1 JOHN 3 COMMENTARY

EDITED BY GLENN PEASE

1 See what great 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.

1.BARNES, Behold, what manner of love - What love, in kind and in degree. In kind the most tender and the most ennobling, in adopting us into His family, and in permitting us to address Him as our Father; in degree the most exalted, since there is no higher love that can be shown than in adopting a poor and friendless orphan, and giving him a parent and a home. Even God could bestow upon us no more valuable token of affection than that we should be adopted into His family, and permitted to regard Him as our Father. When we remember how insignificant we are as creatures, and how ungrateful, rebellious, and vile we have been as sinners, we may well be amazed at the love which would adopt us into the holy family of God, so that we may be regarded and treated as the children of the Most High. A prince could manifest no higher love for a wandering, ragged, vicious orphan boy, found in the streets, than by adopting him into his own family, and admitting him to the same privileges and honors as his own sons; and yet this would be a trifle compared with the honor which God has bestowed on us.

The Father hath bestowed upon us - God, regarded as a Father, or as at the head of the universe considered as one family.

That we should be called the sons of God - That is, that we should be the sons of God - the word called being often used in the sense of to be. On the nature and privileges of adoption, see the Rom_8:15-17 notes; 2Co_6:18 note, and practical remarks on that chapter.

Therefore the world knoweth us not - Does not understand our principles; the reasons of our conduct; the sources of our comforts and joys. The people of the world regard us as fanatics or enthusiasts; as foolish in abandoning the pleasures and pursuits which they engage in; as renouncing certain happiness for that which is uncertain; as cherishing false and delusive hopes in regard to the future, and as practicing needless austerities, with nothing to compensate for the pleasures which are abandoned. There is nothing which the frivolous, the ambitious, and the selfish less understand than they do the elements which go into the Christians character, and the nature and source of the Christians joys.

Because it knew him not - It did not know the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, the world had no right views of the real character of the Lord Jesus when he was on the earth. They mistook him for an enthusiast or an impostor; and it is no wonder that, having wholly mistaken his character, they should mistake ours. On the fact that the world did not know him, see the 1Co_2:8 note;

Act_3:17 note. Compare Joh_17:25. On the fact that Christians may be expected to be regarded and treated as their Saviour was, see the notes at Joh_15:18-20. Compare Mat_10:24-25.

2. CLARKE, Behold, what manner of love - Whole volumes might be written upon this and the two following verses, without exhausting the extraordinary subject contained in them, viz., the love of God to man. The apostle himself, though evidently filled with God, and walking in the fullness of his light, does not attempt to describe it; he calls on the world and the Church to behold it, to look upon it, to contemplate it, and wonder at it.

What manner of love. - What great love, both as to quantity and quality; for

these ideas are included in the original term. The length, the breadth, the depth, the height, he does not attempt to describe.

The Father hath bestowed - For we had neither claim nor merit that we should be called, that is, constituted or made, the sons of God, who were before children of the wicked one, animal, earthly, devilish; therefore, the love which brought us from such a depth of misery and

degradation must appear the more extraordinary and impressive. After , that we might

be called, , and we are, is added by ABC, seventeen others, both the Syriac, Erpens

Arabic, Coptic, Sahidic, Ethiopic, Slavonic, and Vulgate.

Therefore the world - The Jews, and all who know not God, and are seeking their portion in this life; knoweth us not - do not acknowledge, respect, love, or approve of us. In this sense

the word is here to be understood. The world Knew well enough that there were such

persons; but they did not approve of them. We have often seen that this is a frequent use of the term know, both in Hebrew and Greek, in the Old Testament and also in the New.

Because it knew him not - The Jews did not acknowledge Jesus; they neither approved of him, his doctrine, nor his manner of life.

3. GILL, Behold what manner of love,.... See, take notice, consider, look by faith, with wonder and astonishment, and observe how great a favour, what an instance of matchless love, what a wonderful blessing of grace, the Father hath bestowed upon us: the Father of Christ, and the Father of us in Christ, who hath adopted us into his family, and regenerated us by his grace, and hath freely given us the new name: that we should be called the sons of God. The Alexandrian copy, and some others, and the Vulgate Latin version, add, "and we are", or "be"; and the Ethiopic version, "and have been"; for it is not a mere name that is bestowed, but the thing itself in reality; and in the Hebrew language, "to be called", and "to be", are terms synonymous; see Isa_9:6; in what sense the saints are the sons of God; See Gill on Gal_4:6; this blessing comes not by nature, nor by merit, but by grace, the grace of adoption; which is of persons unto an inheritance they have no legal right unto; the spring of it is the everlasting and unchangeable love of God, for there was no need on the adopter's side, he having an only begotten and beloved Son, and no worth and loveliness in the adopted, they being by nature children of wrath; it is a privilege that exceeds all

others, and is attended with many; so that it is no wonder the apostle breaks out in this pathetic manner, and calls upon the saints to view it with admiration and thankfulness: therefore the world knoweth us not; that is, the greater part of the world, the world that lies in wickedness, the men of the world, who have their portion in this life, whom the god of this world has blinded, and who only mind the things of the world, and are as when they came into it, and have their conversation according to the course of it; these do not know the saints are the sons of God; the new name of sons is what no man knoweth but he that receiveth it; they do not own the saints as theirs, as belonging to them, but reckon them as the faith of the world, and the offscouring of all things; nor do they love them, and that because they are not their own, but hate them and persecute them: the reason is, because it knew him not; neither the Father, whose sons they are, and who has bestowed the grace upon them; wherefore they know not, and disown and persecute his children; see Joh_17:25; nor the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father, the firstborn among many brethren; who, though he made the world, and was in it, was not known by it, but was hated, abused, and persecuted; and therefore it need not seem strange that the saints, who are the sons of God by adoption, should be treated in like manner.

4. HENRY, The apostle, having shown the dignity of Christ's faithful followers, that they are born of him and thereby nearly allied to God, now here,

I. Breaks forth into the admiration of that grace that is the spring of such a wonderful vouchsafement: Behold (see you, observe) what manner of love, or how great love, the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called, effectually called (he who calls things that are not makes them to be what they were not) the sons of God! The Father adopts all the children of the Son. The Son indeed calls them, and makes them his brethren; and thereby he confers upon them the power and dignity of the sons of God. It is wonderful condescending love of the eternal Father, that such as we should be made and called his sons - we who by nature are heirs of sin, and guilt, and the curse of God - we who by practice are children of corruption, disobedience, and ingratitude! Strange, that the holy God is not ashamed to be called our Father, and to call us his sons! Thence the apostle,

II. Infers the honour of believers above the cognizance of the world. Unbelievers know little of

them. Therefore (or wherefore, upon this score) the world knoweth us not, 1Jo_3:1. Little does

the world perceive the advancement and happiness of the genuine followers of Christ. They are

here exposed to the common calamities of earth and time; all things fall alike to them as to

others, or rather they are subject to the greater sorrow, for they have often reason to say, If in

this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable, 1Co_15:19. The

unchristian world, therefore, that walks by sight, knows not their dignity, their privileges, the

enjoyments they have in hand, nor what they are entitled to. Little does the world think that

these poor, humble, contemned ones are the favourites of heaven, and will be inhabitants there

ere long. And they may bear their case the better since their Lord was here unknown as well as

they: Because it knew him not, 1Jo_3:1. Little did the world think how great a person was once

sojourning here, that the Maker of it was once an inhabitant of it. Little did the Jewish world

think that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was one of their blood, and dwelt in their land;

he came to his own, and his own received him not. He came to his own, and his own crucified

him; but surely, had they known him, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, 1Co_2:8.

Let the followers of Christ be content with hard fare here, since they are in a land of strangers,

among those who little know them, and their Lord was so treated before them. Then the apostle,

5. JAMISON, 1Jo_3:1-24. Distinguishing marks of the children of God and the children of the devil. Brotherly love the essence of true righteousness.

