1 John 3:1-10

1 John 3:1-10
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

"Lavished".  We don't talk like this in day to day speech anymore.  I am listening to Mark Driscoll's sermon series on the gospel of Luke.  Today he was preaching on Luke 7:36-50 about the woman washing Jesus feet with her tears, drying them with her hair and then pouring out the expensive perfume  This is what I envisioned when I read the word "lavished".
 
The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ² Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ³ All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Because we are children of God we are different, yet there is more to come.  What is to come is still a mystery.  Still we prepare ourselves for what is to come by doing what we know is right now.
 
⁴ Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. ⁵ But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. ⁶ No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. 

This is not talking about sinless perfection here on earth.  Only Jesus lived that life.  1 John 1:9 is proof the God knew we would sin and made provision for it.  However if we chose to continue in a sinful life style we really need to examine our life to see if God is really part of it.

⁷ Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. ⁸ The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. ⁹ No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. ¹⁰ This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister. 

Context. Context. Context.  When I read verse six I filtered it through the context of the entire book of 1John.  As I just read this paragraph verse nine states exactly what I said in my commentary on verse 6.  I shall leave my comments intact as a lesson to us all.  I will also restate that we cannot continue in a sinful life if God truly resides in us.  The Holy Spirit will not tolerate it.


God Bless.