I John 3:1 “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.”
“Behold, what manner of love” is a declaration of astonishment that God “the Father” would “love” us so magnanimously that He would call us “the sons of God”. Even down to this very moment, I am amazed that our “God” would so wonderfully “love” someone like me. Paul was also astonished at such a “love”; for he wrote, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 7:24-25). God’s “love” is so great that He “sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him” (I John 4:9); that is, He “sent his only begotten Son into the world” to sacrifice Himself, to pay our sin-debt, so “that we might live through him” (I John 4:9); that is, “live” a life of joy and peace with Him in this life and one day, “live” with Him in Eternal Heaven. The phrase, “be called the sons of God” is not an invitation; it means that “the Father” has “called” us what He has made us to be. God “the Father” has “only” one “begotten Son” (John 1:18); but, He has “predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will” (Ephesians 1:5). Furthermore, He has wonderfully empowered each of His Believing Children “to become the sons of God” (John 1:12); that is, “to become the sons of God” in practice, living and behaving as “the sons of God”. As “the sons of God”, we “We love him, because he first loved us.” (I John 4:19)! Now, we greatly rejoice for, absolutely nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39). Our Heavenly Father’s “love” is what makes life worth living!