Behold calling attention, as to some wonderful exhibition, little as the world sees to admire. This verse is connected with the previous 1Jo_2:29, thus: All our doing of righteousness is a mere sign that God, of His matchless love, has adopted us as children; it does not save us, but is a proof that we are saved of His grace.

what manner of of what surpassing excellence, how gracious on His part, how precious to us.

love ... bestowed He does not say that God hath given us some gift, but love itself and the fountain of all honors, the heart itself, and that not for our works or efforts, but of His grace [Luther].

that what manner of love; resulting in, proved by, our being, etc. The immediate effect aimed at in the bestowal of this love is, that we should be called children of God.

should be called should have received the privilege of such a glorious title (though seeming so imaginary to the world), along with the glorious reality. With God to call is to make really to be. Who so great as God? What nearer relationship than that of sons? The oldest manuscripts add, And we ARE SO really.

therefore on this account, because we are (really) so.

us the children, like the Father.

it knew him not namely, the Father. If they who regard not God, hold thee in any account, feel alarmed about thy state [Bengel]. Contrast 1Jo_5:1. The worlds whole course is one great act of non-recognition of God.

6. C. SIMEON, BELIEVERS ARE SONS OF GOD

1Jn_3:1. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the

sons of God.

RELIGION is altogether a mystery: every part of it is deeply mysterious. The restoration of a fallen soul to

God! The means of effecting that restoration the death of Gods only dear Son, as a sacrifice for sin;

and the operation of his Spirit in the sinners heart! The effect producedthe translation of a soul from the

family of Satan to the family of Almighty God! This is the point which the Apostle is contemplating in my

text: and it fills him, as we might well expect, with the profoundest wonder and admiration: Behold, what

manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!

That we may enter into the Apostles views, and attain somewhat of his spirit, I will endeavour to shew,

I. What is comprehended in the relation of sons

No one need to be informed on this subject, as far as it relates to men. But in the relation as borne to

God, there is much which needs to be elucidated. In it are comprehended,

1. An adoption into his family

[By nature, we belong to a far different family: for we are of our father the devil: and, being children of

disobedience, we are also children of wrath. But God takes to himself a people out of that wretched

mass, and adopts them as his own; giving to them the name of sons, the privileges of sons, the

endearments of sons, and acting towards them in all respects as a loving Father It is in and

through the Lord Jesus Christ that he effects this. In sending his Son to redeem them that were under

the law, he did it, that we might receive the adoption of sons [Note: Gal_4:4-5.].]

2. A participation of his nature

[When man adopts any person, he may deal with the adopted person as his son; but he can never really

make him a son. But when God sets apart any for this high relation, he creates them anew, and makes

them entirely new creatures. He imparts to them his Holy Spirit, and makes them partakers of the divine

nature [Note: 2Pe_1:4.]; so that they become, in reality, his sons; being begotten of him, and born unto

him [Note: 1Jn_5:1; 1Jn_5:18.]. Hence, with the new relation, there spring up in their souls new views,

new dispositions, new desires, new habits altogether [Note: Gal_4:6 and Rom_8:15-16.]: and in God also

there arises, not a mere arbitrary good-will, but a paternal interest, a special regard, such as exists in

every part of the creation between the parent and the progeny. All this, then, is comprehended, (this

change of nature on their part, and this peculiar regard on his,) when we speak of any as made sons of

God.]

3. A title to his inheritance

[This does not necessarily exist among men; but with God it does. Every one that is born of him, is

begotten to an inheritance, even an inheritance that fadeth not away [Note: 1Pe_1:1; 1Pe_1:3-4.]. If we

are sons, we are also heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ [Note: Rom_8:17.]. There is this

peculiarity also attaching to the children of God: they are all his first-born [Note: Exo_4:22. Heb_12:23.].

They are the brethren of Christ; and partakers with him in all that he himself inheritshis throne, his

kingdom, his glory [Note: Rev_2:21. Joh_17:22.].]

And now let us contemplate

II. The wonderful love of God, in bringing us into that relation to himself

When it is said, We are called the sons of God, it means that we are really made so. And this change is

altogether the effect of Gods unbounded love. Behold, then, what manner of love this is:

1. How sovereign!

[It is wholly unmerited on our part. There never was, there never could be, any thing in us to attract the

Divine regards, since every imagination of the thoughts of our hearts was only evil continually. In the

selection of his objects, God was as free as in the choice of Abraham from amidst an idolatrous world, or

of Isaac and Jacob in preference to their elder brethren. In conferring this high honour, God has respect

only to his own will, and to the glory of his own name. This is marked with peculiar strength and force by

the Apostle Paul, when, speaking on this very subject, he says, God has predestinated us to the

adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of

the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved [Note: Eph_1:5-6.]. In truth, He

loved us because he would love us [Note: Deu_7:7-8.]: and because he loved us with an everlasting

love, therefore with loving-kindness hath he drawn us [Note: Jer_31:3.].]

2. How beyond all human expectation!

[If man adopt any one, it is because, having no progeny of his own, he feels a want of some one to

succeed to his estates: and in conferring this favour, he has respect to some qualities in the person

selected by him. But God has no need of us. We can never add either to his happiness or glory. Or, if he

needed any creatures to be objects of his favour, he could create any number, either of angels or men, as

it should please him, and make them the happy objects of his choice. But it is not thus that he has acted.

He has chosen from amongst men, corrupt and sinful men, multitudes, who shall in time, be born to him,

and in eternity enjoy him. Nor is it of the best of men that he has made his selection, but often of the

vilest. Even a murderous Manasseh has been made a vessel of honour, and a monument of grace; whilst

millions of persons, less guilty, have been passed by. If we ask the reason of this, our Lord assigns the

only reason that can be given: Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. The potter has power

over the clay, to do with it as seemeth him good: and shall the thing formed say to him that formed it,

Why hast thou made me thus [Note: Rom_9:20-21.]? True it is, that, in reference to this matter, we must

say, as David did in reference to the favours conferred on him, Is this the manner of men, O Lord God

[Note: 2Sa_7:19.]? No; it is not the manner of men; nor ought it to be: because man has a claim on his

fellow-man; but we have no claim whatever on God. He might have left us to perish, precisely as he did

the fallen angels, and never have saved so much as one: and, if he have saved one, that person has

reason to exclaim with wonder, Why have I been taken, whilst so many others have been left? God, in all

this matter, does as it pleaseth him; and he giveth not account to us of any of his matters: His ways are

not as our ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts: but as the heavens are high above the earth, so are

his ways higher than our ways, and his thoughts than our thoughts [Note: Isa_55:8-9.].]

3. How utterly incomprehensible!

[So the Apostle declares the love of Christ to be: it has a breadth, and length, and depth, and height, that

passeth knowledge [Note: Eph_3:18-19.], and defies the search of the brightest intelligence of heaven.

To all eternity will the wonders of this grace be unfolding; and to all eternity will it remain as far from being

fully comprehended, as it was at the very first moment it was revealed. Indeed, we must comprehend the

infinite distance between the glorious Creator and his rebellious creatures; and then go on yet further, to

comprehend all the wonders of redemption, before we can comprehend the smallest portion of this

mystery. We must close our meditations, after all, with that with which we have commenced them: What

manner of love is this which the Father hath bestowed upon us!]

Behold then, brethren, behold it: Behold it, I say,

1. With due solicitude to ascertain the fact

[God has bestowed this favour upon millions: but hath he bestowed it upon us? In this inquiry we are

deeply interested: nor should any one of us leave it as a matter of doubt for one single hour. But you will

ask, Can this point be ascertained? By the world around us, I readily acknowledge, it cannot be

ascertained: and, if we profess to have been brought into this relation to God, we must not wonder that

the world ascribe our pretensions to the workings of pride and presumption. For they know nothing of

God, or of his operations upon the souls of men: how, therefore, should they be able to judge of our

claims in this matter? The Apostle, in the words following my text, justly adds, Therefore the world

knoweth us not, because it knew him not. But we may ascertain the point ourselves; for we have a

standard by which to try ourselves; and we may examine ourselves by it without any difficulty. St. John

elsewhere says, To as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even

to them that believe on his name; who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of

man, but of God [Note: Joh_1:12-13.]. Here are the very relations of which we are speaking, and the

means by which we are brought into it, and the test whereby we are to try ourselves. Inquire, then,

whether you have ever received the Lord Jesus Christ into your hearts by faith, and whether you are

living altogether by faith on him? If you have never come to Christ as lost sinners, and cast

yourselves wholly upon him, you know infallibly that you are not yet brought into this relation of sons of

God. But if Christ be all your salvation and all your desire, then you possess this high privilege; for we

are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus [Note: Gal_3:26]: and, if you look up to God for the gift

of his Holy Spirit, he will shine upon his own work, and give you his Spirit, to witness with your spirits,

that you are indeed the children of God [Note: Rom_8:16.]. Again then I say, Leave not this matter in

suspense; but examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith, and try your own selves: and never rest,

till you can adopt the words of our text with a special reference to your own souls.]

