1 John 3:1
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God — and so we are.
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him.
What 1 John 3:1 means
John begins with an imperative to look: *see*. He treats God’s love as something to be stared at rather than assumed, and the phrase ‘what kind’ carries a note of astonishment — love of a foreign sort, unlike anything on offer elsewhere.
Then he adds three words that refuse to let it stay theoretical: and so we are. Not called children as a courtesy, but actually made them. He goes on to explain why the world does not recognise believers — it did not recognise him either.
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Questions about 1 John 3:1
What does 1 John 3:1 mean?
It calls readers to marvel at the kind of love the Father has lavished on them — love that names them children of God and genuinely makes them so.
Why does John add ‘and so we are’?
To close off any sense that ‘children of God’ is only a title or a figure of speech. The status is real, not honorary.