1 John 3:1

1 John 3:1. Behold! as an exclamation, and thus standing alone, occurs only here. It is the tranquil expression of adoring wonder. What manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us: this expression also is peculiar. It is the kind of love that is meant, not its greatness, nor its unmerited goodness. The gift of love, nowhere else said to be given, should not be limited in meaning to demonstration or proof or token: it is love itself which is made ours; and as this gift is hereafter bound up with the mission of the Son, being indeed jealously restrained to the atonement as its channel, we must needs think here of that, though unexpressed. ‘Herein is love.'

That we should be called children of God; and such we are. ‘God' indeed ‘so loved the world,' ‘in order that whosoever believeth should not perish, but have everlasting life.' But that purpose of mercy to the world is actually reached in believers; and the design (‘that' means ‘in order that') in their case can hardly be distinguished from the result. Still, the design is uppermost; and the apostle would have chosen another form of expression if he had meant only the great love shown in our being called sons. Observe, however, that ‘sons' is not used, but ‘children;' St. Paul uses the former in the same connection, but St. John limits it to One. Note also the manifest distinction between the ‘being called' and the ‘being' children: good authorities support the addition to the text of ‘such we are,' the change of tense simply marking the emphasis of the distinction. Although in the Hebrew idiom ‘to be called' and ‘to be' mean one and the same thing, a careful examination will show that there is a slight shade of difference. Even in the supreme instance, ‘He shall be called the Son of God,' the Incarnate who ‘is' eternally the Son is ‘called' such with special reference to His relation to us. St. Paul expresses the distinction as adoption and renewal: the latter signifying the restoration of the Divine image, the former its accompanying privileges of liberty and inheritance. St. John himself illustrates his own meaning in the Gospel: ‘To them gave He privilege to become the children of God, who were born not of blood but of God.' But the one cannot exist without the other. The two unite in the Christian sonship, an estate which has a glorious expansion and development in time and in eternity: the development of regeneration being into the perfect image of the Saviour's holiness, that of adoption being into the full enjoyment of the eternal inheritance. To this the apostle now proceeds; but, before doing so, he adds a reflection in harmony with his meditative style.

For this cause the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. So far as this is a parenthesis, it is easily explained. The apostle's mind is still occupied with the unanointed world of the last chapter, and he is about to return to it almost immediately: hence the echo of the past and the anticipation of the future. But it is not strictly a parenthesis. It is the writer's manner to think and write in contrasts: known of God, we are unknown to the world. ‘For this cause' gives the more general reason: because our new birth is a mystery of Divine gift and grace, the world, not having this gift, understands it not. ‘The natural man knoweth not the things of the Spirit;' and this secret of regeneration is beyond the search of the unregenerate faculty: life alone understands life. The second ‘because' gives a profounder reason for the former reason itself. ‘It knew Him not' points to the world's rejection of the Father manifested in His Son as one great act of wilful ignorance at the time of the incarnation, which is still continued. The world's ignorance of God has assumed a new character. ‘O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee,' the Lord said on the eve of His final rejection. He added, ‘But these have known that Thou didst send Me.' And again He said, ‘If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you.' The ground of the world's negative inability to understand the children of God and positive hatred of them is its rejection of their Lord.