2. With a becoming zeal to walk worthy of this high calling

[Certainly, this relation brings with it corresponding duties. If you are made sons of God, it is that you may

serve and honour him as dear children. How this is to be done, St. Paul informs us: Be blameless, and

harmless, as sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, amongst whom

ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life [Note: Php_2:15-16.]. Well, indeed, may the

world cry out against your vain conceit, if you are not walking worthy of your high calling. God has called

you, that you should be holy: and if you have in you the hope of which we have been speaking, then will

you purify yourselves, even as Christ is pure [Note: ver. 3.]. Look to it, then, that you walk as becometh

saints, in all holiness and righteousness before God and man. By this test will you be tried at the last day;

and all your professions of faith in Christ will be found a delusion, if you shew not your faith by your

works. But, if God have, indeed, bestowed this honour upon you, then will his love have a constraining

influence upon your souls; and you will strive to be holy, as he is holy, and perfect, even as your Father

which is in heaven is perfect.]

7. CALVIN, 1Behold The second argument is from the dignity and excellency of our calling; for it was

not common honor, he says, that the heavenly Father bestowed on us, when he adopted us as his

children. This being so great a favor, the desire for purity ought to be kindled in us, so as to be conformed

to his image; nor, indeed, can it be otherwise, but that he who acknowledges himself to be one of God

children should purify himself. And to make this exhortation more forcible, he amplifies the favor of God;

for when he says, that love has been bestowed, he means that it is from mere bounty and benevolence

that God makes us his children; for whence comes to us such a dignity, except from the love of God?

Love, then, is declared here to be gratuitous. There is, indeed, an impropriety in the language; but the

Apostle preferred speaking thus rather than not to express what was necessary to be known. He, in short,

means that the more abundantly God goodness has been manifested towards us, the greater are our

obligations to him, according to the teaching of Paul, when he besought the Romans by the mercies of

God to present themselves as pure sacrifices to him. (Rom_12:1.) We are at the same time taught, as I

have said, that the adoption of all the godly is gratuitous, and does not depend on any regard to works.

What the sophists say, that God foresees those who are worthy to be adopted, is plainly refuted by these

words, for, in this way the gift would not be gratuitous. It behooves us especially to understand this

doctrine; for since the only cause of our salvation is adoption, and since the Apostle testifies that this

flows from the mere love of God alone, there is nothing left to our worthiness or to the merits of works. For

why are we sons? Even because God began to love us freely, when we deserved hatred rather than love.

And as the Spirit is a pledge of our adoption, it hence follows, that if there be any good in us, it ought not

to be set up in opposition to the grace of God, but, on the contrary, to be ascribed to him.

When he says that we are called, or named, the expression is not without its meaning; for it is God who

with his own mouth declares us to be sons, as he gave a name to Abraham according to what he

was. (75)

Therefore the world It is a trial that grievously assaults our faith, that we are not so much regarded as

God children, or that no mark of so great an excellency appears in us, but that, on the contrary, almost

the whole world treats us with ridicule and contempt. Hence it can hardly be inferred from our present

state that God is a Father to us, for the devil so contrives all things as to obscure this benefit. He obviates

this offense by saying that we are not as yet acknowledged to be such as we are, because the world

knows not God: a remarkable example of this very thing is found in Isaac and Jacob; for though both

were chosen by God, yet Ishmael persecuted the former with laughter and taunts; and Esau, the latter

with threats and the sword. However, then, we may be oppressed by the world, still our salvation remains

safe and secure.

(75) Calvin, like our version, renders , but the word would be better rendered we should be

called the children of God. The passage might be thus paraphrased, what great proof of love the Father

hath given us, that we should be made the children of God Ed

8. KRETZMANN, The Glory, Privileges, and Obligations of Sonship.

The beauty of the sonship of God:

v. 1. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the

sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him. not.

v. 2. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we

know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.

v. 3. And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.

It was righteousness in life and conduct which the apostle had been urging. He now introduces another

motive for such conduct: See how great a love the Father has given to us that we should be called the

sons of God, and are. The Christians should behold and see, they should use the eyes of both body and

mind, they should concentrate their attention upon that miracle, upon that mystery, that we should be

honored with the name of children of God. To have been taken out of the state of wrath and damnation

and to have been placed into such intimate fellowship with God as to have been born anew through the

power of His Spirit in the Word, that is the experience which we have had. Children of God, that is what

we are by faith in Christ Jesus, Gal_3:26, sons of God, led by the Spirit of God, heirs of God and joint-

heirs with Christ, Rom_8:14-17. The image of God, lost by the Fall, is being renewed in us. once more,

Christ Himself is being formed in us. Gal_4:19. What unspeakable, immeasurable majesty is ours! With

this assurance in our hearts we can well bear what the apostle tells us: For this reason the world does not

know us, because it does not know Him. The children of this world will not know, will not acknowledge us,

will consider us beneath their notice, because we are the children of God, with all that this relation

implies. The world did not know, did not acknowledge God as the Lord, did not accept Him in faith, and

therefore it cannot possibly enter into friendly relations with us. His children; the unbelievers refuse to

acknowledge the new, spiritual, divine character which the Christians show.

For our comfort, however, the apostle repeats and amplifies his statement: Beloved, now are we the

children of God, and not yet has it been manifested what we shall be; we know that, when it shall be

manifested, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. By nature we were the children of wrath

and of Satan, but now, by our conversion, we have become and are children of God. Of that fact we are

assured in so many passages of Scriptures that there can be no doubt in our minds. This confidence is

not shaken either by the statement that it has not yet been manifested what we shall be. Although we

have the certainty of our sonship even now and enjoy many of its blessings, yet the full glory of our future

state has not yet been revealed to us. But when that revelation will take place, on the day when Christ will

appear to us in the fullness of His glory, then we shall be like God the Lord, as nearly like Him as it is

possible for creatures to become; then the image of God will be restored in us in the perfection of its

beauty; then we shall be holy and righteous before Him. No longer shall we then view Him through a

glass, darkly, but we shall see God face to face, as He is, in all the inexpressible beauty of His holiness

and love. This seeing of God will, at the same time, be the means by which the image of God in us will

ever again be renewed and kept in the fullness of its glory. That is the certain hope of the believers, a

confidence which cannot fail.

It is self-evident, then, for a Christian: And every one that has this hope resting upon Him will purify

himself, just as He is pure. Every one without exception that clings to this hope of the final glorious

revelation, every one that rests his confidence in God, as the Author and Finisher of his salvation, will find

it self-evident that he separates and cleanses himself from all defilements and carnal allurements, from

everything that is an abomination in the sight of God. We have the example of Christ before our eyes

always, as one who was perfectly pure and holy. It is impossible for Christians that have such hope in

their hearts any longer to serve sin. This hope nourishes and strengthens the new life which was created

in us in regeneration unto the genuine righteousness of life.

9. GREAT TEXTS, The Love that Confers Sonship

Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God:

and such we are.1Jn_3:1.

1. St. John writes this Epistle on the highest peak of the sunlit summits of Gods new revelation in Jesus Christ. The Epistle is full of brightness. Every sentence tingles, and pulses, and throbs with the joy of the daylight, and flashes back the glory in streaming brightness to heaven. A new commandment write I unto you, so the music flows on, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light already shineth. How John basks and revels in the sunlight! Light streams everywhere around him. God is light. The light is shining. We walk in the light, even as he is in the light. What has happened? The Dayspring has appeared from on high. The Sun of Righteousness has risen upon the world with healing in His beams. And then John sees the eternal light mirror itself on the clouded sky of this world in an arch of holy beauty, and his music grows soft and sweet as he sings, God is love. Behold what manner of love the

Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God.1 [Note: J. Thomas, Myrtle Street Pulpit, iii.

323.]

The Missionary Ziegenbalg tells us that in translating this text with the aid of a Hindu youth, the youth rendered it that we should be allowed to kiss His feet. When asked why he thus diverged from the text he said, Children of God! that is too muchtoo high! Such shrinking was excusable in heathen converts, to whom these truths came in a burst of light too dazzling for their weak eyes. It is not excusable in us. In us it involves nothing less than a denial of the faith which is the sole source of that

holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.2 [Note: F. W. Farrar, Truths to Live By, 188.]

