First John 2:29-3:1 Marks of the Child of God part 1

Okay, so I've titled this lesson the marks of the child of God And not everybody, you know, I kind of have it going across the chapter break Not everybody totally agrees with that, but it seems to me it fits rather. Well, hopefully you'll see that once we get into the lesson So let's go to the verses just two verses And we start in verse 29 of chapter 2 if you know that he is righteous and You know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him.

And then 3.1, it says, see how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us that we would be called children of God. And such we are. For this reason, the world does not know us because it did not know him. And if you notice, I think one reason I kind of thought it was good to, if you notice that 29 talks about being born of him. And then we go into verse one, it talks about children of God. Well, that's the same general idea, basically, that we're children of God, born of our Savior, born of God. So that's part of the connection. Okay, we'll just leave it at that. There's a lot more. Okay, so let's just go on. We'll start with the first verse.

So the first phrase starts out, if you know that he is righteous. So this happens to be a little Greek geek stuff. There are four classes of sentences in the Greek, and this is called a third class sentence. Now you might think, looking at that, you might think, well, knowing that God is righteous is a pretty fundamental thing. And you think, well, that sounds almost like a sense or a first class. But it really, it turns out this is You know is a subjunctive verb, which means it's a mode of probability. So it's a sentence which has fulfillment is uncertain, but still likely.

So let's just look at this guy named Harris, not Gary Harris. A gentleman named Harris is someone that Vern passed along to us 10 years ago or so. Anyway, he had some good comments, I thought. He says this conditional phrase, does not refer to whether Jesus Christ is righteous or not. And I don't think we would have thought that.

But what it is talking about, but rather that the reader realize that Jesus is righteous. And he kind of qualifies that with his next statement, his third statement from Harris. The uncertainty does not concern the fact of Jesus' righteousness, but the reader's knowledge of that fact. So I think it's really, you know, so the sense here is if we know, we need to be convinced that Jesus Christ is righteous.

And so how are we convinced by that? Well, there's only one thing I know that convinces us. It's God's Word. So we'll see. We're going to look at this. We have two you knows in here. We got a you know in this phrase here, and then after the comma, there's another you know. And it turns out there are different Greek words in the original. The first one you know is oida.

It speaks of absolute knowledge. And if it's from scripture, it's divine absolute knowledge. And oida is in the perfect tense. Now, we're going to see a lot of perfect tenses today. Perfect tense is the Greek tense that means past completed action with abiding results.

So you could say they knew it in the past or they should know it And with abiding results and they know it up into the present and on in the future is it has idea of permanence So, okay that finishes that thought right there that will just continue on there Then the next okay.

We know that next part is he is righteous. Let's talk about that for a second you know if you know that he is righteous and And we know that he is righteous from scripture. That's how we know that several verses that speak to that Earlier in chapter 2 we had in 2 1 we had we have an advocate with the father jesus christ the righteous And then we'll have a verse coming up here in several weeks verse john 3 7 The one who practices righteousness is righteous just as he is righteous. So we're going to see a lot of A lot of things about practice and we're going to come to that in the next part about the believers practice here in this in chapter 3 So this is kind of the leading into that So that you know in these conditional sentences We have a it's an if then if this then that so you could but the then isn't supplied so you could read this as If you know that he is righteous and you believe that, then, after the comma, then you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him. So we're going to talk about the then part of the sentence.

So we have the second you know. The first you know was Oida. The second you know is Gnosko. This is a know of experience, to be taking in knowledge. So this is some knowledge that Believers are taking in about people practicing righteousness, right? So that's what's going on here. So they're continually taking it in. They're continually learning about people. And we learn about our brothers and sisters, right? We interface with our brothers and sisters. We know what they're about. We come to know them. So let's continue on here.

So the next part of it is that everyone... You might think, well, that could apply to everybody you ever meet. Well, in the context, I believe we're going to see that it's speaking of believers. It has to be, because we're going to see a characteristic that only a believer could have.

