To Be Called God's Children - Queen Anne Baptist Church

To Be Called God’s Children

A few days ago I came across an article about how to deal with stress. Let me read you the closing paragraph.

“Each day take a few moments just for yourself. Light candles. Sit quietly and meditate or pray. Sip a warm beverage. Massage your neck, shoulders, and hands. Give yourself a facial. Soak your feet in warm water. Take a soothing bath. Listen to soft music. Do something that centers your soul and makes you feel content.”

It’s great advice, of course. But something in that list really disturbs me, and I think the reason it disturbs me is that it describes too closely our relationship with God. There, in this list of lovely things a person might do in order to take care of oneself, is the suggestion to “Sit quietly and meditate or pray.”

My concern is not that this is bad advice. It’s very good advice. But I wonder: has prayer, the center of our relationship with God, become simply another item on the list of good things we might choose to do in order to make ourselves relax and feel good? Has God become something to take down off the shelf when we need him, right there next to the aromatherapy candles and the bath salts?

I would be the first one to suggest that you spend more time in prayer, and to tell you that you will certainly find your prayer times to be helpful and yes, even good for reducing stress. What concerns me is that we have so tamed God that he has become, in our minds, a servant ready to do our bidding.

We go our way from day to day, living our lives as we please, but when the stress starts to pile up, we call on God to calm our anxious hearts. And as soon as our hearts are calm, we forget all about God and go back to our frenzied living.

How do I know this? Well, unfortunately, I do it myself. And I am not proud to tell you that. It is no way to treat God.

I think John understood this, and it bothered him, too. John was one of the disciples, and he had known Jesus very well. He understood that our relationship with God is very precious, and because he had walked with Jesus, he truly understood the amazing love of God.

So John wrote passionately about God’s amazing forgiveness, through Jesus. Two weeks ago, we talked about that wonderful verse in I John 1:9 that assures us of God’s willingness to always forgive us: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

But John also speaks strong words of caution to us, reminding us that God is pure light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So if we think we are going to walk with God, we, too, must walk in the light. If we want to dabble in sin, we have no place in God’s presence.

Even so, John reminds us not to think we are without sin, because that would make us deceitful. We must choose to walk in the purity of God’s love, fully dependent on God’s gracious gift of forgiveness.

We accept and believe God’s gift of forgiveness, but we must remember that it cost Jesus his life.

John speaks to us as his beloved children in the Christian faith, and he wants to be sure we understand just who we are in Christ. So as I read, imagine this aging saint, who walked with Jesus as a disciple, who witnessed his death on the cross and his resurrection, and has seen the beginnings of the church. He knows the hope of eternal life with God, and he wants to prepare all who will read his words to meet God in heaven.

Most of all, he wants us to truly understand just who we are in God’s eyes. I John 2:28:

²⁸And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

²⁹If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

¹How 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. ²Dear 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. ³Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

John would not be amused with a God who is kept on the shelf between the aromatherapy candles and the bath salts, only to be taken down when we feel the need for stress reduction. John wants us to truly see who God is.

John knew that this Jesus who had ascended into heaven was coming again to call us home to be with us. Each of us has only so many days on this earth. None of us knows when our last day will be. John was expecting the return of Christ in his lifetime.

Of course, we all have seen the cartoons with the Christian carrying a sign, “Repent, the end is near.” We have known of people who have gone out on the hills to wait, because they believed the end was upon us. And most of us, perhaps secretly, chuckle at their naivety. But the truth is, each of us will die, and the Bible tells us we will stand before God.

And whether he comes in the air to meet us or we go at the end of our lives to meet him, we don’t know when that day will be. John wants us to be prepared.

So he says, “²⁸And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.” We know the truth. We know the way. We know that we are forgiven. But John knows that we get very sloppy in our ways, and we forget that we are walking before God. And John wants us to stand before God and behold his amazing glory.

So he reminds us, “²⁹If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.” What John is saying is that you simply cannot know God, who is righteous, without changing your ways. To see the glory and purity of God without wanting to be like him is simply impossible.

