I stand amazed

1 John 3:1 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. (ESV)

In my favorite study Bible, the commentary on this verse says, “John stands in amazement of God’s love. But the greater amazement and appreciation  is for the fact that God’s love is expressed to human beings, that Christians are included in His family. God loves all believers, the weak as well as the strong.” I too stand amazed at God’s love for me; for Him to love me when I ran headstrong against him for so much of my life. When I turned my back on him for the pleasure of sins and selfish pursuits. When I still fail him ever single day still, even with a heart for Him, there is failure continually; in all my failures He still loves me, and you. He has a love we cannot comprehend, for the world only teaches to love back what is loved first. We are not taught to love those that do not love us; Christ loves the saint and the sinner.

When you begin to grasp a small percentage of God’s ability to love you in all your failures, it produces thankfulness and love for Him in your heart. That outpouring of that love begins to change to a life for Him and all that it will produce. You begin to live your life differently than you did before you knew Him. Those around you notice; some are drawn to the change He has produced in you, others display their denial of Christ through their attitudes towards Him in you. John 15:18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. You will find that many you once called friends, now are denying Christ before you. The world as a whole is not inherently good; the world is full of sin, and the world will turn it’s back on Christ and you as a result of your devotion to Him.

But the promise that you in your faith hold onto is found in the next passage. 1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. John has just spent the prior verses speaking of living our lives for Him and the pursuit of righteousness. We will have to stand before Him one day; will we stand uprightly and know that we tried our best to live our lives for Him? 1 John 2:28 And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. We will be asked to give an account of our lives; did we live for the pleasures of this world, or were we so amazed at the love He bestowed upon us, (while we were still sinners), that we dedicated our lives to the pursuit of obediently following Him?