So we have our word that we're going to see quite a bit in Chapter 3, practice, poieo, spoken of a course of action or conduct. It's translated do or does to do. It's present tense continuous action. We're going to see it eight more times in chapter three so we're going to talk a lot about a lot about the believers practice and What's incredible is the believers practice is like his Savior, which is wonderful That's what that's what's so amazing about this that that there are practice of our life could be like our Savior Okay, so we bring this across that everyone is So he's trying to explain or amplify the present tense, who habitually does.

So you can say, everyone habitually does. And we'll just leave it there for a second. So I like what Macaulay said. I listened to Macaulay, and he kind of pointed out that, and this is true, don't we judge men's action by their practice or habitual practice? We judge him in a way, unfortunately, sometimes they make me do something wrong and then maybe we say, well, I don't know about that.

You change your mind about a brother. But think about in scripture, think about David. What's your view of David? He loved the Lord so much, but he was a man and he did things that he should not have done. So like this, we look at the totality of man. What does a man practice? What is that man about, or women, about?

OK, so that's kind of the idea of this word. So then we have the second part. There's actually an unsupplied definite article here in the text. And you can find that. I can find it because I have word search, and it shows me all the Greek words. And there's a definite article that's not translated. It is translated by some, but not by all.

So actually, Weiss translates that this way, which I like. So he uses that definition, the righteousness. He says, this aforementioned righteousness. Wow, the aforementioned righteousness. So here's kind of the thought. Are we talking about the one who practices righteousness in a general sense? He's just a righteous man across the board? Or is there some particular aspect that John's trying to point out here? And it seems like it is, that he's trying to point out a particular aspect from Chapter 2 about a man's righteousness. The definite article is there, so it's specific righteousness, the aforementioned righteousness. So the question is, what righteousness is he talking about? That's my question, I haven't put it up yet. What righteousness is he talking about?

So if you look back in Chapter 2, I didn't do a chart to do that, but you look back several verses, And we have this verse, well, first of all, let's just think about a little bit about what we say in chapter two. We talked about the antichrist, right? We talked about in verse 26 in chapter two, we talked about these things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. So Paul, I'm sorry, John was trying to warn us about these antichrists and deceivers. So what I, so, Let me just go ahead, here's my thought. So I like the last part of 227.

It says, but as his anointing teaches us, teaches you about all things, just as it taught you, abide in him. So what I kind of thought, and actually Macaulay kind of went along this line, but he didn't point out that you abide in him. By their fellowship with the Savior, by their walking and abiding in Christ, That was their righteous behavior. That was the righteousness that he's talking about. And that righteousness kept them alert to these false teachers, these deceivers, these antichrists that have gone out. So that's kind of what I... So anybody else have a thought about other things that might be righteous, might be referring to? Anybody out there in Zoom land? Or not, if you... We have plenty to cover. Go ahead. Can you hear me? This is Andrew. Yes, go ahead.

Oh yeah, so I was just thinking that if you go back to 29a for the righteous, it's the aforementioned righteousness is if you know that he is righteous in 29a. And that's Christ's righteousness. Right. And so if we practice the righteousness, which is the righteousness of Christ, that's where I went back to.

Maybe because I'm lazy and I don't like to go back too far. I don't know. All right. Yeah, I don't know. I kind of got off on this track of tracing it beyond that. And that's actually a good observation. Certainly the righteousness of Christ And we're abiding in Him, right? Right, right.

But then the other aspect of this would be if he's trying to point out to these believers about what they've gone through, and he's looking at a man, right? He's looking at men, right? The everyone here. He's looking at everyone also who practices righteousness. And somebody could be our Savior. That's true. One of the things, Roger, that I think you will agree on is that everything that is good comes from our Savior. That it is His life being manifest. Right, right. Okay. I agree, I agree.

Actually, I'm having a little hard time hearing you. Is there a volume control there? I'm going to have Monty turn up the sound a little bit so I can hear a little bit better. Because I think they can hear better than I can hear. Hopefully it won't overload the system just a little bit. Roy, say something.

