I have a 13-year-old daughter, and as I watch her navigate junior high, I’m reminded regularly that it’s not easy being a 13-year-old girl. I’m grateful that she has the love and support of her dad and two older brothers. But as her mother, my shoulder is uniquely prepared for her to cry on, because I’ve been a teenage girl and experienced all the affliction that comes along with it. Now I can comfort my daughter – or at least I can try in those rare moments when she doesn’t have earbuds in her ears. 🙂 

For the next few weeks, we are going to look at 2 Corinthians 1, where we’ll see several lessons we learn from times of affliction. When Paul wrote this letter to the Christians in Corinth, he had a complicated, turbulent relationship with them. But they had this common bond: they belonged to God and shared in His comfort and mercy. 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-5) 

In these verses, Paul described God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. In fact, he repeated himself – mentioning God’s comfort four times in just three verses. Paul obviously didn’t want us to miss this point: in times of affliction, God is our comfort. 

Sometimes I wonder if God is tired of hearing about my problems, like He’s a bored friend who wishes you’d get it over already and move on. But God’s comfort has no limits, because He is perfect and infinite. He knows all things, including our innermost thoughts. The comfort He gives is the perfect comfort of the faithful Heavenly Father. 

The comfort God gives is so abundant that it will overflow from us to others. As we receive God’s comfort, we’re also being prepared to share that comfort with others. Just as God works through others to comfort us in our affliction, He can use us to give His comfort to others. 

No matter what you face this week, God will abundantly pour out His comfort. 

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For the past two weeks, we’ve been looking at 1 John 3:1 and learning about God’s lavish love and our adoption as His children. This week we’ll look at the last four verses of this verse: “and so we are.” 

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” (1 John 3:1)

I realize at this point, you might think I’m a little crazy for writing a devotional on these four words. There’s no big theology words here, no action verbs, none of the typical words we like to talk about like grace or mercy or peace. 

But John included these words for a reason. He’s just written about this love of the Father that should cause us to stop and pay attention, because this love causes us to be adopted as His children. And then John puts a giant exclamation mark at the end of this point—God’s love for His children accomplishes its purpose. It’s not just God’s intention to adopt us. All those who receive the Father’s saving love belong to Him. 

These four words emphasize God’s faithfulness to His promises. He tells us in His Word that those who trust in Him will not be put to shame because He holds us securely (Romans 5:5). And so we are. 

These four words also point to our future inheritance with Him. In the next verse, John writes that one day we will be like Him because we are His children. Paul also teaches this truth in Romans 8:16-17: “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” 

God’s Spirit confirms this fact: those who have been saved by God’s grace are His children and heirs with Christ who will be glorified with Him. God has lavished His love on us and made us His children – and so we are, now and forever. 

No matter what you face this week, God has made you His child, and so you are. 

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Sometimes I try to prove that I’m a cool mom by sending memes to my kids. (Anyone else try this?) I recently sent one to my 18-year-old son, who is in his first semester of college. It says that our 7-year-old selves couldn’t wait to be an adult, and then pictures a cat doing all the mundane tasks of adulthood: driving, drinking coffee, brushing its teeth, washing dishes, and so on. It’s true that sometimes adulthood seems overrated. 

This month we’re spending three weeks looking at 1 John 3:1. Last week we heard John’s call to stop and pay attention to this saving love that the Father has lavished on us in Christ. Today we keep reading and see that this love causes us to be called children of God. Being God’s child doesn’t provide an escape from the stress of adulthood, but it promises security in the midst of life’s challenges. 

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” (1 John 3:1)

Because of the lavish love of the Father, He united us to His Son, Jesus Christ, and made us His children. The Westminster Shorter Catechism defines adoption as “an act of God’s free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God.” That’s amazing news! God brings us into His family and treats us as His children — all by of His grace. 

If our adoption is an act of God’s free grace, we can’t earn it, and we can’t lose it. He doesn’t love us as His daughters and sons because we’re lovable, because we’re good children, or because we bring something valuable to the relationship. Adoption is one-sided—a Father welcoming a child and giving the child all the rights and privileges that come with being part of the family. This is the blessing of God’s free grace as He makes us His children because of His love. 

No matter what you face this week, you are secure as an adopted child of God. 

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We have the same conversation almost every night at bedtime. I tell my daughter I love her. She says, “I love you more.” And I reply, “That’s not possible. I love you most, and I loved you first.” 

I win the Who-Loves-Whom-The-Most battle because I loved my daughter before she even had an awareness that I existed. I know her 13-year-old mind can’t begin to fathom the depth of my love for her. It reminds me of God’s love—a love so deep, so wide, so infinite, so indescribable, beyond the comprehension of His children. 

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” (1 John 3:1)

This month we’re going to spend three weeks looking at this verse – today we’ll focus on the first phrase. If you look at other Bible translations, this phrase is translated, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us” or  “lavished on us.” 

In R.C. Sproul’s book Saved From What?, he wrote that John started with this word “see” or “behold” as a way of getting his readers’ attention. John wanted them to stop and pay attention to what he was writing here, because this is a big deal. This is a big love. This love is different from any other love we’ve experienced. 

What is the manner of this love that God has lavished on us? Later in his letter, John wrote this: 

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10)

Propitiation refers to Christ’s turning away God’s wrath from us by taking it on Himself. This is the kind of love God has for us – the kind that compelled Him to send His Son to die in our place and take the punishment our sin deserved. 

No matter what you face this week, stop and behold the amazing love God has lavished on you. 

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