And then, one of my favorite verses in the Bible: “¹How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” God loves us so much that he has called us his children—and not just called us his children—it is a reality! It’s who we are! It is our identity.

When you are born into a family, you receive their name. With that name comes all the privilege of being part of that family. Our earthly families, of course, are imperfect examples, because earthly families are made up of imperfect people. But imperfect as they are, we understand that being part of a family brings with it many privileges. Your parents fed you and clothed you and sheltered you and provided for you in many ways, to the best of their abilities. In fact, when a family fails to do those basic things for their children, we understand that something is very wrong in that family.

As we grow up, we begin to accept responsibilities as family members to help others as we have been helped. We also learn that certain attitudes of respect and gratitude are part of the responsibilities of being part of the family.

A newborn baby has no responsibility whatsoever. Babies cry when they feel like crying; they sleep when they feel like sleeping, and so on. But as we grow up, we learn that we can’t always have things our way, and we need to contribute.

There’s nothing much more obnoxious than a spoiled brat, who has been given all the privileges but has never learned to give back. I think John is a little worried that some of us might be like the spoiled brats in our relationship to God. We might take his gifts too much for granted.

John wants us to understand the amazing truth that we are truly called God’s children, and as such we have both the rights and the responsibilities of being his children. We are his heirs.

It is an enormous privilege to be part of God’s family. But if you want to be part of this family, there are not only privileges, but also responsibilities. So he goes on to say, “The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”

In other words, the world does not understand that our family has different standards. It’s exactly like when you tell your kids, “I don’t care what the other kids are doing, or what words they use, we don’t do that in our family.” John is reminding us that being part of God’s family means having standards that the world might not understand.

John also wants us to remind us of the high honor of being part of God’s family, and to encourage us to remain faithful while we await his coming—or our going! “²Dear 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. ³Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.”

John calls us to walk as children of God’s light in purity, and he also comforts us in our inability to do it as well as we wish we could. He realizes we can’t achieve perfection, but he wants us to make sure we are trying our best.

John has already reminded us of the gift of forgiveness that God offers through Jesus, while at the same time admonishing us not to take our Christian walk lightly. Now he gives us the good news of the light at the end of the tunnel. Some of us are continually vexed by our own inadequacy. That is probably a lot better that thinking we have already arrived.

But the good news is that “what we will be has not yet been made known.” If we have come to Christ and asked forgiveness and we are walking in the light as he is in the light, then we are on our way. And we are already fully God’s children. But we’re going to be even better--“what we will be has not yet been made known.”

Because when we finally see Jesus face to face, we will be changed. We’re not perfect yet, “But we know that when he appears,we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t that really, really good news? Whatever it is we struggle with; those little (or maybe big) sins that we just can’t seem to conquer will one day just disappear when we really see Jesus.

Let’s go back to that shelf with God and the bath salts and the aromatherapy candle for just a minute. Because there is actually some value there that I don’t want to dismiss.

When you are feeling the need for some comfort in your life—and who of us doesn’t need that?—it is just fine to light a candle or soak your tired feet and it’s very good to pray. But I hope you have some concept of who this God is to whom we pray. He is, as John tells us, pure light, and there is no darkness in him at all.

Often it is our own need for help that causes us to come to God in prayer, and that is good. But somewhere along the way, we need to go beyond just using God to make us feel better.

God is not like a genie that we keep in a bottle on the shelf, and take down when we need something. God is truly our father. We are his children. He wants to be our friend. He wants us to know him and to yearn to be with him and to be like him.

I invite you to meditate on the beautiful words that John left us to point us to our loving God and father so that we might be prepared to love God with all our hearts, and to be ready to meet him when our lives come to an end—whether it is today or some day far in the future. We are to live as who we really are—the royal princes and princesses who are the children of the King.

Close your eyes and listen as I read these beautiful words one more time, and simply allow them to bathe you in the light of God’s wonderful, amazing love for you, his child.