Well, all I'm saying is that it is Christ's life that is manifest through us. when he is living, it's his righteousness, therefore, that is in view. And whether it be, you know, back in previous verses or in this verse 29, it's still him. Right? Right. Amen. No, I agree. I agree. That's good. I like that. OK. Perfect. Perfect. OK. Thanks, guys. You're helping me. That's really wonderful. OK.

So let's go on and finish up the verse here. So the last part of the verse is born of him or In the original, in the inner lender, it actually has been born of Him. We're going to find out, we have another perfect tense here. So, past completed action with abiding results. We are now in a permanent state of being born of Him. Every believer in the Lord Jesus is in a permanent state of being born of Him.

And here's something, you know, it seems like, maybe you guys are old enough, it used to be when I don't know, when the public started hearing about being born again, I remember, was it the 50s or 60s, that was kind of a, well, you're a born-again Christian, like that's something different than any other Christian throughout history. Well, this verse just puts that all, you know, it says, wait a minute, you know, this is a permanent state of every believer. So, who studied scripture knew that. I'm sure the world They picked up on that being born again, or being born of Him. So I thought this verse is just tremendous. It says, has been born of Him. Past completed action with abiding results. It's true of every single one. So just kind of building on that. And it's past, and this is what's even cooler. I love it. I love it, right?

Who does this? Do we decide today, I'm going to be born of Him? No way. God performs the action for all believers, right? And if you think about this, this is one, if you like Chafer's Riches of God's Grace, 33 Riches, this is one of the 33, right? We've been born of him. This is one of the richest we have, which is wonderful.

So what's it saying? John is trying to point out here that as a believer walks with the Lord, in fellowship with him, his life can be righteous. He can be practicing righteousness. And that says and this he wants to point out that aspect of his life is he's born of him Actually, what I like here is weast has it weast is pretty wordy here in this situation. He says Trying to translate that is born of him out from him has been born with a present result that that the one is a born one they picks up the It comes out from the from the from our God from our Savior and the present result that he is a born one born of God Okay, and now I kind of went back to Nicodemus here a little bit When the Lord encountered Nicodemus kind of tying it into the you know We have being born of him and now we're going to kind of transition over over to in verse one a little bit more aspect of that but here he told Nicodemus and Do not be amazed, I said to you, you must be born again. You know, must here is this word, it's an absolute necessity. And you can begin to see why he told Nicodemus that. You know, that is the essence of being a Christian, that you're born of him, you have his life. That has to happen in your life. Without that happening, you aren't a Christian.

Okay. So now the next verse, verse 1, will give us more details about that. It's going to expand that. Okay. Any, let's see, I think that's the end of... Any last thoughts on this verse before we go on to verse 1? If not, we'll just, we'll carry on. Okay. Alrighty. And just another tremendous verse. I'll just read the whole verse and then I'll just go back to the first part.

See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called children of God. Born again, right? Born of Him. And such we are. For this reason the world does not know us because it did not know Him. And one little interesting point, or caution here, not all translations of this verse include all the the original language unfortunately some have dropped out the King James and I noticed Darby did too I don't know why they dropped out and such we are which is just a crucial part of this verse so if you have a King James or or Darby or I'm not sure what other the amplified have it I didn't do a real long search but several translations did not bring across and such we are which is really pretty crucial okay so let's just care so we're the first part here so the interlinear word-for-word translation has see what sort of love see what sort of love the father has bestowed so see is yeido it can be translated behold or look at this is command to look at it's in the plural here so it's literally behold you or i was thinking about if i was in the south i'd say look you all Look y'all. Look y'all. I came from Florida. Florida is kind of... Florida is not exactly... South Florida is definitely not... It's too far south. It is. It's gone over the hill, right, in my opinion. It's much more north. It is, I know.

As a kid growing up, you went north in Florida to go south. if that makes sense okay all right so um okay so as behold look look y'all so he what john is doing he wants us to focus look at look at this great love and actually we're going to look at the unique nature of god's love macaulay has So John is, so this is from Weiss again, John is calling upon all saints to wonder at the particular kind of love that God has bestowed upon us. So the word is how great in the New American Standard, and in this translation it's what sort, patapos. There are two ideas involved here. I got this from Macaulay, I didn't put it, I should have put his name here in this, Two ideas here one is it's a foreign. It's a foreign kind of a foreign from another country or from another world And it's an astonishing as to its nature.

