We carry many titles in our lifetime. You may be a husband or wife. Some people call you dad or mom. Depending on your work in life you are tagged with an occupational title. Maybe you are identified by your recreational activity. Are you a runner, a quilter, a foodie or a fan of a team?

How do these identities make you feel? Are you happy, proud, sad or mad that these descriptions have been placed upon you? One name I loved to be called is Grandpa! Not too many shoutouts in my day make me happier than to hear the grandkids say, “Hi Grandpa!”

But, even the best of titles and greetings can leave us longing for an even more significant calling. What is that calling you may ask?

I believe it is stated in the Bible in 1 John 3:1. It reads, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called CHILDREN OF GOD!”

There you have it. Out of God’s love for us we are identified first and foremost by being called a “child of God.” This title brings order to our life and makes us aware of our lifelong, and even better, eternal purpose. Everything else that follows adds to the joy of being His child.

Verse 2 and 3 continue, “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. Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

As I read this, I am comforted that I have this title and that along with the title comes a journey with God. Oh, we know that the journey is not always smooth. We do not deny that pain, suffering and questions about how this is all working for good are involved along the way. However, let us keep our eye on the prize. God is molding us and shaping us into something that is beyond comparison. That day, in His timing, is on the horizon.

When you see Him when He comes again your jaw will drop in astonishment! However, this wonderful passage also reminds us that our completeness is going to be pretty amazing as well. All because we are His children!

So, in response to this reality, what should we do now? In the middle of verse 8 we are reminded why Jesus came in the first place. “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” That task is at hand for us as well. As His children, we are to be about destroying the devil’s work!
Finally, the best way to go about destroying the devil’s work is recorded in 3:11, “This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.”

This isn’t just a feeling. As verse 18 commands us, “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”

Thanks for letting me ramble through 1 John 3. In unsettling times like 2020, I needed to be reminded of some encouraging realities. Things like: I am a child of God, He is coming soon, and He empowers us to love so that the devil will flee.

Fullerton Free is a great place to be on this side of eternity. Lives have been changed and are still being changed. God has gathered a wonderful group of flawed individuals here who have come to Jesus for forgiveness. I am truly overly excited, you might say, to see how God will empower His children for action in the days ahead. Get ready and let us go forward for His glory!

Jay Huckabone