In God's Family

 

1 John 3:1 “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.”

 

One of the most motivating truths of the Bible is the doctrine that we become sons and daughters of God when we are born again through faith in Christ. This first hit me when I read the “prologue” in chapter one of the gospel according to John for the first time. John 1:12 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” An immediate connection to “Father” God was validated and the whole relationship of brothers and sisters in Christ filled with meaning in the bond of family ties. God then deals with us as a father does with his beloved children. We should therefore respond as obedient children who love their father.

 

I’ve often told others that I see Father God as a loving and watchful parent, when I feel like a child running in a park as if I was free and wild. He would observe my every step and smile, but be there to the rescue with open arms the moment I wandered to far or there was a hint of potential danger. I read that an attribute of our sonship is brotherly love: 1 John 5:1 “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too.” Furthermore, each child of God should have a victorious faith. 1 John 5:4 “For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.”

 

All who are truly children of God will never lose that holy relationship.

1 John 5:18 “We know that God’s children do not make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them.”

John 10:28-29 “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”

There are many such references in the Bible. All stress that we should reflect the character of the Father in our lives as His children. I hope and pray that they bless you daily as you carry this sure faith and knowledge in your heart. You are in God’s family. The glorious, ultimate promise is this: 1 John 3:2 “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.”

In Christ, Brian