2. The Apostle uses the word children, not sons as in the Authorized Version. He would call attention, not as St. Paul, who uses sons, to the adoptive act, but to the antecedent, eternal, natural relation. God has freely given us His love, in order that our title may be children of Godand, in the true reading, he adds, and such we are. Children we now are, in recognized name, in real fact; what we shall be hereafter we know not; but that shall be manifested in due time; and when it is manifested, then, beloved, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. When we wake up after His likeness, we shall be

satisfied with it. The image which we now bear shall become the perfect semblance. We shall be like clouds, cradled near the sun, dyed, bathed, transfused with its glowing beams; their lurid menace softened, their darkness palpitating with reflected splendourtheir very substance transformed from gloom to whiteness, from whiteness to crimson, from crimson to gold, from gold to sunbeamschanged into the same image, from glory to glory. Oh! how shall I, whose native sphere Is dark, whose mind is dim, Before the Ineffable appear, And on my naked spirit bear That uncreated beam? There is a way for man to rise To that sublime abode: An offering and a sacrifice, A Holy Spirits energies, An Advocate with God. These, these prepare us for the sight Of Holiness above; The sons of ignorance and night May dwell in the Eternal Light!

Through the Eternal Love.1 [Note: Thomas Binney.]

I

The Wonder of the Fathers Love

1. Gods love is original and spontaneous. Love is that mysterious power by which we live in the lives of others, and are thus moved to benevolent and even self-sacrificing action on their behalf. Such love is, after all, one of the most universal things in humanity. But always natural human love is a flame that must be kindled and fed by some quality in its object. It finds its stimulus in physical instinct, in gratitude, in admiration, in mutual congeniality and liking. Always it is, in the first place, a passive emotion, determined and drawn forth by an external attraction. But the love of God is an ever-springing fountain. Its fires are self-kindled. It is love that shines forth in its purest splendour upon the unattractive, the unworthy, the repellent. Herein is love, in its purest essence and highest potency, not in our love to God, but in this, that God loved us. Hence follows the apparently paradoxical consequence, upon which the Epistle lays a

unique emphasis, that our love to God is not even the most godlike manifestation of love in us. It is gratitude for His benefits, adoration of His perfections, our response to Gods love to us, but not its closest reproduction in kind. In this respect, indeed, Gods love to man and mans love to God form the opposite poles, as it were, of the universe of love, the one self-created and owing nothing to its object, the other entirely dependent upon and owing everything to the infinite perfection of its object; the one the overarching sky, the other merely its reflection on the still surface of the lake. And it is, as the Epistle insists, not in our love to God, but in our Christian love to our fellow-men, that the Divine love is reproduced, with a relative perfection, in us. In my old parish there was a little loch in the midst of the forest, and I was fond of visiting it. Its chief attraction for me was the multitude of wild birds which peopled its banks and islets; and once I observed a novelty. I had been accustomed to see there all manner of familiar water-fowlcoot, ducks, swans; but that evening I noticed others such as I had never seen beforebirds of brilliant plumage, crimson, blue, and glossy green. And I recognized them as strangers from another clime than ours, from some far-off land where the air is warmer and the sun shines brighter and paints everything in gaudier hues. I said: These are no natives: they are foreign birds; and I learned by and by that they had been imported from Africa. And this is precisely the thought in the Apostles mind. That love, he says, the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, is a love which never sprang from earths cold soil. It is from some far-off region; it is from

Heaven itself. Behold what unearthly love the Father hath bestowed upon us!1 [Note: D. Smith, Mans Need of God,

139.]

2. In the Apostles eulogy of love we find his memories of Jesus crystallized. To St. John the love of God was something more than wonderful. He was now a hoary-headed saint. He had laid his head in his youth on Jesus bosom, and was beginning to realize the love of God in Christ even then. Even then, as he looked up into those human eyes, the reality of Gods love had flowed into his consciousness. But there was more to be known than he knew at the supper table. As he stood by the cross, it may be that in those moments, when faith triumphed, the love of God became still more a reality. As he gathered with that little chosen band round the Person of the risen Lord, and saw that Face radiant with resurrection glory, the love of God was already a stronger power within his being. As the mighty Spirit at Pentecost came down and shook the house, and filled their hearts, and as he himself, as one of the first missionaries, went forth to tell the glad tidings of great joy, the love of God had already begun to be a stronger power within him still. Now, his head is hoary, the winter of age has gathered round him, life is fast receding, the world is disappearing, and eternity is drawing near. But it would seem that in each fresh step of his human career he had attained a fresh revelation of this Divine object, and now, in his last days, he calls upon all the world to gaze upon it, as if it were the most attractive of all spectacles. Behold, he says, as though he would fain draw aside the curtain of unbelief, and reveal to man that which man most requires to know,Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. The phrase which the Apostle employs is remarkablelove the Father hath given to us. Not the love the Father hath felt, or manifested toward us, but the love He hath given to us. It reminds us of another remarkable passage in the Gospel of this same Apostle. God so loved the world that he gaveHe gavehis only begotten Son. As John began writing this sentence, Behold what manner of love, it would seem that the love gathered shape and form before his mind, embodied itself in the form of the incarnate Son. It refused to remain an abstract conception, a mere principle. It took shape, it became the incarnate love,Gods unspeakable gift to man. And so John finished his sentence thus, the Father hath given to us. And then there was another thought that would suggest the word give. There was another way in which the Divine love was embodied before the eye of John. John saw that love embodied in the distinction, the honour, the glory conferred on those that believe in Jesus Christ. He saw the Divine love in the love-gift, the glorious bounty of God towards those who believe in Jesus Christ. And so John declares that the believers title to power and honour is Gods love-gift, the gift of His free love. You

cannot go behind that love for an explanation. It is the gift of Gods free elective love.1 [Note: J. Thomas, Myrtle

Street Pulpit, iii. 328.]

3. The love of God finds its type and shadow in the love of parents for their children. There is no love that we understand so well as a parents love. It is the first love we know, and every day of our early years gave us fresh and sweet illustrations of it. There is no love so pure, so disinterested, so unselfish. The affections of friendship and wedded life are strong, tender, passionate, and fervent, but in them there is always a more or less selfish joy. We get as much as we give. The parents love for a little child looks for no return. It is unlimited, uncalculating grace. It is given freely before there can be the least thought or ability to reciprocate it. It is given to helplessness, feebleness, ignorance, incapacity. It is an immense delight in that which has nothing to commend itself. It is an unbounded joy in that which by ordinary reason should evoke only pity. It is a holy sentiment which sets at nought literal fact and common sense. There is no logic in it. It has no apparent cause. It is inexplicable. It is one of the great mysteries of life. We should not believe it possible if we had never seen it; yet it is everywhere, and it is everywhere a symbol of the Divine, a proof of the Divine. The love of the Almighty for us is wonderful. It is well-nigh incredible. But there it is! Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God. I have a formidable book in my library which contains an elaborate treatise on Divine love. It is wonderfully clever. It soars through all the heights of metaphysics, and dives through all the deeps of mysticism; but though you are pursuing Divine love all the way you seem to lose it more and more in thick clouds of words, and at last give it up in despair. It is a wonderful relief then to come upon such words as these (you have not to wear the brain to tatters in comprehending them): Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God. Gods greatness we cannot grasp, Gods wisdom is unsearchable, but Gods love is something that any heart can hold and any mind picture. It is higher than the heavens and deeper than all seas, yet it is so homely and so human and so near that to realize it you have but to take some dear child of your own upon your knees, and express in

tender kisses what you are to that child and what the child is to you.1 [Note: J. G. Greenhough, The Cross in Modern Life,

64.]

