1 John 3:1

The world refers to people who are vicious and impure, attached to nothing but a life of passion, like a pig to mud.

God shows us the necessary patience because of the inheritance which he has given us. Here the "world" refers to wicked people.

For this reason, the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. In this place, he calls the lovers of the world. And this is what the same will say in judgment, seeing the glory of the saints whose faith they despised, …

Having spoken about the appearance of antichrists, and that all their teaching is corrupt, and having sufficiently persuaded the believers to hold unwaveringly to the teaching in which they were instructed, the apostle then mentions the reward appointed for this, so that by the brightness …

That we should be called - That is, should be, the children of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not - They know not what to make of us. We are a mystery to them.

They are here exposed to the common calamities of earth and time; all things fall alike to them as to others, or rather they are subject to the greater sorrow, for they have often reason to say, If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable, 1 Cor. xv.

He came to his own, and his own crucified him; but surely, had they known him, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, 1 Cor. ii. Let the followers of Christ be content with hard fare here, since they are in a land of strangers, among those who little know them, and their Lord was so treated before them.

Behold, what manner of love - What love, in “kind” and in “degree.” In kind the most tender and the most ennobling, in adopting us into His family, and in permitting us to address Him as our Father; in “degree” the most exalted, since there is no higher love that can be shown than in adopting a poor and friendless orphan, and giving him a parent and a home. Even God could bestow upon us no more valuable token of affection than that we should be adopted into His family, and permitted to regard Him as our Father.

So far we keep to our Authorized Version. Now read the Revised Version, and note the words added— "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God: and such we are." DEAR friends, the most of my text will be found in our Old Version, but for once I shall ask you to look elsewhere for a part of it. A genuine fragment of Inspired Scripture has been dropped by our older translators and it is too precious to be lost.

The immediate effect aimed at in the bestowal of this love is, "that we should be called children of God." should be called--should have received the privilege of such a glorious title (though seeming so imaginary to the world), along with the glorious reality. With God to call is to make really to be.

So far we keep to our Authorized Version. Now read the Revised Version, and note the words added— "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God: and such we are." DEAR friends, the most of my text will be found in our Old Version, but for once I shall ask you to look elsewhere for a part of it. A genuine fragment of Inspired Scripture has been dropped by our older translators and it is too precious to be lost. Did not our Lord say, "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost"? The half lost portion of our text is restored to us in the Revised Version. Never did a translation of the New Testament fail more completely than this Revised Version has done as a book for general reading, but as an assistant to the student, it deserves honorable mention, despite its faults! It exhibits, here and there, special beauties and has, no doubt, in certain places, brought into notice words of sacred Scripture which had fallen out. We have a notable instance in my present text. Turn to the First Epistle of John, the third chapter, at the first verse— The word "such" is not in the original. We therefore leave it out and then we get the words—AND WE ARE. There are only two words in the Greek—"and we are." That the addition is correct I have not the slightest doubt. Those authorities upon which we depend—those manuscripts which are best worthy of notice—have these words and they are to be found in the Vulgate, the Alexandrian and several other versions. They ought never to have dropped out. In the judgment of the most learned and those best to be relied on, these are veritable words of Inspiration. So far as doctrine is concerned, it does not matter, much, whether they are or are not in the original text because we get the same words farther on.

Behold, what manner of love - Whole volumes might be written upon this and the two following verses, without exhausting the extraordinary subject contained in them, viz., the love of God to man. The apostle himself, though evidently filled with God, and walking in the fullness of his light, does not attempt to describe it; he calls on the world and the Church to behold it, to look upon it, to contemplate it, and wonder at it. What manner of love. - Ποταπην αγαπην· What great love, both as to quantity and quality; for these ideas are included in the original term. The length, the breadth, the depth, the height, he does not attempt to describe. The Father hath bestowed - For we had neither claim nor merit that we should be called, that is, constituted or made, the sons of God, who were before children of the wicked one, animal, earthly, devilish; therefore, the love which brought us from such a depth of misery and degradation must appear the more extraordinary and impressive. After κληθωμεν, that we might be called, και εσμεν, and we are, is added by ABC, seventeen others, both the Syriac, Erpen’s Arabic, Coptic, Sahidic, Ethiopic, Slavonic, and Vulgate. Therefore the world - The Jews, and all who know not God, and are seeking their portion in this life; knoweth us not - do not acknowledge, respect, love, or approve of us. In this sense the word γινωσκειν is here to be understood. The world Knew well enough that there were such persons; but they did not approve of them. We have often seen that this is a frequent use of the term know, both in Hebrew and Greek, in the Old Testament and also in the New. Because it knew him not - The Jews did not acknowledge Jesus; they neither approved of him, his doctrine, nor his manner of life.