Monday

Related Verses
1 John 3:1
1 Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and we are. Because of this the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

Eph. 5:1
1 Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children;

Eph. 1:5, 9
5 Predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
9 Making known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself,

John 1:12-13
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name,
13 Who were begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

1 John 1:2
2 (And the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us);

1 John 3:9
9 Everyone who has been begotten of God does not practice sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been begotten of God.

1 John 4:7
7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God, and everyone who loves has been begotten of God and knows God.

1 John 5:1, 4, 18
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten of God, and everyone who loves Him who has begotten loves him also who has been begotten of Him.
4 For everything that has been begotten of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory which has overcome the world — our faith.
18 We know that everyone who is begotten of God does not sin, but he who has been begotten of God keeps himself, and the evil one does not touch him.

Related Reading
Paul’s word in Ephesians 5:1 is an imperative, a command. He commands us to be imitators of God. What a glorious fact that since we are His beloved children, we can be imitators of God! As the children of God, we have His life and nature. We imitate God not by our natural life but by His divine life. It is by our Father’s divine life that we, His children, can be perfect as He is (Matt. 5:48). 

According to the New Testament, the believers in Christ are children of God. As God’s children, we have God’s life. John 1:13 says that we have been born of God. To be born of God is to have the life of God. Furthermore, 2 Peter 1:4 says that we are partakers of the divine nature. Because we have the divine life and the divine nature, we can be imitators of God. Imitating God in this way is much different from training a monkey to imitate a man. A monkey does not have the human life or the human nature. But we have the divine life and the divine nature. Therefore, we can be imitators of God. (Life-study of Ephesians, p. 409) 

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The believers in Christ are children of God. First John 3:1 says, “Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and we are.” “Children of God” here corresponds to “begotten of Him” in 2:29. We have been begotten of the Father, the source of life, to be the children of God. Surely it is the greatest wonder in the universe that human beings could be begotten of God and sinners could be made children of God. Through such an amazing divine birth we have received the divine life, the eternal life. This life, obtained from God through regeneration, enables us to be God’s children. This life is the authority for us to be children of God (John 1:12-13). The Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we who once were children of the devil are now the children of God (Rom. 8:16). Even at times when we are weak or backsliding we still have the deep conviction that we are children of God, for once we have been born of God we are His children forever. 

John 1:12 and 13 say, “As many as received Him, to them He gave authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name, who were begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Here we see that the children of God have been begotten of God, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. “Blood” here signifies the physical life; “the will of the flesh” denotes the will of fallen man after man became flesh; and “the will of man” refers to the will of man created by God. When we became children of God, we were not born of our physical life, our fallen life, or our created life—we were born of God, the uncreated life. For human beings to become children of God is for them to be born of God to have the divine life and nature. Because regeneration causes us to be born of God, it automatically causes us to become children of God and to have a relationship of life with God. 

It surely is a mystery that we have been born of God. That we have been created by God is commonly admitted. But to say that God is our Father and that we therefore have His life and nature is to make a great claim. Nevertheless, it is an amazing fact that God is really our Father. And He is not our adopted father or our father-in-law, but the One who has given us His life that we may be His genuine children in life. 

The believers become children of God through their receiving of the Son of God by believing into His name [v. 12]…The authority to be God’s children is Christ Himself as life to us. Having received the Lord Jesus by believing in Him, we have been born of God and now are children of God. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1071-1073) 

Further Reading: Life-study of 1 John, msg. 34