II

The Design of the Fathers Love

1. God bestows His love in order that He may call us children. The Scriptures seem to run on two lines in their teaching about the Divine Fatherhood. In the Epistles it is always the followers of Christ who are called sons of Godsons and daughters of the Almightythey only. But in the wider language of the Master the Fatherhood of God is as universal as humanity; every man, woman, and child received from those sacred lips his title-deed to a Divine sonship; every human mouth was commissioned to say Our Father. The larger thought and the narrower thought are equally beautiful and equally true. We are all His children by right; there is something of His image in all. There are possibilities of large Divine growth in all, and there is a place for all in His almighty heart of love. But only they who know it and rejoice in it are children in actuality and possession. Only those to whom it is an inspiration, an incentive to obedience, a source of immeasurable hope, a furnace kindling love, are sons indeed. The rest are children in possibility, but outcasts in fact. They have a great inheritance, but they are ignorant of it or despise it. They walk through life as orphans, though a Fathers love is ever stooping at their feet. It is only as we believe it that the wealth and dignity of it become ours. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God. 2. The purpose of the Fathers love is not only to call us children but to make us morally and spiritually true children, to bring us into right relations with Himself. We might have been told that He is our Father by creation, and that He hates nothing that He has made; that He is the Father of our spirits especially, and would place a merciful limit to His contendings with us, lest the spirit should fail before Him. But we require something more than this. We desire a Father to look to, and love, and trust; a Father to run to in danger, and take counsel with in doubt, to listen to us when no other friend will, and to help us when no other friend can. We cannot bear to think that God should be indifferent to us, as if we were the seed of

the stranger; but would fain feel that He loves us, as being His own children by adoption and grace. And, in Christ Jesus, we may feel this. We were made children by Him who taught us to call God Father. Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Our spiritual pedigree is traced easily. Faith makes us Christs; being Christs, we are made sons; being sons, we become heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. The words of the Apostle mean much more than that God is the Father of all men. Creation does not amount to parentage. All force and meaning would disappear from our text if we were to suppose that the power, the right, to become children of God, which is mens as the result of believing in Christs name, was simply a re-statement of the doctrine of creation. We may use the fact that God has created us as the basis of our hope that men may become His children, but that does not identify creation with fatherhood. St. Paul said to the men of Athens, In him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. But these statements are immeasurably below the truth. Paul held, in common with John and Peter, that believers in Christ are the children of the

heavenly Father.1 [Note: A. Mackennal, The Eternal Son of God, 36.]

There is a Fatherhood of God, what the theologians call His creative Fatherhood, which includes all the race. There is still a higher, His redemptive Fatherhood, which includes all who come back home to the Father through Jesus. Man became a prodigal. He left his Father. He still remains a son creatively, but has cut himself off from the Father by sin. When he returns he becomes a son in a new higher sense also, a redeemed son. The Holy Spirit puts the child spirit into his heart, and he instinctively calls God

Father again.1 [Note: S. D. Gordon, Quiet Talks on Home Ideals, 146.]

I know of no satisfactory account of the Divine Fatherhood. Dr. Candlish wrote a book on the subject which I read thirty years ago or more; it did not satisfy me at the time, but I think there were some good things in it. I have often preached about it and have a theory; but I do not remember that there is anything to indicate my position in what I have published. The main points seem to me to be these: (1) Our ideal relation to God is that of sons; this comes from our creation in Christ. (2) Sonship involves community of lifelife derived from life. But the life of God has essentially an ethical quality; it is a holy life. (3) Ethical quality cannot be simply given; it must be freely appropriated. We were created to be sons; but to be sons really and in fact we must freely receive and realize in character the holiness of God. (4) There is a potency of sonship in every man, and ideally every man is a son; but it is only as a man becomes like God that he actually becomes a son. This, in the case of all who know Christ, is effected initially by receiving Christ; when He is freely accepted as the Root and Lord of life the principle of sonship is in us. This approaches the Divine Fatherhood from the human side; but I think that it is in this way that we can

best approach it.2 [Note: The Life of R. W. Dale, 654.]

Some time ago a woman died in an institution on Blackwells Island, who was found, afterwards, to have been a descendant of an English earl. Her birthright entitled her to a high position, but she had led a dissipated life and died a paupers death. With a name and a nature which unite us to God, shall we live

like homeless waifs and die like paupers?3 [Note: J. I. Vance, Tendency, 213.]

3. In calling us children, God confers a new status, a high privilege, upon us. His desire is not merely to bring us into a true spiritual relation and condition, but to give us new rank, dignity and honour. It is the rank given by God to the children of the new kingdom, and this kingdom was inaugurated by the coming of Jesus Christ. From that there follow two or three important facts. The first is that the saints of the old dispensation did not obtain this honour, this rank did not belong to them under the old era. This is a new title, a new dignity. They were servants, not children. Our Saviour marked the transition when He said to

His disciples: Henceforth I call you not servants, but friends. A closer relationship had begun. A new honour had been achieved. This is one of those things that the Old Testament saints did not receive, so that they without us should not be made perfect. The Scriptures also intimate that this rank, this status, is different from, and in some sense higher than, the status of the angels themselves. The relation of Jesus Christ to man is unique. He laid hold not of angels, but of the seed of Abraham. When He became manifested, He became manifested as the Son of man. And so man has entered into a unique relationship to Jesus Christ, and through Him to God, a relation closer, more intimate, higher, than the relations sustained to God and His Son even by the angelic hosts themselves. Now it necessarily follows from this that the unbeliever has neither part nor lot in such a title, such a distinction, such an honour as is here involved. Corregio stood before a grand painting, enraptured; and as he gazed, grasping the sublime conception, amazed at the wondrous execution and colouring of the picture, he exclaimed, Thank God! I, too, am a painter. So, when a Christian looks steadily at what it is to be children of our Father, with sublime thrills of

joy he can say, Thank God! I, too, am a child of the Lord God Almighty.1 [Note: G. C. Baldwin.]

4. Christs Sonship is the true type of ours. No doubt the only-begotten Son occupies a unique place. He is by nature what we become by grace. But on that account we can look up to Him, and see in Him our true ideal. Not once does He call any one father but God, while He hardly ever calls God by any other name. Nothing is more impressive than the filial consciousness of Christ. It sounds so natural on His lips. Even as a boy, the very first words of His that have come vibrating down to us through the ages have this filial ring in them: How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be in my Fathers house? Men noticed that He was eaten up with zeal for His Fathers house. It was His meat and drink to do His Fathers will. Every now and again we overhear an interchange of confidences and mutual understandings with His Father. Now it is a remark in a prayer, an aside: I know that thou hearest me always; or an Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. Thus we might go on quoting word after word till the very cross is reached and He breathes His latest breath, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. What does it all say but this? The true filial spirit is one in which there is perfect understanding with God, from which all misgiving as to Gods will and purpose is banished. For Him misgiving never existed. For us it was there begotten of our own misjudgment of God through listening to the lies of the tempter. But it has disappeared when we become sons with the assurance of His forgiveness and good will guaranteed by the Cross of Christ. Now the attitude of the soul to God should be that of unfaltering trust, and constant anxiety to perceive and anticipate Gods will, gladly to accept it, and delightedly to fulfil it. It should be the reproduction of the example set in Jesus Christ, for, as Sabatier truly says, Men are Christian exactly in proportion as the filial piety of Jesus is reproduced in them. All that we see in the Divine manhood of Jesussuch evident facts as the sense of the Fathers affection, the constancy of fellowship with Him, the knowledge of Him which comes in spontaneous movements of the heart, and shows itself in simple loyalty and unerring reading of His willis the revelation of what is meant when we too are called children of God. We are very far from the realization of this; we are only little children, very imperfectly acquainted as yet either with Him or with the possibilities of our own sonship; children learning very slowly, and with much waywardness and indifference, what are our privileges and His claims. But we are children of God, as the cry, Abba, Father! bears witness. We make the childs appeal to His tenderness; we feel the childs shame when we wrong His confidence. In our penitence we say, I will arise and go to my Father; our submission is the utterance, Father, thy will be done. And our final hope is no other than conformity to the image of Christ: It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him. Christ will be the first-born

among many brethren.1[Note: A. Mackennal, The Eternal Son of God, 36.]

For what good doth it to the Soul to know the Way to God, if it will not walk therein, but go on in a contrary Path? What good will it do the Soul to comfort itself with the Filiation of Christ, with His Passion and Death, and so flatter itself with the Hopes of getting the Patrimony thereby, if it will not enter into the Filial Birth, that it may be a true child, born out of the Spirit of Christ, out of His Suffering, Death, and Resurrection? Surely the Tickling and Flattering itself with Christs Merits without the true innate

Childship, is Falsehood and a Lie, whosoever he be that teacheth it.1 [Note: Jacob Boehme.]

Knowing as I do what the revelation of God means to me, knowing what Gods Fatherhood and the presence of Gods Spirit is to my own life, my whole heart goes out with infinite pity towards those whose lives are unblessed by what is to me the very pole-star of my existence. I cannot bear to think of some stumbling blindfold through the pitfalls of life while my hand is clasped by a never-failing Guide; or of others who look forward to the end of their earthly life with dread and trembling while I see only the

outspread arms of the everlasting Father and the welcome of a life-long Friend.2 [Note: Quintin Hogg, 310.]