So the what sword is and actually there's a good verse here that you guys all remember uh when mary when the angel came to mary and said hail favored one And she said but she was perplexed at this statement And kept pondering, this is our word, patapas, what kind of salutation this was. It was strange to her, it was foreign, that she should be favored. You're calling me favored one? What's all that about?

So that's the sense of this. See what sort, what sort of astonishing, foreign kind of love that the believer has. God's love, this is no great new news, God's love has no human equivalent. You know, you look, you know, I think, personally, having had children, a mother's love for their children is incredible. I just, I know, beyond what, you know, a guy can't quite get there. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And that can cause conflict. And that can cause conflict.

But a mom's love is incredible. Anyway, so that's, and God's love is, you know, so much more than that. But that's, you know, that can be a reflection of his love, certainly. for a Christian mom. Okay. All right. See how great a love the father has bestowed upon us. So I want to just go back for a second and just kind of, I thought this was a good point. How is God's love unique?

And this is from Macaulay. And he points out a fatherly love, what we're talking about here, which is going to be described in this verse, is only for his children. In contrast to the love that God has for the whole world, that Christ died for. The love of bringing all men to Christ is beyond, even though it's the same word, but this love talks about specific things he did for the believer in terms of a fatherly love. So it's a different, a fatherly love, a unique love.

So the phrase is, a father has bestowed upon us, believers, Has bestowed his uh, did I to give something to someone the perfect tense? So this is a third perfect tense we've had today So once again, uh present, uh, Perfect tense is used here and this is from uh, this is from we steadily um, perfect tense is used here to indicate that the gift that the gift Becomes a permanent possession upon reception and that's what that's all about God has placed his love upon the saints in the sense that they have become the permanent object of his love. You can think about this, certainly all mankind Benefited by Christ going to the cross and God shed his love abroad to all mankind But he's specifically once you come to know him He showers his love specifically on those who know him as and they're the permanent object of his love Just just amazing.

Just amazing Okay, so that's All right. Go ahead. Wouldn't that be the same as in John 3 16 for God so loved the world that he gave his own begotten son? Yep. That's the only one that could do that. And that's the contrast I'm trying to make is that in that verse right there we see God's love for all mankind. But here this is like zooming in and saying, look, see how astonishing how foreign this love is beyond God's love for all mankind this is love directed specifically at the believer so that's that's kind of what the contrast we're trying to make here yeah good David okay okay so we have two statements here That we should be called children of God. And then we have the last part, and such we are. So I have the first statement I want to talk about first, and then the second statement. That makes sense. All right.

So then, that we would be called children of God. We would be called is a descriptive adjective of person's heiress passive, past point fact. So here, I was thought about this. This is not exactly being called, but it kind of reminds me of that. In the gospel it says, but as many as received him, to them he gave their right to become children of God, even those who believed in his name. So I was thinking about the fact that we're called, we have the right and we're called children of God because that is God's plan and purpose for us. Okay, and then secondly, and that's why, boy, some translations leave this part out.

And isn't it sad? I don't know what they're thinking. Is that right? Wow. And such we are. So what's cool is, we have, we've been called that. And we are that, you know, and we are children of God. Amy, a tremendous, tremendous verb here, Amy, the state in which someone or something continues to exist, present tense. So a couple of statements we can make. We continuously and permanently exist as children of God.

So here's, you know, this is where we talk about it all the time. Positional truth is just so critical. If you think that you can come in and out, once you've trusted the Lord Jesus, that you go, well, I feel, I don't feel saved today, or I don't feel this, I don't feel that. Well, these verses are given for us. We are such children of God. We continuously and permanently are a child of God. And secondly, I like this from Wiest. We not only have the name, but we have the character. We have the very life of the Lord Jesus.

Don't you think the translators really didn't understand? I don't think they did. I mean, they didn't understand how important that one little phrase is. Exactly. I agree with you. So they thought, well, we've already said. Yeah, it seems like it's a repeat. Well, no, it's actually... They just didn't understand. Go ahead, Jim. Do you have your mic on?

