Living as the Family of God
For a while this was one of Sarah's favourite photos. A few months ago she was sending it to everyone she could think of. Not because it was a great shot of one of our boys. In fact, it's not a photo of Micah or Joshua at all. No, it's a photo of me, from when I was just a few months old. Sarah loved it though, because it showed the striking resemblance between Micah and me.
We expect this don't we? We expect children to look something like their parents.
And it's not just in looks that we expect a resemblance, but in behaviour and temperament.
If you looked at Micah and Joshua, you'd see that Micah looks like me, but acts like Sarah. And Joshua looks like Sarah, but is much more like me in his personality.
Incredibly John states that we belong to God's family! In the passage we are looking at today, he says something amazing. That we are God's children and that we should therefore resemble our Heavenly Father.
John doesn’t want us to miss how important, how significant this concept is. The old KJV gets closer to the mark when it starts chapter 3 with a big, bold, ‘Behold!’ ‘Behold, what manner of love’. John doesn’t want us to just glance over this idea, but to stop, to sit up to pay attention. This is monumental. We should be marveling at ‘how great is the love the Father has lavished upon us.’ For it’s in his love that God has made us his children.
It’s not just that we’re called his children, but that’s what we really are. Each of us, has been chosen by God to be part of his family.
We’ve been born of God. This idea, that we’re born into God’s family is a favourite of John’s. Think of the start of his gospel:
John 1:12-13:
"But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God."
Again in John 3, in that famous conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus said:
John 3:3,5-8:
“Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”
Here’s the amazing thing. God in his love has taken the initiative, in choosing us. Just like our physical birth, it’s not something that we have played a part in. What’s even more amazing is that God’s chosen us, despite our failures, despite our shortcomings. Despite the fact that we are unlovely, God has chosen to love us and make us part of his family.
And so, John says, we are God’s children now. It is not something that we wait for in the future; there’s no gestation period. And there’s no period of probation. We are members of God’s family at this very present moment.
John is so keen to assure us that of this, as he knows the world will only cast doubt upon our parentage.
This past fortnight, the atheist Richard Dawkins was on the radio, promoting a survey he had conducted. Although on the UK census, around 54% of the population identified themselves as Christians, Dawkins had his people do one of those telephone polls, asking people a series of questions. His conclusion was that really only 2% or so of the population might have been Christian. Dawkins claim is that unless you pass a rigorous test, can correctly answer all sorts of questions , you are not a Christian, and certainly not a child of God. This is just one example of how the world ‘does not know us, because it did not know him.’
John would have nothing of this though. He says, strongly and clearly, we are God’s children, and that is what we are now. We are already members of God’s family, not because we’ve passed a test, but because God has chosen us. This is our present reality.
What’s more, John says we’re a family with a bright future. We’re a family looking forward to something: the day when Christ will be revealed. Of course, as John’s already acknowledged Jesus has already been revealed, he has walked on the earth, died on the cross. But John says we are to look forward to the day when Christ will return, in all his glory. On this day, John tells us, when we see him as he truly is, we’ll all be transformed. When Moses met with God, his face was transformed for a short while. But when we see Christ, we’ll be completely transformed, for eternity. We’ll put off these mortal bodies, with their sinful desires, weaknesses and be clothed in new bodies, pure, imperishable, just as he is. As a God’s children we’re to look forward to this. We’re a family with great prospects for the future.
If that’s the case, then how are we to live now?
With such a great hope, how can we not face the future with complete confidence!
Is that all?
No John says, our confidence shouldn’t be a cover for complacency! The great future that’s ahead should have a great impact on how we live today.
Think of the19 year old who is drafted into the AFL straight out of high school.
How will he spend the next three months?
Slacking off, taking it easy, partying it up?
Or training every day? Working hard to prove to his new teammates that he belongs? Striving to show his coach that he is worthy of the honour that has been bestowed upon him?
The same holds true for our heavenly family. Our hope for the future drives us to holiness in the present. John puts it like this; all who have this hope should strive to be pure, just as Christ is pure. If our future’s in Christ, John says we should get on with being like him now. Being part of God’s family means seeking to live up to the model laid down by our big brother Jesus.
I know big brothers can cast a long shadow. I know this because I’m a big brother. Those who are first-born are always the first to do new things. The first to go to school, and then to high-school. The first to move out of home, to graduate university. First-borns end up setting the standard for their siblings to follow.