III

The Recognition of the Fathers Love

1. Such we are. The Apostle was not afraid to say I know that I am a child of God. There are

many very good people, whose tremulous, timorous lips have never ventured to say I know.

They will say, Well, I hope, or sometimes, as if that were not uncertain enough, they will put in

an adverb or two, and say I humbly hope that I am. It is a far robuster kind of Christianity, a far

truer one, and a humbler one, too, that throws all considerations of our own character and merits,

and all the rest of that rubbish, clean behind us, and when God says My son! says My Father;

and when God calls us His children, leaps up and gladly answers, And we are!

Luther started from the necessity of a comfortable assurance. Unconscious justification was not

enough; a man must know whether he was being saved. And this assurance grace brought him,

when it awakened his heart to faith; for anyone could tell whether he had faith or not.3 [Note: Viscount

St. Cyres, Pascal, 247.]

O heart! be thou patient!

Though here I am stationed

A season in durance,

The chain of the world I will cheerfully wear;

For, spanning my soul like a rainbow, I bear

With the yoke of my lowly

Condition, a holy

Assurance.1 [Note: J. T. Trowbridge.]

2. How are we to awaken to our sense of sonship? As many as received him, to them gave he

power (the right) to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name. None of us

know Christ until He reveals Himself to us in our association with Him; and as we commune with

Him, and learn of Him, He becomes more and more to us. Accept Christ for what you feel He can

be to you. Admit Him to your friendship; He will admit you to His.

That day, if I had dared, I should not have set foot inside the chapel. I was out of humour, and

certainly not the least inclined to endure the tedium of a sermon. To my great surprise M. Jaquet

did not preach one, but began to read us a little tract. It was a sermon, but of a new kind: Wheat

or Chaff, by Ryle [afterwards the well-known Bishop of Liverpool].

The title in itself struck me. Wheat or chaffwhat does that mean? And at every fresh heading

this question re-echoed more and more solemnly. I wanted to stop my ears, to go to sleep, to

think about something else. In vain! When the reading was over and the question had sounded

out for the last time, Wheat or chaff, which art thou? it seemed to me that a vast silence fell and

the whole world waited for my answer. It was an awful moment. And this moment, a veritable hell,

seemed to last for ever. At last a hymn came to the rescue of my misery. Good, I said to myself,

thats over at last. But the arrow of the Lord had entered into my soul. Oh, how miserable I was!

I ate nothing, could not sleep, and had no more mind to my studies. I was in despair. The more I

struggled the more the darkness thickened. I sought light and comfort in the pages of Gods

Word. I found none. I saw and heard nothing but the thunders of Sinai. Your sins: how can God

ever forgive them? Your repentance and tears! You do not feel the burden of your sins: you are

not struck down like St. Paul or like the Philippian jailer. Hypocrisy, hypocrisy! insinuated the

voice which pursued me. I had come to the end of all strength and courage. I saw myself, I felt

myself lostyes, lost, without the slightest ray of hope. My difficulty was, I wished I knew what it

could be to believe. At last I understood that it was to accept salvation on Gods conditions; that is

to say, without any conditions whatever. I can truly say the scales fell from my eyes. And what

scales! I could say, Once I was blind, and now I see.

Never shall I forget the day, nay, the moment, when this ray of light flashed into the night of my

anguish. Believe, then, means to accept, and accept unreservedly. As many as received him,

to them gave he powerthe rightto become the sons of God, even to as many as believed on

his name. It is plain, it is plain, it is positive. O my God, I cried, in the depth of my heart, I

believe. V A peace, a joy unknown before, flooded my heart. I could have sung aloud with

joy.1 [Note: Coillard of the Zambesi, 19.]

10. BI, Children of God

These two verses of St. Johns Epistle contain a simple summary of true religion. If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that everyone that doeth righteousness is begotten of Him. Thus far the Old Testament goes. Israel had learned this primary lesson of true religion, that the Almighty is the Righteous Power. Knowing Jehovah, not as a national deity who would help His own people whether they were right or wrong, but as the righteous God over all, who would reject His chosen people if they did wrong, the prophets saw clearly also that only those men who do right can claim to be the sons of the Most High. The next verse contains a summary of the New Testament revelation of real religion: Behold what manner of love, etc. It is all from Gods love in Christ that we have right to be called children of God. These two wordsone fulfilling the Old Testament, the other opening the riches of the Newmark the essence of real religion: righteousness and sonship. Let us first take up the Old Testament word for it. It is a solid word. The true religion is not a moral veneering of life; it is not a piece of pious ornamentation, nor an official robe drawn over an unprincipled heart. It is not an emotional substitute for conduct. The Old Testament word for religion is a word of cubic contentsrighteousness, a real thing, concrete as just dealing between man and man. A present indisputable argument for belief in Moses and the prophets as holy men of old inspired of God is that they made the superhuman effort of building a nation on the Ten Commandments. They had the supernal faith to command a people to do right, and to live together in just relations in the fear of God. We do not yet dare bring our politics up to that level of the prophets. The religion which first mastered the lesson of eternal justice and made it the foundation of a state was not a faith which had sprung up of itself out of the jungle of Canaanitish superstitions. It was not found in Babylon. Assyrias power perished for the lack of it. The true God impressed Himself upon Moses and the prophets. We know that they were the appointed bearers of a Divine revelation, and the bringers of the light, very much as we might know that a highway running up to some clear mountain height through the swamp and the underbrush at its foot was never a spontaneous freak of nature, but marks the course of some intelligent purpose. The Lord God made that way of righteousness through all the superstitions and idolatries of the nations on and up to its Messianic height. The religion of eternal righteousness is the supernal fact of history. Once gain sight of the everlasting righteousness, and nothing else seems great. Observe that the righteousness which from beginning to end the Old Testament presses for is no abstraction, but concrete, solid right-doing. The preachers of righteousness in the Old Testament faced men, and threw themselves in the name of the holy God into the thick of events. They were the fearless advocates of the oppressed; they were Gods statesmen amid the shifting politics of Jerusalem. They could flash the eternal justice into the covetous eyes of princes. Righteousness in the old testament is no scholars candle flickering in an attic; it is an electric light revealing the street; all classes have to pass under it and be seen. Turn now from the prophets to the New Testament. We hear ringing clear and full through the preaching of the apostles another word for the true religion. It is sonship. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. The essence of the New Testament is in the Lords parable of the prodigal son. So Jesus Himself opened the heart of the gospel toward us sinners. The grandest thing in the world for any man to do is really to live day and night, alike in the darkness or in the joy of life, as a son of the Most High God. Only one ever accomplished perfectly this task; and we for the most part do but succeed as yet in living here and there, now and then, as the children of the Father in heaven. But think a moment what it is to do this. It

would signify within us a very genuine humility. In a life of sonship humility would have to be at times that conscious sense of evil or of wrongdoing which is repentance for sin. The humility of a life of filial dependence on God will become so deep and pure that no possible outward success or inward spiritual triumph will be able to cause the son of the living God to dwell in any other habit and atmosphere. Sonship, again, so far as this New Testament word for religion is realised by any of us, will free us from the haunting sense of strangeness in this world. It is not simply the mystery of things; it is the mystery of ourselves that baffles us. Death does not grow less strange from our increasing familiarity with it. All things are strange, and will grow stranger to us, unless we can discover some diviner thoughtfulness in them; unless, amid all the mystery of the universe, we shall know ourselves as Gods children, and begin on this earth to be in our hearts at home with our God. This likewise will be the mark of true sonship, and the religion of sonshipobedience, strong, cheerful obedience. The Christian sense of sonship, so far as we receive the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father, will enable us, in short, to live the simple life of trust. It is life up on the sunny heights. Trust is final spiritual mastery of things. It is perfect poise of spirit, like the poise of the eagle after it has beaten its way up against the wind into the sky, and rests circling with buoyant wings upon the sunny air. Trust is ability of soul to live happily without Divine explanation. Faith in God is willingness to wait for explanations of things. You ask for reasons why certain event, have happened to you; why any evil, such as we may meet in the street, is tolerated for a moment in a world which has a God over it; why human life has otter proved so tragic; why death reigns; why a thousand shadows fleck the light; why in short, we mortals seem to be like wanderers in a forest, where it is both dark and bright. Now, faith is not an answer to any of these inquiries; faith does not yet lead us out with the clearing, but faith is trust in the light between the shadows trust that the light is high and eternal, and the shadows only for the moment Trust is the discovery of the soul that it can live awhile without explanations, and not be disturbed. Such trust is the confidence of sonship. Now, I am aware that men who have to meet the practical urgencies of life often find it easier to come to some determination of righteousness than it is for them to let their lives be lifted up into the assurance of sonship. It is less difficult for some of you to be Old Testament worthies than it is to become New Testament saints. You love righteousness, and you hate injustice and fraud. There you are inclined to stop. It is better for anyone to live according to the righteousness of the Old Testament than not to live at all from the Bible. The seeds of the perfect life of sonship are contained in the religion of the prophets. Nevertheless, the Christ came to fulfil the righteousness of the old dispensation. The righteousness which is by faith is out full salvation. Let ones dutiful living spring directly out of his sense of sonship, and it will become a transfigured conscientiousness. The light of love will play all through

