Commentaries:
Christians are in the God Family already—in embryonic form. We are sons of God! When we were baptized "in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit," we were placed into the Family of God! We are now sons of God—we bear that name, and we had better do everything in our power to uphold it! It is the greatest name in the universe! There is none greater. In a very real sense, our last name is now "God."
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace and Law (Part 13)
Notice that although we are now the "sons" and "children of God" (I John 3:1-2), we are only heirs—ones who shall, in the future, inherit all that God has promised (Romans 8:14-17). Why? Because we are now only BEGOTTEN children. It is only when we are born of God that we become inheritors of God's Kingdom—divine members of the Family of God.
Before the second phase of man's creation—our spiritual creation—can begin, God the Father must first beget each of us by placing His Holy Spirit within our minds. We are then impregnated, so to speak, by the "seed" or germ of eternal life. It is the begettal of the spiritual life of God within our minds. Much as a newly begotten physical embryo begins to grow in its mother's womb, we begin to grow in spiritual character after we are begotten by God's Spirit. This growth comes through study, prayer, and walking with God.
What It Means to Be Born Again
A progression takes place in our spiritual lives. It begins with the calling of God, and then moves to repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Spirit, and growth in our relationship with God. Finally, we are clothed with God's glory through the resurrection from the dead.
John W. Ritenbaugh
You Must Be Born Again!
By analogy each adult human life can be compared to an "egg" or "ovum." This "ovum" has a very limited life span—an average of about 70 years—compared to eternal life. But spiritual, divine immortal life may be imparted to it by God the Father.
As the physical male sperm finds its way to and unites with the nucleus in the ovum, so God's Spirit enters and combines with the human spirit in man! This happens upon receipt of the Holy Spirit—after real repentance, baptism, and the laying on of hands of a true minister of God. One thus begotten by the Spirit of God is now a "babe in Christ" (I Corinthians 3:1). He is already a child of God, though yet unborn. By direct analogy the embryo in a mother's womb is already the child of its parents, though not yet born.
A spirit-begotten child of God now has the presence of eternal life—God life—through God's Spirit, but he is not yet an immortal spirit being—not yet born of God—not yet an inheritor and possessor. He is merely an "heir" with Christ (Romans 8:17). The divine life of God has merely been begotten.
This divine life and character starts so very small in one it is doubtful if much of it is in evidence—except for the glow of that ecstasy of spiritual "romance" which one may radiate in that "first love" of conversion, spiritually speaking. But so far as spiritual knowledge and developed righteous character goes, there is not much—yet.
Once spiritually begotten, we are merely a spiritual "embryo." Now we must be fed and nourished on spiritual food so we can grow spiritually! Jesus said man shall not live by bread (physical food) alone, but by every word of God (spiritual food)! This we take in from the Bible. Our spiritual growth and development of God's righteous character also comes through personal, intimate, daily contact with God through prayer, through Christian fellowship with other Spirit-begotten children in God's church, and also by the spiritual teaching imparted by the church.
What and Why the Church?
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J. B. Phillips' translation of this passage shows striking perception:
Consider the incredible love that the Father has shown us in allowing us to be called "children of God" and that is not just what we are called, but what we are. This explains why the world will no more recognize us than it recognized Christ. Here and now, my dear friends, we are God's children.
We are God's children now, not in metaphor, but in fact.
Charles Whitaker
Growing to Perfection
There are many verses of similar general nature, for instance II Corinthians 7:1; Ephesians 4:24; I Thessalonians 4:7; I Timothy 2:15; I Peter 1:15-16.
When John wrote I John 3:1-3, he did not use the word "motivation." However, he strongly implies that the motivation to purify ourselves arises from knowing who we are. We are now the sons of God, and we shall become like Him as we labor to purify our conduct and attitudes to conform to His image.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Elements of Motivation (Part Five): Who We Are
The goal is salvation, a concept that needs to be rescued from the small ideas man has assigned to it. Protestant religion has degraded it by talking about it incessantly. But salvation is such a majestic idea! It denotes the comprehensive process of God's purpose by which He is justifying, sanctifying, and transforming His children. John shows us the transformation. God does this by calling us, granting us repentance, forgiving our sins, accepting us as righteous in His sight through Christ, and then progressively changing us through His awesome creative power, by His Spirit, into the image of His Son, until we become like Christ, born as God, with new bodies in a new world, the new heaven and the new earth. It is deliverance from the degrading, mean lives in which we have been held captive in this world! It is living in the Kingdom of God, its goal!
We must never be guilty of minimizing the awesomeness of such a great salvation.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Guard the Truth!
There is nothing ambiguous, cloudy, or vague about this. Our bodies will be conformed to be like His. It does not say they will be conformed to be like an angel's. It does not say they will be conformed to be like a better human being. They are going to be conformed to be like His body. Paul is referring to the Lord, who is God! Our bodies will be like God's body.
The word conform or, as it is in the King James, fashioned means "to make similar to or identical with." Will our bodies be "similar to" or "identical with" God's? Which one does Paul intend us to understand? John writes in I John 3:1-3:
Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God. Therefore the world does not knows us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now are 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. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
When he says, "it has not yet been revealed what we shall be," he means that we do not know some of the specifics about what our nature will be like, but we do know what it will be in a generality: "We shall be like Him."
What other creature that God has created has been given the Spirit of God and is being conformed to His image? Angels? Hebrews 1 says that the angels of heaven worship Jesus Christ. He is greater than angels, and we are going to be conformed to Him! We are not going to be conformed to angels. The conforming is to be to God.
Another thing that John adds here is that this hope—to be conformed to the image of God in Jesus Christ—is what motivates a person to purify himself. It is the engine that drives a person along the Way, because he knows where he is headed. He is not going to be someone slightly above angels but someone like the Son of God, one who is worshipped and is worthy of the worship of angels. This doctrine is not ambiguous in any way. We are going to be like Him, and He is worthy of worship.
Does it not say in Revelation 3:9 that people will worship the saints? Do people worship angels? No, the angels tell them, "Get off your knees, because I am a servant as you are" (see Revelation 19:10). God says we will be worthy of worship as part of the God Family.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace and Law (Part 1)
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Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Philippians 3:21
1 John 3:1-3
1 John 3:1-3
Library resources that contain this verse:
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