I John 3: Children of God - who love one another!

I John 3 Children of God - who love one another!  

Knowing Father's Love
When you trusted Jesus as your Saviour, something happened.  Yes, you made a decision.  You asked God to come into your life.   But something happened to you.  You were “born again”.  Little Noah Mitchell didn't really do anything during his birth. Being born was something that happened to him.  Being born again is smoothing that happens to you.   You were born into a new kind of life that is going to last for ever (John 3. 16).  You became a new creature. (2 Cor 5. 17)  The “old you” has had its day; it has stepped into the background.  The new has arrived! 

John says something else happened, too:  God became your father!   When a  baby was born, in Roman or Jewish society 2000 years ago, the child's father would name the child.  By doing to, he accepted that child as his own.  We see this in the story of Joseph, who didn't have intimacy with Mary until her baby was born but then “He named him Jesus”. (Matt 1. 25) When Jesus aged twelve was found in the temple having disappeared for a day or two,  Mary told him “your father and I have been looking for you.” (Lk 2. 48)  That didn't mean that Joseph was Jesus' biological father, but that he had accepted that roll when he named Jesus.  In the Roman world – that was actually called “legitimation”.  The father accepted that the child was his, and gave the child the privileges of sonship.   When you were born again, you were born again into God's family.  God became your father.   He gave you three things that we all desperately need:
Acceptance.   The opposite, rejection, is one of the most devastating experiences.  We can experience rejection in lots of different ways:  someone said the first duty of a parent is to survive. A small child understands any disappearance of a parent as a rejection.  A parent who is always at work, a parent who is distant when at home, one who retreats into the shed or down to the pub
 or simply into a bottle at home, is rejecting his child.
Affection.  We need to know we are loved.   Your brain is still growing and developing right up until you are a teenager.  It is now known that being shown love literally makes the brain grow better,  so the neurons in the brain have more sprouts.  God says, hear this, “I love you!”  One of the amazing things that happened on Wednesday at Prayer Experience was that as people spent time in silent prayer, that was what God said.  “I love you!”
Affirmation.  We need to know we are OK.  Sure there are items when we need to know we are Downey something wrong.  If that's done in the right way it is discipline. It is something that can help a child to grow up strong and healthy.  But if it's done in the wrong way it's just another form of bullying and abuse.  Even as adults, we are much more likely to accept and act on one negative point of correction, if it comes along with five positives.  In terms of raising kids, that's five hugs to every punishment.

Listen, God has become your father.  God is not like your earthly Father.   Our earthly fathers have failed.  I am sharply aware of my failings as a dad: the items when I have been critical, harsh and inconsistent with my kids. Some of us have had absentee fathers; some of us have had fathers we were scared of, some of us have had fathers who withdrew into alcohol; some of us have had fathers who abused us.  God is not like that.    Rather, your earthly father, where he was any good as a Father, was a  bit like God.  Your Heavenly father gives you perfect Acceptance, perfect affection, perfect Affirmation.  

This wonderful thing, God becoming your father, you becoming his Child, is not just an idea, not just an empty title.  When we lived in Gloucester, my friend Roland happened to be Chaplain on HMS Gloucester.  When HMS Gloucester was given the freedom of the City, it involved a lot of ceremony.  But it didn't mean that much.  The ship's company paraded through the city centre.  But I imagine, if Roland went to the shops or pubs, and demanded free clothes, electrical goods and drinks, he would have realised how little “Freedom of the City” actually meant.John says it's more than empty words. It has actually happened.. John is quite clear about that.  What love the father has bestowed on us that we should be called the sons of god – and that is what we are. 

That's what we are.. as for what we will be, it's not seen yet, but, one day we are going to be like Jesus our “older brother”. What a wonderful thing to look forward to.... 

Showing Father's Love
The commands are important
If we really are God's kids we are going to make it our intention and our habit not to go out looking for bad stuff to do but to go out looking for the right stuff to do.  Jesus took our sins away. The very reason why he appeared was to destroy the works of the evil one.  So how, says John, can we possible continue deliberately as a regular thing, to to the devil's work for him.   if we are God's kids, the god DNA will change or attitudes. If we are God's kids, we will make it obvious who our dad actually is.   (v. 4-10)  It's not about earning our relationship with God.  It's the results of having that relationship with God.    Living in sin is an absurdity.  Yet it is an absurdity that we area all used to.  We are all stretching towards that day when we shall be like Jesus – but we ain't like Jesus yet.  John knows this. He ha already said “If we sin, we have an advocate with the Father...” (1 Jn 2. 1)

The command is love
And his command, the main command and the one that shows who we really belong to is to love one another.  John weaves the positive and negative sides of this together as he writes: If we're God's children we will love. If we don’t love, our relationship with God is suspect.   (v. 11-15)

Love is practical and sacrificial.
And that love has to be practical in the way it worked out.  Jesus laid down his life for us.  We love each other in a practical and sacrificial way.  Fellowship is not just about keeping the Church running.  It is not just having a cup of tea with a few people we happen to get on well with, after Morning worship. It is  having Jesus in common and caring for each other the way Jesus cared for us.  Sacrificially.   (v. 16-18)

The older I get the more I have a problem with Church.  You see, I have always believed in the Church.  I was brought up with Church. I was baptised in a Baptist Church when I was twelve years old and have been a church member since then. When I was a teenager and began to engage with what the Holy Spirit was doing in Scotland through the work of what was then Fountain Trust, we  were taught that the Holy Spirit is given not just to individual believers but to the Church; we each play or part in the body. When David Watson wrote his book “I believe in the Church” I agreed with him.  For thirty two years I have sought to lead churches into spiritual life, growth and mission.  The theme of Anglican Renewal Ministries I have always agreed with: “To be real it's got to be local”...   

The I have problems with the Church when the church becomes an institution that wants people to play their part; there are jobs to be done: finance, administration, buildings, children's work, Baptist Union and BMS all need attention.  Relationships easily take second place to all this stuff.  If we're not careful the idea of relationships is used as a way of manoeuvring us into doing the jobs, keeping the institution running.  I was hearing about a church recently that puts every new bloke who joins, on car park duty...

And yet on the other hand, if some sort of structures aren't there, it would be be very easy for church simply to be a loose association of people who have no relationships with or commitment to one another, like guys going to watch football.  The only thing that keeps these guys standing on the terraces is what the twenty-two guys are doing on the pitch....  You aren’t' family; you don't belong together.
We need to be more than an institution. We need to be more than a crowd who come together for an event – preaching or worship or whatever. We need to be family.  Knowing – and showing – the father's love.

Breaking the cycle of condemnation
When we hit crisis moments, and wonder how saved we really are, and maybe think “I'm not a very loving person; I haven't really loved by brothers like God loves me.”   If when we come to pray, seeking the face of this big, loving Father in heaven, we are struck by a sinking feeling that says,“I just don't come near to your standard..” we need to remember to rely on Father's knowledge of us, not our knowledge of ourselves.  Father knows everything about us. He knows our hearts. He knows us better than we know ourselves, and still he doesn’t condemn us! 

So we can break out of the cycle of condemnation.  It's when – because we hear what God says – our own hearts can't get a word in edgeways, that we can pray with confidence.   And confidence will bring answers to prayer – dramatic, generous – real answers to prayer.  We will receive what we ask for.  We will live closer than ever to Jesus; and we will know the Spirit's power in our lives.


© Gilmour Lilly February 2012