See what love the Father has given to us, that we should be called [the] children of God. For this reason the world knows us not, because it knew him not.
The verse opens with a call to stop and look. John points to a love that has given believers the name and place of children of God. Then he adds the cost: the world that never knew Christ does not know them either.
John does not simply say the Father loves us. He asks what kind of love this is. One writer sets it beside the best that human giving can manage:
It is not only this love that is stressed here, but "what kind of love." Human charity may call itself love because it gives generously, and maybe lifts someone out of misery and poverty into comfort and plenty. In one sense you may call that love, but it falls far short of the Father's love. This is a kind of love that does more than rescue enemies from a state of sin and total ruin, and clothe, feed and enrich them. It is satisfied with nothing less than bringing them into His own house for ever as His own children. True, pure love delights in having those it loves near.
The words "children" and "sons" are not the same, and the difference is family closeness:
"See what kind of love the Father has given to us." It is not only the measure of it but the kind of it that is so wonderful. It shows itself in this, that the Father has given us this boundless love "that we should be called children of God." "Children" is the right term, not "sons." John normally uses the word "son" only about Christ… To be a child of the family is more intimate than the position of an adopted son. We are sons by adoption, but we are children by the closest family tie to the Father, though both come through the Son.
The name is not flattery. It is a fact today, even though nothing on the outside shows it:
First of all, John speaks here of the present: "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God." His love has already taken effect on us. Already today we are called, and are, children of God. But the world still knows nothing about it. It sees nothing special in us. This is because it has no relationship with Christ and sees nothing special in Him. The family of God is a mystery to them.
Why are believers called this only now? One writer points to what had to happen first:
There is no doubt that believers in the Old Testament were really children of God, but they were not called this, because the Father's love could not be fully shown or known until the Lord Jesus had come and atoned for sin at the cross.
The verse begins with the Father. But the one the world failed to know is Christ:
"The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him." Who? The "Him" here means Christ. The world did not know Him, and it does not know us for the same reason. We have the same life and character that He had. The world cannot recognise and own what is of Christ in us, because it did not recognise it in Christ.
Believers now stand where Christ stands. One writer follows that through, and adds a warning:
No one was ever as near to God as He was; but now we are brought into that very same nearness… So what is His becomes ours. But the world does not know us. Why? For the most precious reason — because it did not know Him. Whatever was His portion is our portion. If the world threw Him out, should I wonder if it throws us out too? If the world called Him every bad name, we must expect no better. Only let us take care that we do not deserve it.
Being unknown does not mean being invisible. God has given His children something to show the world:
If the world did not know the righteous Father presented in the righteous Son, it cannot know His righteous children. And it is to this place of children of God that the Father in His infinite love has called us. What a place of favour is ours while Christ is rejected from the earth — that we should be called to show the world the moral features of God!
- Love — it starts with the Father's giving, not with our worth. This love brings rescued enemies into His own house as His own children.
- Name — that love hands us a name: children of God. Writers stress this is closer than adopted sonship. A child shares the family's life, not just its title.
- Now — this name waited for the cross, and it is true today, even though outsiders see nothing special in us.
- Unknown — the world is blind to us because it was blind to Christ. His portion becomes ours, so rejection is no surprise.
- Display — while the earth refuses Christ, His children stay here to show the Father's moral features. That is the honour of the name, and its daily test.
Beloved, now are we children of God, and what we shall be has not yet been manifested; we know that if it is manifested we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
John writes to people who already belong to God's family. Then he tells them that the best part has not appeared yet. The verse holds two things at once: a relationship settled today, and a change that waits for the day Christ appears.
John states a present fact, not a hope. One writer explains why John says "children" and not "sons":
John never speaks of "sons of God" in his message. In Paul's writings the Holy Spirit speaks of believers as "sons and heirs." But John unfolds the truth that believers are in the family of God by new birth. So he uses the word "children" to mark the shared nature of those born of God. As children of God we share in the divine nature... The Spirit of God gives the strongest assurance through the pen of John: "we are God's children now." There can be no doubt about it. It is our present and known position. We believed on Him, so we are born again and have eternal life.
The words "has not yet appeared" could sound as if the future were vague. But what is missing is public display, not information.
He adds something not yet manifested. It is not yet manifested what we shall be. What does he mean? That we shall be like Christ even in our bodies. He does not say or mean that it is not revealed to us, for it is set out in Scripture fully and simply. We would be wrong to think there is the smallest doubt about the result... his faith depends not on things that are seen, but on His assurance about things as yet unseen.
One writer pictures the difference between what the world will see and what His own will see:
When He is manifested in His glory, we shall not only be with Him but like Him, for we are going to see Him as He is. The world will see Him in that day, dressed in His majesty and His might. They will see Him in His official glories. We shall see Him in His more intimate personal glories. The crowd sees the kings of this world in official dress on state occasions. Their own families see them in private, as they are.
Why does John give sight as the reason for likeness? One line of comment takes the sight itself as the transforming power:
So great is the gracious power of the Second man to make us like Himself, that for us to see Him is to be like Him. When we saw Him here on earth by faith, we were made spiritually like Him. When we see Him bodily one day, we shall be like Him even in our bodies.
