Sonship SONSHIP
The last verse of the preceding chapter declares, "You may be sure that every
one who does right, is born of Him." Sons and Daughters of Christ. In the first
three verses of this chapter, John gives us 4 important bits of information.
- "God loves us." Otherwise He would have called us to be
His children. We certainly did nothing to deserve this,
it was simply His love and grace that called us into this
relationship.
- "The world does not recognize this relationship." To them, we
are not the Sons and Daughters of God, because they do not
recognize Christ as being the "Son of God".
- "We have a honorable position." As the Sons and Daughters of
God by reason of our faith in Jesus Christ, thus by regeneration,
we have been given a very honorable position in this world as
well as in the world to come. We do not know what this will be
like, accept that we will be like Him.
- "We should strive to be like him here and now." In light of the
these promised conditions, we should strive to be pure as He
is pure, to the best of our abilities, growing in Grace as we
grow in years. This is the process that we call Sanctification.
Verses 4 thru 10, gives 7 arguments against sin.
- It is contrary to divine law. Sin has been defined as the
transgression of the Law of God.
- It is contrary to God's plan of salvation. Christ came to
take away our sins, not to give us a license to sin.
- Sin is not conducive to fellowship with Christ. "Whoever
commits sin is of the Devil."
- Sin is not conducive to being in a justified state (saved).
Freedoms in Christ were preached by the false teachers as
justification for doing whatever they pleased. Responsibilities
were totally ignored.
- There can be no relationship between Christ and the Devil.
There must be a noticeable difference between the lost and
the saved.
- There should be no desire to sin in a Christian's life. To
be "born again" is to be inwardly renewed. To support this,
John says that we are given understanding, a new heart, spiritual
inclination to do good and the spirit of gratitude for what has
been done for us.
- We are different from the children of the Devil. In the Old
Testament, the children of the Devil were known by two
characteristics. One, neglect of religion, and two,
love of self and hatred for their neighbors.
Verses 11 thru 13 recommend 3 characteristics that should be a part of the
Christian:
- Love one another. This is the message that we have heard from
the beginning.
- Do not be guilty of the "sin of Cain". Envy and jealousy caused
him to commit murder. We should celebrate our brothers
accomplishments not be envious of them.
- We should be prepared to accept the persecutions of this
world.
Verses 14 thru 19, continue with 5 arguments for love of one another.
- We are, by nature, children of wrath, but re-birth changes
that nature, and as evidence of that re-birth, we love
one another.
- Hate, like adultery and murder, is a disease of the mind.
Whoever hates his brother, is a murderer.
- We should try to imitate God's love. As Christ laid down
His life for us, we ought to lay down our lives for one
another.
- Our service should be self-sacrificing. Give till it hurts.
Giving from our plenty is not self-sacrificing.
- Love is the "yardstick" for measuring the sincerity of our
religion. Verse 19, "By this we shall know that we are
of the truth."
Verses 20 thru 24, refers to the evidence in our lives of the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit. Matthew Henry describes the "conscience" as our self-reflecting
judicial power that allows us to take cognizance of ourselves, of our spirits, our
dispositions and our actions, then accordingly, pass a unbiased judgment upon our
state towards God." The power of the conscience can act as a witness, judge and
executioner, but John says in verse 20, be careful of this. "Our conscience and
our hearts may condemn us but God can save us. We need to fear when our conscience
no longer condemns us.
We can rest assured that if our conscience is right with God, whatever we ask, we
will receive from Him. This assumes that if you are "right with God", you will not
ask for any thing contrary to His wishes.
So the commandment is "Believe in Christ and love one another." If we do this, we
will "abide in Him and He in us." This is the fulfillment of the promised
indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the "enlightenment" and "encouragement" that
comes with this. "Love of the brethren" is the basic evidence of this indwelling
and one of the "Marks of Sonship".
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