Theme: Letters to the Churches: What is the Lord saying to us?
Topic: Manifest as a child of God
Main Text: 1 John 3: 1-10.
Key verse: 1 John 3: 7 “Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.” (NKJV).
Introduction:
Behold (NKJV), See (ESV), Just look at it'(MSG) is how our text opens in 1 John 3. The term “behold” in the Bible is often used to draw attention to something significant or to emphasize an important message. Its purpose is to invite the readers or listeners to look closely at what follows. And in this case, what follows is the extravagance of God’s love. God’s love is so over the top that the Holy Spirit describes it as beyond human comprehension (Ephesians 3:19). It is so much that God even took us in to be His very own children. The scope of this love is so great that it requires power from God even to begin to scratch the surface of it. It is, therefore, no surprise that the people of the world are unable to comprehend it. In fact, we don’t need the validation of the world to be who God says we are, nor are we to seek the world’s validation.
Q1. Read John 3:16; Romans 5:8; 1 John 3:1-3 (1a) How would you describe the depth and nature of God’s love for His children? (1b) 1 John 3:1 invites us to look and be awed by God’s love for believers. In what ways can a good grasp of the depth of Gods love for us as His children impact our daily lives and relationship with Him? (1c). 1 John 3:1b says that ‘the people in the world don’t understand that we are God’s children, because they have not known him’. Why does their opinion of us seem to affect us so much?
Paragraph 2:
Perhaps the most extravagant aspect of God’s love is in making us His children. He could have loved us without making us His children. But that is what He did. And because of that fact of our being His children, we are assured of two things: (i) the hope of becoming like Him one day; and (ii) the hope of seeing Him as He really is. But it also leaves us with a responsibility – to purify ourselves. God’s confidence in leaving us with this responsibility stems from the fact that anyone who relates to God through Christ cannot continue to make a habit of sin.
Q2. Read John 1:12-13; 1 John 3:9 (2a) Let participants identify possible implications of the phrase ‘born of God’ in verse 9 as it relates to living the Christian life. (2b) According to 1 John 3:9, what power does being born of God confer on the believer? (2c) If one in whom the seed of God dwells lives a sinful life, what can we conclude (see 1 John 3:6)?
Paragraph 3:
Being a child of God is experiencing the transformative power of spiritual rebirth. This is the point which the Holy Spirit makes clearly in John 1:12-13 when He says, ‘But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.’ (NLT). This is further reiterated in our text today “Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So, they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God.” (1 John 3:9). This means that a fundamental change in a persons nature takes place through the Holy Spirit. The transformation that occurs in those born of God results in a new disposition that is incompatible with a lifestyle of habitual sin. This is what the unbelieving world notices, and what sets the children of God apart from the people of the world.
Q3. Read Romans 6:1-2, 1 John 3:8-10; 1 John 5:18. (3a). How should understanding the origin of sin as being from the devil change how we view sin in our lives? (3b) Based on 1 John 3:8-10 and Romans 6:1-2, how reasonable is God’s expectation that those who have His seed manifest that newness of life? (3c) Let’s have participants share some practical ways we can manifest the life of God in us this week.
Prayer: Thank YOU, Lord, for lavishing YOUR love on us and making us YOUR children. May YOUR imperishable seed in us shine through our daily interactions with others to the glory of YOUR Name. Amen