“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him” (1 John 3:1).
God the Father loves all those whom He gave to His Son (John 6:37) with the same love with which He loves His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 16:27, “…for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.” John is amazed by this love of God and he calls every believer to the same amazement. In other words, be amazed, be astonished by the manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us. The term “what manner” is the Greek word “potapos” and we find it used in Matthew 8:27 when the disciples are amazed after Jesus calms the wind and the waves. The men marveled and said: “What manner of men is this?” In other words, from what realm does this man come that even the wind and sea obey Him?
John is saying the same thing in our text. Be amazed – be astonished – be overwhelmed – be humbled that an infinitely holy and righteous God would love us with an intimate, infinite, eternal, all-encompassing love of a tender, loving, forgiving Father, and adopt us into His family, and call us His beloved children. That’s a wondrously amazing love, as Paul wrote in Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
And God’s love reaches us only and always for the sake and merits of Jesus Christ, who came into this world in the form of a man, fulfilled all the righteous requirements of God’s Law, suffered the infinite, eternal wrath of His Father on the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended to the right hand of the Father — all for the glory of God and the redemption of a multitude of sinners which no man can number (Rev. 7:9). Christ did all this in the place of His sheep as God’s suffering servant, as Isaiah declared: “He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:3-5). This wondrous theology ought to lead every true believer to a heartfelt doxology. As the hymn writer penned: “What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul! What wondrous love is this, O my soul! What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss to bear the dreadful curse for my soul.” Christian, be astounded by the manner of love the Father has bestowed upon you in Christ.