resurrection, Heb 11:36 and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. Heb 11:37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword. They went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated Heb 11:38 (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. Heb 11:39 All these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised.”}}
There are too many Christian marshmallows in Christian packets these days. Are you going to stand up for Christ today and be counted for Him? These are the very last days of the Church age and the Lord will take His believers home soon. Let me tell you something. We began this message talking about the intensity of the love of God. God GAVE the best in His love – He gave His Son.
If you are going to be a worldly Christian, or a lazy one, or an uncommitted one, then you are not worthy of the depth of God’s love that GAVE His very best. You are a sham.
God’s love GAVE and then MADE children of God. If God has done all that, do you count your slackness as worthy of the response to so great a love? Get on your knees and totally rededicate yourselves to God afresh.
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