Yeah, I do. Good. I've noticed that the King James and the New King James version don't have that phrase in there, and I'm thinking it's probably where they, which Greek translation they got it from. And it could, and you're right. Absolutely right. That's a good point. They didn't have a more modern Greek translation at the time, and it probably didn't include it. Right. That's right. I think the older ones. Well, not always.

You know, I'm not into textual criticism. There's a whole field out there. They didn't have the Qumran scrolls back then. They didn't find them until 1948. And this is King James written in the 1600s. So maybe it wasn't there. I don't know. One of the things I could add to that discussion might be, it's the Byzantine text that does not have it, which is the one that the King James was translated from. It comes not from Alexandria, not from North Africa, but from Europe and from the area that really is considered the best version, quite frankly, Even though the texts of Alexandria have been given strong support in the modern translations, they were also the translators that were allegorizing. They added to the text repeatedly in order to convey an allegorical message.

So you've got to be careful. Right, right. That's good, Roy. Thank you. Thank you for that. Okay. All right. So we have his name and his character. And as a child of God, he's incredible. Okay. So now the last part. Therefore, though, let's see, actually, for this reason, the world does not know us. Okay, I think what I did was here, I Oh, I know. I know where it is. Now I remember. OK. You know, and this is it.

When you start looking at the original and then you go back between the original and translations, you'll find that many times the translators will put a bunch of words together. So what they did is they put, for this reason is equivalent to therefore. I mean, you have to kind of say that. So New American likes for this reason. And the original has just, you could say therefore.

So I went with it there, I was going back, I didn't put it in a linear up there. Therefore, the world does not know us. Okay, so the world here is again the ones whom God loved and for whom Christ died. So the world does not, so we're going to have two no's here and they're both going to be the same word. Gnosko, we have some of the same words over and over again here. Gnosko, experiential knowledge. to be taking in knowledge. So think about this.

The world is not taking in knowledge about us as God's ambassadors. We've been studying about that in 2 Corinthians where ambassadors for Christ. It's, you know, it's, how's it look, you know, we talked about the, all the way through the Corinthian, you know, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, we talked about different aspects of why the world can't see us, you know, it's blinded, we're blinded to the truth, but it's not, it can experience, it can experience things about us, but the main core here, what he's trying to point out, the reason it can't take and experience what we have as believers is because Yet the world does not know him if they knew him then they would see that that we are we are in concert with that But they they don't that they don't know him. They don't see that they are they think we're weird sometimes So it's the same girls go again That they have not experienced God so I put I put this little thought together the world has not come to know Christ and in an experiential way at a point in time in the past. I'm trying to bring out the verb tense there. So it has not done that. So since it hasn't understood who God is, then it can't understand who his children are. And I like this little... Oops, I didn't have that... Yeah, I think... Actually, we're going to... So, where did I have the...

There's this little phrase I had here I thought was very good. You told me I got off the big computer. Okay. Well, I guess – I thought I had a thing here. If you don't know, you're a parent. Oh, I know. It's actually in my – final thoughts. It is. Thank you. Roger, did you leave out the O in Gnosko? Is that supposed to be an O in there? Yeah. Gnosko. Gynstro. Okay, well, thank you. Sorry. Okay. I check your pages, too, and I don't think it's his own. Bonnie really works hard to make sure I look pretty good. I look awful good. Today I didn't.

Anyway, you're right. Thanks so much. Okay, so I do have some final thoughts here. Then we have a little discussion maybe here. Okay, so some final thoughts. The foreign kind of love produced in us by the Holy Spirit constitutes Us as foreign kind of people a person like that to the people of this world and you see that's very true, right? This foreign kind of love this love that comes out from God as a source is foreign to the world that you know It just doesn't and we see that more and more in our world because we're less and less in tune with who God is so we We don't you don't get it.

