''See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure. Everyone who commits sin commits lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who remains in him sins; no one who sins has seen him or known him. Children, let no one deceive you. The person who acts in righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. Whoever sins belongs to the devil, because the devil has sinned from the beginning. Indeed, the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is begotten by God commits sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot sin because he is begotten by God. In this way, the children of God and the children of the devil are made plain; no one who fails to act in righteousness belongs to God, nor anyone who does not love his brother (1 Jn. 3:1-10).”
It is through the goodness and love of God that we have become children of God. If our hope is in God, we can live lives of holiness as Christ did (Jn. 17:17-19). As Christians we do not belong to the world that is why the world does not accept us as it did not accept Christ (Jn. 15:18-19). Christians look forward in confidence to the beatific vision when we will see God as He is (Jn. 17:24). This is all earned for us by Jesus Christ whose cross bridged heaven and earth allowing mankind to be reconciled to God. But two conditions must be met; we must remain in Jesus and we must lead righteous lives. Knowledge of God comes from keeping His commandments and this knowledge allows us to truly become children of God. If we are children of God we do not sin. If we sin we are children of Satan, the slandered and author of lawlessness. Those who are hostile to Jesus and Christians are children of the slanderer. No one filled with the divine Holy Spirit commits sin. He who loves his brother and loves Jesus is a child of God. Children of God are filled with love which will reach its fullness when we see God face to face.
Almighty God, it is only with your grace that we can keep your commandments for as St. Paul said, we do not do the good that we want, but do the evil we do not want. Guide us so we can hasten, without stumbling, to receive the things you have promised as we look forward to the beatific vision when we see you as you are. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen!
References
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Faculty of the University of Navarre. The Navarre Bible: New Testament Expanded Edition. Expanded Edition, Four Courts / Scepter, 2008.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
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