What a Love

“Behold what manner of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God. Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when He shall be revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” (1John 3:1-2)

I agree with John. “...what manner of love the Father has given us...!” It’s a love we cannot know here on earth but only receive from the Father above. It’s a love we cannot understand. It’s the love that sent Jesus to be the Lamb of God for us. “In this the love of God was revealed in us, because God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation concerning our sins.” (1John 4:9-10)

When I give a Bible and a new Christian wants to start reading the Bible, I always direct them to start with the Gospel of John. John writes about the love of God. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) And Jesus came and suffered for us and took death for us, sinners, before we believed on Him. “But God commends His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) He loved us when we were His enemies. “For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” (Romans 5:10)

And God’s love goes beyond just merely rescuing us from our sins. He makes man His children. “But as many as received Him, He gave to them authority to become the children of God, to those who believe on His name, who were born, not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but were born of God.” (John 1:12-13) Children of God, not in name and position but legally and binding. And the Father gives His children gifts, the Spirit of His Son, Jesus and an inheritance. “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So that you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, also an heir of God through Christ.” (Galatians 4:6-7)

Our Scripture of study says the world doesn’t know us just like it didn’t know Jesus. We are aliens to them. What we think and our desires are opposite of the world’s. Our speech and actions are foreign to the world. As God’s children we live counter to the culture of the world which is ruled by the devil. Jesus said, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19)

We look like mere people of flesh and blood, but the time is coming when we will be revealed as children of God with glorified bodies when we return with Jesus. Know that those who refuse God’s love and refuse to follow Jesus will not receive glorified bodies. “But as it is written, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard," nor has it entered into the heart of man, "the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God.” (1Corinthians 2:9-10) We fail to remember in times of affliction and hardship that we are God’s children. We can walk above the fray. God Almighty is our Father, nothing is impossible with God. (Matthew 19:26) We know these things. But the reality is dimmed in this world. The time is coming when we will see clearly. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall fully know even as I also am fully known.” (1Corinthians 13:12)

When Jesus is revealed as Lord and King in all of His glory, we will be revealed as God’s children with all of our glory. “When Christ our Life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.” (Colossians 3:4) Here on earth, it’s hard to imagine what it will be like.

To recap, what a love so above our understanding that made us God’s children with gifts eternal and glorious that we cannot even imagine. “But as it is written, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard," nor has it entered into the heart of man, "the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1Corinthians 2:9)