It’s week two of our Epistles of John Scripture Plan! In this week’s passages (1 John 2:15-3:18) John discusses what it means to be a child of God. Are their requirements to becoming a child of God? Are there certain responsibilities we have if we are children of God? What if we are not a child of God? Let’s study this passage together and find out. There are links to the rest of the study at the bottom of the post.

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Our memory verse for this week is a great verse to have ready for moments of doubt or feeling unloved and unwanted. 1 John 3:2 ‘How great is the love the father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are.’ The memory verse printables for each week can be found at the back of the Guided Scripture Plan.

What it means to be a child of God

What identifies us as children of God?

This week’s readings are full of contrasts between what it means to be a child of God and living for the world. Looking for contrasts in a Bible passage is one of the key methods of the Look stage of my 5L Bible Study Method. I’ve looked through 1 John 2:15-3:18 and listed the contrasts below, and also added a column for God’s involvement, because as we’ve seen, we are children of God because of what he has done through Christ.

In writing this down, I saw that there is no great list of dos and don’t required if we want to be considered a child of God. Instead, just like in last week’s memory verse where we saw that God does all the work in forgiving our sins,  we see that we are his children because of his love. He has anointed us and taught us the truth, now we show our love to him by loving others with our actions.

Use the form below to download the 30 Days in the Epistles of John Scripture Plan to get each day’s reading for this study.

How we become a child of God

We can surmise, then, from this passage, that we do not need to do anything to become a child of God – we just ARE, because of what Christ has done.  But what does the rest of Scripture say? It’s always a good idea to check out findings with other Bible passages. (This is part of the Learn step of my 5L Bible Study Method.)

Let’s have a look at the rest of Scripture to see if we can gain any more insight about what it means to be a child of God:

Right at the beginning of John’s Gospel, when he first mentions Christ’s appearance, he writes about becoming a child of God:

John 1:12-13 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—  children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

So, John is saying that it is not about who we are but our decision to believe. Paul also emphasises this in his letter to the Galatians.

 Gal 3:26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith,

If you want to add to the list of contrasts between Living for the World and what it means to be a child of God then do a similar exercise with Romans 8 and 9 which has a similar theme. Here Paul  describes children of God as ‘those who are led by the Spirit of God’ (8:14).

 I’ll finish this list of cross-references with one more quote from Paul where he does list some responsibilities for us – obey without grumbling and arguing. (Sounds like something I say to my children!)

Phil 2:12-15 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God”.

My response to today’s study

I’m going to finish today’s study on what it means to be a child of God by putting together the last two steps of my 5L Bible Reading Method – Live (how I will apply what I have learned to my life) and Love (prayer and praise to God in light of what I have read).

What does it mean to be a child of God? It means I am loved beyond measure. And knowing this should compel me to show my love to God by reaching out to others with love and truth, and helping them to know they are loved children of God too.

 I’d love to hear your comments, reflections and responses to this study, so please write them in the comment section below.