Are You in the FAMILY 1 John 3:1 & 10

Are You in the FAMILY

1 John 3:1 & 10

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us

that we should be called children of God!

Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God;

nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

The word Love is defined in the

English language as feeling or pleasure.

The New Testament was not written in English.

 

John uses the Greek word “Agape” when he writes.

 

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us.”

This Agape love is not based upon feelings or pleasure.

It is very hard to explain this Agape

 love because it is based on a “choice”.

It is like a mother whose

son turns to a life of crime.

Though her heart is broken and she

lives in shame she still loves her son.

 

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 NIV

The Heavenly Father through the sacrificing

love of Jesus invites us to be “Born again”.

The definition of family in the world

is much different than God’s definition.

Many groups want to embrace

the word family but alter it.

You might hear gay and lesbians

ask the question “are you family?”

Being family is code for being gay or lesbian.

They use the words “friends of the family” to

describe the broader community of supporters.

In 1968, in Huntington Beach, California Founder

David Berg started a group called “The Children of God”.

“They began a method of evangelism called Flirty Fishing,

using sex to "show God's love and mercy" and win converts” Wikipedia

We should ask the question…

 “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us.”

“How Great”, how much better is it than the

world’s and some religious cults definition of ‘Love God’.

Love had to be sacrificial because we are unworthy of His love.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, 

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16 NIV

God’s love gave us the right to become His family.

“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name,

he gave the right to become children of God—“ John 1:12 NIV

John says there are 2 families and 2 fathers.

There are the children of the Devil and the children of God.

John also makes it clear how you can

tell the difference between the two.

“Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God;

nor is anyone who does not love his brother.” 1 John 3:10

This is contrary to those who say

“we are all God’s children”.

“We must be born again”.

Just like God’s love is a choice, so we

also have a choice to become His children.

In the family of the Devil, or the world, there

are those who are friends of the family of God.

They may even visit the House of God.

There are also those who hate the Family of God.

They will mock and ridicule, even kill,

Children of God because they hate what is right.

The Children of God don’t just like what is right.

They choose to be like Jesus and do what is right.

They choose to love even when they do not feel like it.

They also choose to not let their

feeling of love lead them into sin.

If John says…

 “Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God;

nor is anyone who does not love his brother.”  

Are you in the family?

Scripture Reading

1 John 3:1-10 NIV

3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! 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 he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

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.

7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 He 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 him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has 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 a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.