How Great a Love

 1 John 3:1-3

 See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.  Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.  And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

 All Saints Day (Observed)            11/02/25

How Great a Love

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

If someone were to ask you what is the greatest love is, what would you tell them? Jesus once said, "A greater love has no Man than that he lay his life down for a friend."  

I find it hard to argue with Jesus. But Jesus was speaking about the love of one man for another. The love He was describing is also the love which God had for us in sending His Son to die for us. And that is the Gospel.  

Nevertheless, there is another love, one that is almost as great, if not as great, pouring out of the heart of God. That love is the love which our text this morning speaks about. Our theme this morning is, How great a love. 

The bloody and awful sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for us and in our place is truly a great love. Nonetheless, the love of which our text speaks is both prior and consequent to the cross It is the love of God for us. He calls us His children. I know it seems like it ought to be bigger when someone dies. Simply calling us his children is, in human estimation, merely words. But they are the Words of God.  

Keep in mind that God spoke, and everything that exists came into being. The world was framed by the Word of God. All the creatures of this world, both animal and vegetable, were created at the mere Word of God. Only humans were created by the direct work of God, more than words, but being formed by God in some fashion which we cannot put into clearer language because the Bible doesn't give us anything more direct than "He formed man of the dust of the ground." It sounds like pottery work, sort of. 

When God said let birds appear in the heavens, they appeared. He created the sun and the moon and the stars by saying they should be, and they were. So when our text tells us in no uncertain terms that God has called us children of God, He wasn't merely describing; He was making it so. We who believe, his children, are in fact children of God. 

That is something more, significantly more, than merely being "called" children of God, as humans might do it. That's one of the reasons we who believe do not like or easily tolerate unbelievers and hypocrites being called "Christians."  Our frustration with such things shows up in what we call "church discipline," which finally results in excommunication, sometimes. It is a process of addressing sin that God's Word prescribes. Of course, our judgment does not make it so. At least not every time. Jesus does give us the authority to retain sins, and Excommunication is certainly a retaining of sins. Our judgment is not final, however, God's is. Should the Church err in its judgment and excommunicate those who ought not to be excommunicated, the judgment of the Church does not stand.  That is not common, however.   

Church discipline exists to warn our brothers and sisters against sin and against what appears to be happening – leading them away from the faith. Excommunication itself is rare, as it should be. The steps of discipline before excommunication ought not to be rare, but sadly, they are.  

But enough about church discipline. We, the children of God, fight in this world to keep clear what God has called the children of God. Our text says that when Jesus appears again, all of those who are genuinely His children will appear with Him, and they will be just like Him. We will be just like him. The only thing we will not be that Jesus is, is divine. Other than that, we shall appear just like Him. The reason we will appear just like Him is that we shall see him just as He is. The reason we don't look that way now is that we look just like He was. We look just like He was, because He took on our nature and appearance, and became man, fully and truly human, to be just like us. So the promise of the text is, just as Jesus became true man for our salvation, we shall just like He is with everything except divinity. He is God, and we are not, but we will be something more than merely human by the grace of God.  

 That God calls us His children means that even in this life we are more. We simply cannot define that more, or feel that more, we are simply more, God's children. Our text takes two verses to say God called us His children, and so we are. And the next verse says , We are now "the children of God." It is frustrating for a preacher not to be able to describe what those words mean precisely, because the Bible doesn't say, but it is something wonderful that we we shall discover in the "Parousia," the return of Christ. 

All of those that we have wept for as they passed from this life, who clung to Christ with their heart and trusted in Him alone, are already more; they just don't have to carry around the sinful flesh any longer. The Saints who have passed from this life are in glory with Christ. Again, I cannot describe with too much detail what they are like or how they are doing, or where exactly they are geographically, because the Bible doesn't say. God wants us to look forward to something by faith, and tells us it is wonderful, No sin, no sorrow, no sickness, no more death, and that we shall be just like Jesus because we are going to see Him as He is. And just like He became one of us we shall become whatever He is – except, of course, He is God and we will not be.  

The result of this knowledge is that we should seek to purify ourselves. Our text says, "And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. "OK, that means put sin behind you, at least as much as you are able. You should call upon God to strengthen you and help you. It's not a long-distance call; the Holy Spirit dwells in each believer. John says we seek to purify ourselves Just as Jesus is pure. We are children of God. We seek to be like God as much as possible in this life. 

We rejoice in the hope of everlasting life. The word "hope" Does not refer to that weak and powerless thing that we use the word to describe so often in this life. The Christian hope is an absolute certainty of which we are fully confident – but we haven't seen it yet. We do not hold it in our hands - we trust God and take Him at His Word and His promises.   

Saints are something special. You are Saints. That's not my opinion, God said so. So great a love God has for us, that He not only sent His Son to die for us, He named us and claimed us as His children, to be just like Jesus. 

Let us give thanks to God today and every day, and every Sunday especially, as the children of God, the people of God, people who are just like Jesus except we are still wearing this sinful flesh. But those who have gone before us in what we erroneously call "death" are no longer burdened by the flesh, but they are still alive, more alive than we who sit here inhaling and exhaling and dreaming about how alive we are. How great a love! 

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)