Commentators differ here. Another writer reads it the other way round: likeness is what makes the sight possible:
The thought here is not that the sight of Him will transform us then. There is a precious transforming power even now in looking into His face (2 Corinthians 3:18). But we are promised that we shall behold His face in righteousness. It follows that we must be like Him. Only after being made like Him will it be possible to take in the beauty and glory of His Person, "as He is."
"As He is" means what He is now, not what He will be. That glory is more than flesh could bear:
His glory is not yet manifested, but we shall be like Him, for "we shall see him as he is." That means not as He will be, but as He is now in heavenly glory at the right hand of God. The flesh could not see this and survive. Daniel fell as one dead, and John too, when it appeared. But we shall be like Him, and therefore able to see Him as He is.
One writer ties the change to Christ's coming, and marks it off from dying:
When are we to be like Christ in the glory? When He comes. It is not when a person dies and the spirit goes to be with Christ. Then he is like Christ when Christ was in the grave. And I do not want to be like Christ when Christ was in the grave... I want to be like Him in the glory. When will that be? When He comes, He will change our lowly bodies and fashion them like His glorious body.
- Now — the relationship is settled and known today. Believers are children of God by new birth, not candidates waiting for a verdict.
- Not yet — what is missing is public display, not information. Scripture states the outcome, so there is no doubt about it.
- When — the change comes at His appearing, not at death. At His coming He will fashion our lowly bodies like His glorious body.
- Sight — "as He is" means as He is now at God's right hand. Flesh could not see that glory and survive. Commentators differ: does the sight make us like Him, or does likeness make the sight possible?
- Likeness — the world will see Him in official majesty. His own will see Him in personal glory, and will be like Him even in their bodies.
And every one that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as *he* is pure.
John has just said that when Christ appears we shall be like Him. Verse 3 shows what that certainty does to the person who holds it. But who is the "him" the hope rests on? And how can anyone purify himself when Christ alone is pure?
The little phrase "in him" is easy to misread as something inside the believer. One writer takes it the other way — the hope has a Person as its foundation.
"And everyone who thus hopes in him" means founded on Him. The "him" does not speak of the man but of Christ. Where the hope is based on Christ, he purifies himself even as Christ is pure. If I am about to be so perfectly like Him then, I will take pains not to be inconsistent with Him now. And he says this to guard us against allowing sin, making excuses for self-will, or treating the moral glory of the Lord Jesus lightly in any way. That glory is now entrusted to the believer, to guard and to show in a practical way.
The verse does not say the believer is pure as Christ is pure. The verb chosen tells us something about his actual state.
It is said of the believer, "he purifies himself": this shows that he is not pure, as Christ is. He needed not to purify Himself. So it is not said that he is pure as Christ is pure. If that were so, there would be no sin in us. Rather, he purifies himself according to the purity of Christ as He is in heaven, because he has the same life as the life of Christ Himself.
"As he is pure" fixes the measure. Setting it that high means the purifying has no stopping point on this side of glory.
A steady, ongoing work of PURIFICATION goes on in everyone who holds this hope in Christ. Can you measure the holiness of Christ? Can you tell me the standard of purity that marks our Lord? Why, absolute purity in every detail. By His very nature He is the holy, spotless, undefiled One. Yes, that is the standard. If that is the standard, you can be sure there will be room for purification every hour of our lives in this world. We shall never be able to say, "Now I am fully up to the standard; I am as pure as He is pure." That day comes only when we are clothed in a body of glory, shine out in His likeness, and see Him as He is.
The words "purifies himself" can sound like a call to work at becoming a better version of yourself.
The present effects of such hope in Him must be great and powerful! And indeed they are. The practical results are healthy and far reaching. But that does not mean we should set about trying to be purer than we are. Such self-centred efforts are useless. This sweet purifying goes on as the hope shines in — the hope which God's children have in the Son.
The purifying is never the price of seeing Him. It follows from a hope that is already sure.
We do not purify ourselves to see Him and be like Him. We purify ourselves because we have the sure and certain hope of seeing Him and being like Him, by the sacrifice of Himself and through His own most precious blood. We purify ourselves, not by blood, but by the water of the Word.
Some treat Christ's return as the reason to leave present wrongs alone. The verse cuts across that.
Scripture never uses the coming of Christ to weaken present responsibility to the Lord in holiness. We often hear people say today, "Oh, you cannot expect a perfect church; when Christ comes, He will set all to rights." Such words, such thoughts, never came from the Spirit of God. Do you believe that Christ may come at any time? Can you hold that hope before you and still go on with what you know to be wrong? Do you believe that Christ, when He comes, will not only correct what is wrong, but approve your allowance of it? Easy-going unbelief shrinks from the cross and from every present duty, saying that Christ will set everything right when He comes. But that is to abuse the truth, not to believe it.
- In Him. The hope rests on Christ, not on a feeling inside the believer. Everything else in the verse follows from that.
- Like Him. Because I will be perfectly like Him then, I refuse to be inconsistent with Him now.
- Not yet pure. The word is "purifies," not "is pure"; John describes a work still in progress, not a finished condition.
- As He is pure. Christ's absolute purity is the measure, so there is room for purifying every hour until we see Him.
- Because of Him. We do not purify ourselves to earn the sight of Him. We purify because that sight is certain — and by the water of the Word, not by self-centred effort.