2. To this higher life we are called. Men will finally do right toward one another when they shall learn to live together as sons of God. The present revival of right-doing will be complete when in the power of the Holy Spirit men are born anew as the children of the Father in heaven. (Newman Smyth.)

The Divine birththe family likeness

The first verses of the third chapter are to be viewed as inseparable from the last verse of the second. It is that verse which starts the new line of thought; our knowing that God is righteous, and doing righteousness accordingly, in virtue of our being born of Him. Born of Him! That is what awakens Johns grateful surprise.

I. In every view that can be taken of it, our being called the sons of God is a wonderful instance of the Fathers love.

II. And we are His children: Beloved, now are we children of God. Our being called children of God is a reality; our being born of God makes it so. The world may not know us in that character, for it knows not God, and has never known Him. Let us lay our account with having to judge and act on principles which the world cannot understand. Let us be Gods children indeed; though on that very account the world that has not known God should not know us.

III. For whatever the world may think or say, we are the children of God, His dear children; sharers of His Divine nature; the objects of His fatherly love. It concerns us to bear this in mind, to feel it to be true. It is our safety to do so. It is what is due to ourselves; it is what God expects, and has a right to expect from us. Let us stay ourselves on the conviction that our being Gods children is not a matter of opinion, dependent on the worlds vote, but a matter of fact, flowing from the amazing manner of love which the Father hath bestowed upon us. And let us be put, as the saying is, upon our mettle, to make good our claim to be Gods children by such a manifestation of our oneness of nature with Him of whom we are born as may, by Gods blessing, overcome some of the worlds ignorant unbelief, and lead some of the worlds children to try that manner of love for themselves, to taste and see how good the Lord is.

IV. And we are to do so all the rather because these drawbacks and disadvantages will not last long. We are only at the beginning of our life as Gods children.

1. What is set before us as matter of hope in the future life is not something different from what is to be attained, enjoyed, and improved by us, as matter of faith, and of the experience of faith in the present life.

2. When it does appear what we are to be, when that is no more hidden but disclosed, we shall be like God whose children we are as being born of Him: for we shall see Him as He is. The full light of all His perfection as the righteous God will open upon our view; we shall know the righteous Father as the Son knows Him. Is not this a hope full of glory? And is it not a hope full of holiness too? (R. S. Candlish, D. D.)

Gods adoptive love

I. First, we are arrested by the manner in which the apostle opens the subjectBehold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. It is the language of adoration and wonder. Our astonishment might well be excited that God had created us that He preserved us, notwithstanding our unworthiness. But that He should adopt sinners was condescension which might well prompt the exclamation, Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. What, then, is the manner of this love? It passeth knowledge. It was everlasting love, gratuitous love, and at the same time costly love. And then how rich the blessings procured by such love.

2. We are called the sons of God. It is clear this statement must be understood in a restricted sense. All are the sons of God by creation, also by providence. The text refers to a sonship peculiar to those who are the objects of redeeming love. Adoption into the family of God is singled out as evidence and effect of His love. Nor can we wonder at this selection. Think of the work that is done when the sinner is made a son of God. It is a new birth unto righteousness. The sinner is made alive unto God. Think, again, of the change that is effected in such a work. Think of the privileges of sonship. Think, finally, of the inheritance in store for them. If children then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.

3. The estimate formed of the privilege of sonship by the world. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. It might have been supposed that all men would applaud them as the happiest and most excellent of the children of men. But, alas! it is very different. The world does not know the sons of God. The world both disapproves and dislikes

the peculiarity of the sons of God. The reason is suggested in the text. Therefore, saith the apostle. He had only said it was a blessed thing to be called the sons of God. Can it be, then, this is that which the world dislikes? This is clearly his meaning. Worldly men do not understand the doctrine of sonship. It is too spiritual for their perception. They scorn it as the offspring of spiritual pride. Unhappily, however, for their hot displeasure, there is an indisputable fact to prove this enmity of the world to the sons of God. It is quoted by the apostle. It is the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says of the world and of Him, it knew Him not. This accords with the history, He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Ought this, then, to offend them? Certainly not. It ought to profit them. It should put them on their guard, that they may give no unnecessary offence. It should make them thankful they are not of the same spirit.

4. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. How carefully the views of the apostle are balanced in this passage. When he set forth sonship and its high privileges he annexed a caution, the world knoweth us not, lest any might be disappointed and injured. So again after he had given that caution he reassures them of the reality and continuance of their blessedness, Now are we the sons of God. This might be rendered necessary by the dark suspicions of their own minds. They found much within them contrary to what they could desire or might expect. Let them not be cast down. Or it might be rendered necessary by the conduct of others towards them. They might find themselves suspected and evil entreated. Through it all let them remember they are still the sons of God. Nor should they forget what was required of them as such. Only let your conversation be as becometh the gospel of Christ. Walk worthy of your high vocation. So living they might enjoy the sweet consciousness that, let the world do or say as they might, they could appropriate the assuring words, Now are we the sons of God.

5. Their thoughts are directed to the future. It doth not yet appear what we shall be.

6. Every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself even as He is pure. (J. Morgan, D. D.)

Adopting love of the Father

I. Look at the result or purpose of this love, and we shall be the better prepared to understand its manner. What manner of love is this, in transforming those who were once so unlike Him? Love prompted Him to adopt them; and after they are adopted He has peculiar delight in them. What manner of love is this, that the fallen should at length have a place in His bosom which the unfallen can never occupy! Still more, a glorious destiny awaits them. When the years of minority are expired the children are taken home to the household on high, where the whole family form one unbroken and vast assemblage. The extraordinary love of the Father is also seen in the entire circuit of discipline which has been arranged for His children. And will not such a child be content in any circumstances? What is good for him his Father will give him. As much of temporal blessing will he get as he can improve.

II. The singularity of the Divine affection.

1. And first, the love that leads a man to call a child his own, which is not his by natural descent, has not such a manner about it. For when among men a child is adopted, it is usually because the adopter thinks it worthy of his regard; because there is something in its features or character that pleases him. But no such motive could prompt the Divine affection, for we are utterly lost and loathsome before Him.

2. Again, if one adopts a child, it is commonly because himself is childless, or his hearth may have been desolated by war or disease. He longs to have some object near him on which to expend his attachment. But Jehovah had myriads of a flourishing progenyuncounted hosts of bright intelligences, who have never disobeyed Him. But the present condition of the sons of God is veiled and incomplete. Therefore, the apostle adds, the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. The mission of the Son of God was spiritual, was too ethereal for the coarse vision of the world to detect, or its sordid heart to admire. Its great ones, and not its good ones, divide among themselves the worlds homage. Not that the world is able to ignore Christianity. But it admires it not for itself but for its splendid resultsfor the beneficial effects, in the form of patriotism and philanthropy, which it has produced. It is not Wilberforce the saint, but Wilberforce the queller of the slave trade, that men admire. The dignity and prospects of the sons of God are not of a secular and visible nature. The world knoweth them not. But should this ignorance on the part of the world dispirit you? By no means. Your case is not solitary. It did not recognise the Son of God. Now are we the sons of God. Despite of this non-recognition on the part of the world, we are the sons of God. The reality of our adoption is not modified by the worlds oblivion of it. It may be undiscovered by others, but our own experience gives ourselves the full assurance of it. But noble as is our present condition, our ultimate dignity surpasses conception. It doth not yet appear what we shall be. Even though we now revel in the Divine favour, yet such transcendent felicity is scarcely a premiss to reason from as to the glory of our ultimate heritage. There is so much about us that clogs and confines usso deep is the shadow that earth throws over the children of God that any inference as to coming freedom and glory is all but an impossibility. Such being the present eclipse of our sonship, there is the less wonder that the world knoweth us not. Their aim is to be as like Him as they can be here, in the hope that they shall be perfectly like Him hereafter. (John Eadie, D. D.)

