Wednesday, August 19, 2026
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.
Historical Context
This comes from a short letter near the end of the New Testament, known since early times as First John. The letter never names its author. In its opening lines, the writer claims firsthand, physical acquaintance with Jesus, the knowledge of an eyewitness. The church from early on identified that witness as the apostle John, writing in old age. Most scholars place the letter late in the first century, which would make many of its first readers second-generation believers, people who had never seen Jesus.
It was written in the aftermath of a split. The letter itself says that a group had recently walked out of these congregations. Those who left claimed a truer, higher knowledge of God and taught a different Christ, denying that the Son of God had truly come as a flesh-and-blood man. The believers who stayed behind were left with painful questions. Teachers and friends they had trusted now told them they had it all wrong. The surrounding world had never accepted them, and now their former companions had walked away too. A small community under that kind of strain starts to wonder what it really is and whose word about it can be trusted.
That is the situation these words land in: people feeling unrecognized from every side, and a writer pointing them to the one recognition nobody could take away from them.
Reflection
See what kind of love: the letter asks its readers to pause and look closely at something they already knew. Being called a child of God can become furniture, a phrase so familiar it no longer says anything. John holds it up as astonishing. Being made a child of God was never owed to anyone; it was given, at the Father’s initiative.
Then comes the quiet second clause: and so we are. Not a courtesy title, nor a hope for later. A present fact about you, true this morning, whether or not anyone else recognizes it.
That last part matters because recognition from others may never come. The first people to read this were misunderstood by their neighbors and disowned by former friends. If your standing depends on being seen accurately by those around you, it will always be fragile. If it depends on what the Father calls you, it is already settled.