In what manner has God shown us his love?

 

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” (1 John 3:1 ESV)

John 3:16 is likely the most well-known verse in the entire Bible: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” The English construction of the verse, however, can be somewhat misleading, because the “so” does not describe the degree of God’s love, as is often the case—God loved us so much—but the manner of God’s love—God loved us in this way. In other words, the Father sent the Son into the world to display the Father’s love for the world.

As he does in his Gospel, here in his first epistle John again uses a similar grammatical construction to display to his readers the manner of God’s love. Not only did the Father send his Son into the world that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life, but also that we should be called children of God. John is showing us, in tangible terms, how God shows his love. Note the direct connection between the Father sending his Son and God calling us his children; it is only because the Son has come into the world that we are able to be adopted as children of God, which again shows us how God loves us.

To grasp this, consider the holiness of God and his diametric opposition to sin. God is holy both in his nature and in all his acts. All that he does flows out of and is perfectly consistent with his holy nature. We, conversely, are sinful both in our nature and in our actions.

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