The same is true for Christ. As Paul puts it in Romans, he’s the first-born of a large family. He’s the standard, the model that we must follow. Living as part of God’s family means emulating God’s Son Jesus.
John says living as God’s children is simple, it’s hard, but it’s simple. We must be like Christ. John acknowledges this will be an ongoing struggle. It’s not an easy one-off act, but a daily, a constant striving to be like Christ.
It’s no surprise then, that there are those who try to make it easier. After all, we all want the easy way out. We all look for short-cuts in life. Why can’t it be both simple and easy?
John faced these kinds of people in the false apostles he was writing against. They followed various heresies that all effectively claimed that the flesh didn’t matter. And so they claimed, how we lived our lives doesn’t matter. They thought that as members of God’s family, we can live however we want to.
There are those who follow on in this way today. There are those who claim that sin isn’t really sin. Or that sin isn’t really that bad. That Christianity is all about love and relationships, and not about rules and regulations. That so long as we do something in ‘love’ we can do whatever we want. Their goal is to lower the bar, indeed to do away with the bar all together. They too are trying to say that as long as we are member’s of God’s family, we can live however we want to.
John doesn’t want us to be deceived by these lies. He’s very clear; sin is lawlessness. We often think that sin is just breaking one of God’s laws, or commands. That it’s just about the act of doing something we shouldn’t have done. Or not doing something we should have. But John goes behind this, to the very core of sin. It’s not just breaking a law; sin is lawlessness. It is anarchy. The reality is sin is saying that God’s desires have no place in our lives. At its core, sin is us ignoring God and doing whatever we want. It’s a radical refusal of God’s character and will. Sin, John says, is flagrant opposition to the Father. If we are God’s children, if we are members of God’s family, then John asks, how can we not follow the Father?
What’s more, John doesn’t want us to forget that Christ came to take away sins. Indeed, Christ did not just take them away but he completely destroyed them. He did this by dying on the Cross. If such a great price was paid to make us members of God’s family, how can we continue to sin?
John’s trying to make it as simple for us as he can. He’s made it clear that we are member’s of God’s family. He’s shown us how we should live as a result. When faced with difficult decisions in life, ‘should I do this or that?’ he says we should look to Christ. The slogan, WWJD – ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ is in this case apt. John says we should look to Christ for how we are to live. We should strive to be pure, just as he is pure. We should do right, reaching for righteousness, just as he is righteous. We should shun sin, just as there is no sin in him. As those who are loved by God, we should love God. And, we should love one-another, as brothers and sisters, for we are all part of God’s family.
In a world that loves shades of grey, John says there’s really just black and white. You’re either part of God’s family and live accordingly, or you’re part of another family, that of the Devil.
If the bar set so high, and we dare not lower it, the question remains - what happens when we fail to clear it? If living as a member of God’s family means modeling ourselves on Christ, what happens when I fail?
With that we come to one of the hardest verses in John’s letter, indeed in the whole of the New Testament. Every time I read verse 6, I shudder. I have to stop and question myself:
1 John 3:6
"No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him."
If we sin, does that mean we are no longer part of the family? If we don’t live up to the pattern of Christ are we out?
Living in shadow of big brother is hard though. My sister once complained that she felt like she never lived up to the standards I set. She felt like our parents never thought her accomplishments were quite as good as mine.
The problem is, she was using the wrong standard. Her being acceptable, rested on the fact that she was part of our family, not that she succeeded or not in living up to the example I set.
The same is true for our heavenly family. John has gone to great lengths at the start of this passage to assure us that we are members of God’s family now. It’s not how we live that guarantees us a place in God’s family. We are God’s family. But how we live shows that.
And we need to remember, that John has already said we deceive ourselves if we say we have no sin (1 John 1:8), and that if we confess our sins we are forgiven (1 John 1:9).
Verse 9 shows that John is again here trying to help us see that living as members of God’s family is simple.
1 John 3:9 (NIV)
"No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God."
We are to be shunning sin, daily seeking to avoid it. We cannot abide in it any longer. We cannot go on sinning, because we are part of God’s family now.
Beloved,
Behold, what manner of love the Father has lavished upon us.
That we should not only be called, but actually be sons and daughters of God.
Beloved, let us live as members of God’s family:
Pursue purity
Reach for righteousness
Shun sin
Love the Father
Love one-another