The manner of love bestowed upon us

I. The manner of love which the Father hath bestowed upon us.

1. Sovereign in its exercise.

2. Gracious in its communication.

3. Merciful in its regards.

4. Everlasting in its continuance.

II. The consequences which flow to us from that love.

1. Present adoption into Gods family.

2. Future restoration to His image.

III. The attention with which the whole should be regarded.

1. Your attention should deepen your humility.

2. Your attention should strengthen your confidence.

3. Your attention should excite your affection. (W. Mudge, B. A.)

The present relationship and future prospects of the faithful

I. The Christians present state is one of relationship to God. It implies

1. Godlikeness.

2. Confidence.

3. Liberty.

4. It entitles us to a glorious inheritance.

II. The circumstances of his future life are in a great measure unknown to him.

III. We have, nevertheless, sufficient knowledge of that future to make us happy in the present. (H. P. Bower.)

The wonderful love of God as displayed in human redemption

I. The unworthiness of its objects.

II. The expensiveness of the sacrifice.

III. The variety and vastness of the blessings secured to us through this adopting love.

1. Present.

2. Future.

IV. This love is to be to us a subject of meditation. Behold.

1. Admire it.

2. Trust in it.

3. Extol it.

4. Believe it. (W. Lloyd.)

What manner of love

Here, you notice, that although St. John had been learning more and more about the love of God all his days, he does not trust himself to characterise it. I believe throughout eternity we shall never find the right word for it. Even if we think that we have made some such grand discovery as to present it to us in an altogether new light, we shall still go on discovering that there is more to be said about it. Mark, the love spoken of here is the love of the Father. This text takes us right back to the source from which all other blessings flow. That word Father!there is scarcely a heart in which there does not seem to be awakened something like a sympathetic thrill at the soundeven those who are most estranged from God by sin and wicked works. Does it not answer to an inward yearning of our human hearts? Orphans are we, and desolate, unless we know that within the veil we have One who not only bears a Fathers name but possesses a Fathers heart. Now observe, this love is represented as being definitely bestowed, with a view to a specific end, and that end is in order that we might be called the sons of God. We might hay, Deer called the sons of God in the sense of creation, without any such love being bestowed upon us, without any gift being made. There was no particular difficulty in our being placed in such a position; indeed, as an historical fact, we are His offspring. Nor, again, was there any special difficulty in the way of His adopting a certain ecclesiastical relationship to us, standing to us in the relation of Father to an ecclesiastical theocracy, which He Himself established; there was no difficulty in that. But in order that He might stand in the relationship indicated to us in this sense, as our Father, and put us in the position indicated by the word son in this passage, it was necessary that He should make such a manifestation of His love towards us as He has made

in the Incarnation. Now we pass on to consider this special relationship, and the first thought that strikes me is this, that in order theft you and I might attain to it the love of God had first of all to surmount a stupendous difficulty. There was a question which God represents Himself as putting to Himself, and that question is, How shall I set thee amongst the children? Oh, you say, by an act of Gods sovereign power. But an act of Gods sovereign power would not make us real children of His. The child partakes of the nature of his parent. Now, we have lost the nature of our spiritual Parent, we have inherited the nature of our earthly parent: the old Adam. We come into the world with an hereditary taint of rebellion against God. How many of us there are who, from our earliest days, have gone on living consistently with this start. Now, under those circumstances, how can God put us amongst the children? If God were to say to one of you, You are My child, would that make you His child unless He were first to perform a moral miracle upon you? Now, God performs moral miracles, but He does it in a particular way. He so performs the miracle that in the actual performance of it our will shall be consciously cooperating with Him. How shall I set thee among the children? The answer is given in the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was only one way in which the love of God could achieve this marvellous result. It was to be done by a giftthe gift of Incarnate Love. What do we know about the love of God? I see it revealed in the human form of Jesus. What is that love of God like? I apprehend its character by gazing into the face of Jesus. What is it that the love of God actually does achieve? It achieves its very end, it achieves the end of bringing me, poor, guilty rebel as I am, into a filial relationship with God; enabling me to look up into Gods face and say, Thank God, I now am a child of God. How is this done? It is done by a new birth. How is this birth to be elected? Ye must be born again. But how am I to pass from the old life into this new life of God? I am born not of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of the will of God. How am I born? By complying with that will, by surrendering myself to the revealed love of God in the person of Christ. If at some great cost some boon which you very much require is brought within your reach, and if you spurn it, I venture to say it is impossible to cut your benefactor more to the heart than by such a line of conduct. Now, then, are you called a child of God? Does God call you so? Is it so? If not, why not? Dont say that God has made it so difficult. Do you think it probable that God should refuse the very boon which He has given His Son in order to bestow? (A. H. M. H. Aitken.)

The sons of God

1. The privilege itself is to be called the sons of God. Mark, not subjects or servants, but sons; and to be called the sons of God is to be the sons of God.

2. The fountain and first rise is the love of the Father, who is everywhere represented as the first Cause of our blessedness. Gods love is nothing else but His goodwill and resolution to impart such great privileges to us; He did it because He would do it; He was resolved to do it, and took pleasure in it.

3. The wonderful degree in the expression of His love, What manner of love. The expression noteth not only the quality, but quantity.

4. The note of attention, or the terms used exciting our attention, Behold. There is a threefold behold in Scripture, and they are applicable to this place; as

(1) The behold of demonstration, which is referred to a thing,, or person present, and noteth the certainty of sense (Joh_1:29).

(2) The behold of admiration, or awakening our drowsy minds, when any extraordinary thing is spoken of (Lam_1:12). So here in the case of good, is there any love like unto this love? And all is that we may entertain it with wonder and reverence.

(3) The behold of gratulation, as rejoicing and blessing ourselves in the privilege (Psa_121:4).

I. There is such a relation as that of father and children between God and His people.

1. It proceedeth from a distinct cause, His special and peculiar love, not from that common goodness and bounty which He expresseth to all His creatures (Psa_145:9). But this is the special act of His grace or of His great love (Eph_2:4-5).

2. The foundation of this relation is not our being which we have from Him as a Creator, but our new being which we have from Him as a Father in Christ.

3. The whole commerce and communion that is between us and Him is on Gods part fatherly, on our part childlike.

II. That this is a blessed and glorious privilege will appear if we consider

1. The person adopting, the great and glorious God, who is so far above us, so happy within Himself, and needeth not us nor our choicest love and service; who had a Son of His own, Jesus Christ, the eternally-begotten of the Father, the Son of His love, in whom His soul found such full complacency and delight.

2. The persons who are adoptedmiserable sinners.

3. The fountain of this mercy and grace, or that which moved God, was His love: this was that which set Hts power and mercy at work to bring us into this estate.

(1) This was an eternal love; the first foundation of it was laid in the election of God; there is the bottom stone in this building.

(2) It was a free love: I will love them freely.

(3) It is special, peculiar love, not common to the world; yet this love was bestowed upon us.

(4) It is a costly love, considering the way how it is brought about.

4. The dignity itself nakedly considered; it is a greater honour them the world can afford to us, a matter to be rather wondered at than told.

5. It is not a naked and empty title, but giveth us a right to the greatest privileges imaginable.

(1) With respect to the present state; and there

(a) He will give us the Holy Spirit to be our sanctifier, guide, and comforter.

(b) He giveth us an allowance of such temporal things, of outward mercies, as are convenient for us (Mat_6:25; Mat_6:30).

(2) With respect to the life to come. Eternal blessedness is the fruit of adoption (Rom_8:17).

III. Believers ought to be excited to the earnest consideration of it.

1. To quicken our thankfulness, which is the chief motive and principle of gospel obedience.

2. That we may keep up the joy of our faith and comfort in afflictions from the world. Though we be Gods children, yet the greater part of the world treateth us as slaves. It doth support us often and frequently to consider the world cannot