You know Roger. Sure. Go ahead. They didn't know who Jesus was and Right. How are they going to know who we are? Exactly. And that's kind of John's point. That's exactly John's point. If they don't know about God, they're not going to recognize that you're following after him. They're not going to get it. We can do all the righteousness that God has for us to do, and the world will not recognize that. You're right.

Well, look at the Jews. You've got the whole Old Testament. I mean, I point this out to my Jewish friends. They think all of that is just stories. So they didn't know Christ either. And you kind of go, okay, the Lord sent Jesus first to the Jews, but they continued to reject him and he knew they were going to reject him forever until the end times. then said, you know, I'm going to the June Taos.

Right. It's for the whole world. Let's, let's work on the June Taos. We need to be blueberries. Okay. Thanks. Okay. Anyway. Okay. Thought number two. Thought number two. A little bit. Okay. Be careful. Bye-bye. I love you. I can't do it here. Alright, so now, second thought.

Unbelievers cannot fully comprehend the children of God. The reason for this lack of perception is their failure to comprehend God fully. I was trying to remember this phrase. Since they do not know the parent, God, they do not know his children. Believers, so that's it.

Just it's just that if you don't know the you don't know them the Father you will not know his children and then then here's a verse that kind of goes along with that Okay, ah There we go, okay So in John 5.37, not exactly the same idea, but not precisely.

The Father who sent me, he has testified of me. So this is speaking, Jesus was talking to the Jews here. And this is after he healed the lame man. And the Father who has sent me, he has testified of me. You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form. You do not have his word abiding in you. for you not believe him who sent him him who he sent so that they didn't believe they didn't believe that God who sent the Lord Jesus didn't believe him so they wouldn't recognize Jesus they didn't believe the father so they wouldn't recognize his son okay that's kind of what Hallie used to say you know many times you're the only Bible anyone ever reads right just the way you live your life the way you react to trials the way you interact with the world.

And it is. It's different. And they can't put their finger on it. But there's something different. No, really. No, I agree. I agree with you. I totally agree. That's such a true statement. And really, that's what that's about. Right. That's it. You're right. They didn't, yeah. Hey, Roger? Yes, go ahead.

The words that you used in 1 John 3, 1 For this reason, the world does not know us. For this reason, what reason? Well, it's back in verse 29. If you know that he is righteous, okay, then those that practice righteousness are born of him. Well, the world doesn't know that he is righteous. That's true. It's because of this, they don't believe us. who are walking in his life, living through us, they look at that righteousness and don't attribute it to be from God because, well, God doesn't do righteous things. He's not righteous.

That's their thought. Right. That's good. Well, it's interesting how many times you'll hear people talk about, well, how can a loving God allow XYZ? I mean, that seems to be the go-to statement. Some tragedy happens and somebody says, well, how can a loving God allow this to happen?

Well, they don't know the whole story, right? They missed out on the part where man fell, who's in control of this world, and all the other awful things about this world. They don't understand that. They don't understand the sinner nature. Absolutely. You mean I'm a sinner? I mean, you know, really. I'm a part of anyone. You know? No, I agree.

I agree. so let's see here so andrew's going to pick up with the next two verses um next week um so let's see um any other thoughts uh folks yeah appreciate you guys thoughts on uh you know tying the 29th and verse one together it's great that's great i was just astounded i said just by the the surety, you know, we have like three perfect tenses, which means that's a permanent thing in a believer's life, a permanent part of his life. And how John brought that across, you know, throughout this whole, these two verses about these aspects of being born of him. So it's, it's pretty amazing. And the fact that we have, we have his name and we have his life, which is just great.

All right. Well, there's nothing else. The musicians will appreciate this. It depends on the other class. They had to wait another class. Okay. All right. Let's see. All right. Well, okay. Well, if no other questions, then I'll just go ahead and close here. All right.

Dear Heavenly Father, We thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for our time today and your word. We thank you for this tremendous message of your love for us and how your love, you have a love for all mankind, but this love talks about your fatherly love, how you love us as our father, our heavenly father, and how we have been born again from you. And we have the name, you've given us a name of your children, plus we have We have your very life in our Savior, Father. We thank you for that. We ask it in his name. Amen.