There are two types of children in the world: those who follow God or those who follow the devil (or ways of the world).
1 John 3:1-3 – See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
God’s love towards children that choose to follow Him is insurmountable. Nothing covers us more completely than His love for us—no matter how much we make mistakes or follow our earthly intuition.
However, now that we have chosen to follow Him, our path looks different than what others are doing. It may not make sense to others, but that is because they do not understand who He is and what He is about.
By children (people) putting their hope and faith in Him, they can become like Him if they choose to follow Him wholeheartedly.
1 John 3:4-6 – Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
If we want to consider ourselves children of God, we must do our best to keep away from sin. Although we as human beings sin every day, we must actively repent of our sins, which makes us children of God. Once we know the right way (the Lord’s way), we acknowledge and feel convicted when we do wrong. By repenting, it resets us daily.
1 John 3:7-8 – Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
As children of God, we have to beware of falling into temptation and off the path that the Lord has for us. Children of God who get to know Him—deep down—will want to do the right thing and not sin to the best of their knowledge. People who willingly choose to sin daily and do not repent of their wrong ways are children of the devil. Jesus, the Son of God, saved us from a fate worse than death.
1 John 3:9-10 – No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.
Being born again in Christ will have the Holy Spirit which acts as our inner moral compass. We will know when we have sinned, so it will be hard to continue down that path. Children of the devil will continue their ways with no care as to what the Lord wants from us.
The Lord wants the best for all of us. The only way we can get to know Him and how His love and compassion saved us from going to hell, then we will continue to follow the ways of the world. His way is better.