Taken from the first letter of St. John chapter 3 verses from 1-24 1 See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.-
Through Jesus, we have been received as adopted children of the Father, in a spirit of children that makes us cry Abba, Daddy God (Romans 8:15)
But not all are called children of God but those who recognize God and His Son Jesus. And the world does not know us, because the world is of the devil, those with the devil are not children of God, and here is the majority of humanity, not the children of God, but the children of the devil.
Jesus treated the Pharisees as children of the devil, because they were trying to kill him:
John 8:44 You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.
And it is difficult to accept that when we were in a life of sin we were not children of God but of the devil. Yuck.....
2 Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. -
All human beings should be children of God because we are made in his image, but our sins distort the image of God and then we become children of the devil, we can only be redeemed by Christ.
I think this point is very important because most people who live in sin have the notion that they are children of God, even our Church teaches that, but the Word of God says the contrary, please pay attention. How can we be children of God if by right given through our sins we belong to the devil?
Now, we are called children of God, but not all, children of God are only those who recognize that the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us , John chapter 1: 11-14
Jesus was in the world, and the world was made by word of God, and the world did not recognize Jesus as the Word.
11 He came to His own, to the people who were waiting for him, but his own did not received him, on the contrary they killed him.
12 But as many as received him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in His name;
13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but born of God.
3 And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. -
We can be sure of being children of God when we turn away from sin and we are purified in his sacramental blood.
4 Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. -
Sin covers all kinds of wickedness, rebellion, injustice, sexual immorality and lack of love for God and neighbor.
He who remains in his iniquity cannot not be of God, therefore he must repent and humbly ask God forgiveness.
5 You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. -
Jesus revealed himself as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, so before his coming, God sent John the Baptist, so that through repentance he would prepare the way for Jesus. Jesus himself tells us in his first words when he begins to evangelize, Repent, the kingdom of heaven is near.
We don’t have John the Baptist now, but in his spirit we must repent.
By his death on the cross, Jesus achieved for us the forgiveness of our sins.
6 No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. -
He who knows and loves Jesus, keep his commandments, that way he is already in him, but if he doesn’t do it, if he returns to sin, this means that he hasn’t known him.
It's useless to be baptized and to receive the sacraments if we can not get out of sin, that way we can never see and meet Jesus.
Sin is a poison that kills the soul, sin is the same as if I put a gun on my head and pull the trigger; sin is death, darkness and condemnation. To sin is to belong to the devil. When we sin we sign a contract with the devil and our souls belong to him, he becomes our father.
7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.-
John tells us that let no one deceive you, because there are many who water or dilute the message of the gospel and turn away from the commandments. The sinner is far from God and we can not be accomplices with his sin nor allow ourselves to be contaminated. Tell me who your friends are and I'll tell you who you are (Proverbs 13:20)
Jesus is the good path; to be able to stay on that path, we must always act justly, love God and neighbor tenderly and walk humbly in the presence of the Lord. (Micah 6:8)
Children of God - children of the devil
8 Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. -
When we sin we give away our souls to the devil, it is a death contract signed with our will. We reject the light and enter into darkness; for we can not be in the light and in the dark at the same time, God is light, the devil is darkness. And we are of the devil when we sin, we stop being children of God, and here comes the lie we hear, that we are all children of God.
For if we sin we get out of God's hands and embrace the devil. Our sins crucify Jesus and give testimony that we have no love for God.
9 Those who have been born of God do not sin, because God's seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God. -
Everyone who is born of God doesn’t sin; and this is not only in baptism and the sacraments but in the Spirit of God. We seal that gift from God with humility and obedience to His commandments, recognizing that God lives in the soul and that we are temples of His Spirit. He who is born of God lives in his presence and he can not sin because he knows the consequences of separating from God.
10 The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters. -
To recognize God's children we look at the works of justice, we also examine the love of neighbor, for you can not love God if you do not love your neighbor. If we don’t find that justice and love of God and neighbor; we don’t see children of God but children of the devil.
11 For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. -
Jesus came into the world to manifest the love of God the Father, that love is a love that led Jesus to martyrdom. True love of neighbor must contain a part of our suffering, otherwise it is not love but friendship, from the Greek (file) which means (friend), or carnal love of convenience in Greek (eros - erotic or sexual love), so that’s not the true love that Jesus teaches, from the Greek (agape) which means love until suffering.
12 We must not be like Cain who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. -
Cain did not love his brother, because he was envious. The Lord received with pleasure the sacrifices of Abel, while he rejected Cain’s, Cain didn’t love God and for this he was not a happy man, he thought that by killing his brother he would solve his problem.
13 Do not be astonished, brothers and sisters, that the world hates you. -
When we love God, the world turns against us with criticism or tries to make our lives difficult, or we are excluded and discriminated against because we don’t belong.
14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Whoever does not love abides in death. -
When we love, we become instruments of God's love. God really flows towards others through us and so we remain in love and in life, but when we do not love, hate begins to manifest with indifference, bad attitudes and ends up filling us with hatred, the sin of death.
15 All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them. -
Hatred is a poison that Satan injects us to take us to death, the fact of falling into hatred already puts us in death and this makes the devil very happy.
16 We know love by this; that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. -
Our lives must become sacrifices of love. We see mothers suffer and give themselves totally to their children, parents sacrifice themselves working for the good of their children, and so our life must be a living sacrifice of prayer, praise, thanksgiving, worship, intercession and reparation for our brothers and sisters.
17How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help? -
The great challenge of the love of God is doing something for a brother, and some people do it for people in their families or acquaintances, but they are very reluctant to favor strangers. God invites us to have charity to demonstrate how we love our brother.
18 Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. -
It is very easy to preach and not to act, it is also very easy to feel solidarity and show a compassionate face, but true compassion becomes real when it comes out of our pockets.
19 And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him -
Faith without works is dead, says the apostle James in his letter 2:14-17 When we practice charity, God repays us a hundredfold and gives us great peace.
20 whenever our hearts condemn us; God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything -
Charity pays for many sins, alms are a type of pruning for our souls, we tear something that belongs to us to give to someone in need, and this reassures our conscience because God is charity.
21 Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; -
When we act right before God, we feel that heavenly support and God is always with us.
22 and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him. -
Very often God does not answer our prayers because we don’t keep His commandments. And in regards to the love for our neighbor, we always fall short, but it's never too late, God gives us opportunities at all times. And finally he will answer our petitions.
23 And this is his commandment; that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. -
The true Work of God (John 6:29) is to believe in Jesus the Son of God who was sent to the world to forgive us our sins. To believe and love God is to keep His commandments and the new commandment that Jesus left us, is that we love one another as he has loved us.
24 All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us. -
Whoever keeps the commandments abides in God and God in him; he walks humbly in his presence and without completely knowing he is living in God and God in him. That is how God comes to make his home in us. John 14:23 Jesus said. "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
To keep the word of God is not just to remember it, but to put it into practice.
Whoever keeps the commandments of God is a child of God, but whoever does not keep the commandments lives in sin and his father is not God but the devil.
Therefore we conclude by saying that God invites us to be his children, but sin also invites us to be children of the devil. Let us always follow the law of the Lord Amos 5:15 Hate evil, love good: and establish judgment in the gate
Dear Brother, sister. Do you think you have ever been a child of the devil? Are you sure you are a child of God?
If you don't feel sure, make an examination of conscience, run to the Sacrament of Confession, the Priest has received the power to forgive your sins and cleanse your soul with the blood of Christ in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
Ephesians 5:14 Wake up sleeper, arise from the dead, let the light of Christ shine upon you.
God bless you.
