The selection 1 John 3:1-3 is found within the context of 1 John 2:28 to 3:10. Within this context it appears as an aside in the form of an exclamation by the author. The author urges his community "to remain" in Christ so that in the day of judgment they can stand before Him in confidence. And to remain in Him is to act in righteousness (2:28-29). Righteousness and sin are mutually exclusive, for in Christ there is no sin (3:5). Those who are begotten of God and those who are begotten of the Devil are distinguished by this (3:10): those who sin and do not love the brothers, are of the Devil; those who act in righteousness are of God.
Overview of 1 John 3:1-3
The author invites the community to contemplate the love that has been given them. It is the love by which they have become God's children (1.2). And because they are God's children, they will be like the Son of God who will be manifested in the Parousia (2:28). For the moment, this is a hope that should motivate them to be pure (blameless) just as Christ is pure and blameless (3:5). The world -- that ensemble of forces with which the "anti-christs" have identified themselves -- does not recognize them as "children of God" for the simple reason that it does not recognize God Himself.
Division of the Text
The selection can be divided as follows:
1a: Consider the love that made us "children of God"
1b: The world's ignorance
2a: We are God's children
2b: What we are is still not made manifest;
When it is revealed, we know we shall be like Him
3: This hope should motivate us to remain in Him (2:28) who is pure
The Love of God
In 3:1 the author invites the community to contemplate the love that the Father has shown them. In 3:16 he explains how they have known this love: "He (God) has laid down his life for us". In 4:9 he further describes how this love has appeared: "God has sent His only begotten Son into the world that we may live by Him". This is an echo of John 3:16 which, in context, takes into account the "lifting up" of Christ on the cross (see John 3:14) and the question of "being born from above" (John 3:5): "Indeed, God so loved the world that He gave us His only Son that those who believe in Him may not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). Thus, the author can say that the love of which he is speaking is something that wholly descends from God (4:10) and makes us love one another (4:11).
The Christian community has become "children of God" because God has loved them in the self-giving of Christ on the cross. This self-giving is characterized as "laying down one's life", a phrase that appears in the Last Supper Discourse of Jesus in the Gospel of John: "there is no greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). In 1 John, references to the death of Christ on the cross is reiterated against those who hold that Christ did not really die and that the death on the cross does not have any salvific value. These latter are the ones who have, by their profession, left the community and -- presumably -- have set themselves up as the "children of God". Against this claim, the author of 1 John will argue that because they have not been obeying the word received from the beginning, they are not "of God" but are "of the Devil" (see 3:4-10). Instead, those who have remained in the tradition of the author -- those who have conquered by their faith -- and profess belief in Him who truly died for them, shedding His blood for them, are the ones who have been generated in Him to become children of God. In them, the seed of God's life has been sown (1 Jn. 3:9)
The Hope of the Parousia
In 3:3, the author refers to the hope by which the community -- now unrecognized by the world -- will later on be revealed as God's children. This revelation, which will be concomitant with the manifestation of Jesus at His parousia will show what the community already knows: that they will be like Him in the glory of His coming. Already in 2:28, this eschatological aspect of the community's divine filiation is underlined. It has been noted that this is the only place in the Johanine corpus where the noun "hope" is used; even the verb for hope elpizein is rarely used. This is because of a feature in Johanine literature that scholars call "realized eschatology". In Jesus, the last days have begun to emerge. Or to put it in a different way, in Jesus, God's future has become "Now". Here however, the author has felt it necessary to underline the tension between "what we are" and "what we shall be". The tension is real because the Parousia has not yet come. The Parousia (in Latin: Adventus and therefore the English "advent") has two nuances in Greek: it is either the (a) the arrival of a god who makes his presence felt with his powers and miracles, or (b) the visitation of a king or emperor. This second way is how Christians understood the advent of Christ (R. Brown). What the Christians are as "children of God" is not presently known (the world does not recognize them); when Jesus comes, they will be revealed as similar to Him. It will be in the Parousia when the Christians will be fully manifested for what they are (3:2).
The Christian Commitment to its Baptismal Consecration
The hope mentioned in 3:3 manifests itself in the present as a commitment towards "purification". The verb used here is hagnizein , "to purify". The Vulgate has "sanctificare" to sanctify, perhaps because of an underlying hagiazein "to make holy". This feature of the Vulgate, taken with passages like "Be holy as I am holy", has made Catholic spirituality identify Christian life in the world with the idea of sanctification. To be Christian is to be holy (see also 1 Peter 1:15-16). With the original "hagnizein" however the text of 1 John 3:3 underlines the consecration -- the baptismal consecration -- of the Christian. In John 17:19 Jesus prays: I purify myself so that they also maybe purified in the truth. "Hagnizein" is an act of consecration done before a divine encounter. Jesus' purification, that is his act of consecration similar to Exodus 19:10-11, is a purification completed on the cross so that he can stand in the glory of Father. Based on this idea therefore, Christians are to be purified so that they can stand in presence of God. Thus Jesus tells his disciples "Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God." (Mt. 5:
. Thus the baptismal nuances found in James 4:8 "Purify your hearts" and 1 Peter 1:22-23
Purifying your souls in the obedience of charity,
with a brotherly love, from a sincere heart love one another earnestly:
having been regenerated, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible,
by the word of God who lives and abides for ever.
In the light of these passages then, the author of 1 John is telling his community to be faithful to the purification received when they were baptized. Christ now stands before God after being "purified" on the cross of his obedience; so too, the Christian community should remain committed to their baptismal consecration until He comes again
.Summary and Observations on the Liturgy of Sunday IV, Easter (B)
The selection from 1 John 3:1-3 puts "children of God" in relation to the present commitment of Christians in living according to their baptismal consecration. They have become "children of God" through the love the Father has shown in the Son who laid down his life on the cross. Even if the world would not recognize them as such now, their convictions will be vindicated later, when Jesus comes again in the Parousia. Until that time arrives, however, Christians should be faithful to their baptismal consecration, remaining in Him (2:28-29;3:6) and doing righteousness (2:29;3:9-10).
The liturgy of the fourth Sunday of Easter lays stress on the status of Christians as Christ's "own". Jesus the Good Shepherd lays his life for his sheep. The reality of this "laying down" of his life is reiterated in the second reading where God's love transforms those who believe in Christ into His children. The first reading -- from Acts 4:8-12 -- underlines how the effects of Christ's death and resurrection is applied to the healing of an individual. In this Petrine discourse, Jesus is identified with the Stone which the builders rejected but which now has become the Cornerstone (Psalm 118:22). Salvation is given only through Him. Within this combination of texts, 1 John 3:1-2 stresses the new status of those who have become "children of God". They are the Good Shepherd's "own", those at the top of his value system, those he holds more precious than his own life.
