I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
This verse came to my mind this weekend because my newest grandson is being baptized on Sunday. He will be among the fourth generation to wear a baptismal gown hand-made by my great aunt in the 1940s. Some who see such a display (it is a long, fancy, lacy thing) comment that it is a very nice family tradition. To me, it means much more than tradition. To me, it is a symbol, a little bit like that of baptism itself, of the covenant faithfulness of God to generations of my biological family.
God intended for fathers to pass down the knowledge of God to their children (Deuteronomy 6:7). We have the examples of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah; and when our children take up the faith of their parents as their own, we praise the Lord.
I rejoice and thank the Lord that my biological family has a history of faith. I treasure it. John, the beloved disciple and gospel writer, was not speaking of his biological children when he penned this verse in a letter to Gaius. John also references children in his other two letters (1 John 2:1, 2 John 1). Whose children is he talking about? Just as Paul called Titus “a true son in our common faith,” I believe John is referring to his spiritual children. He is using this endearing term for the members of the Church. He has taught them and discipled them as a father would, and now he rejoices more than anything else that they have taken up the faith as their own and walk in the truth.
But are they really John’s children, and then whose child is John? All believers are heirs together with Christ, the Son of God. That means we are all God’s children. And we know He rejoices to see His children walk in truth. “Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels and of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10).
We are adopted sons of God, not begotten like Jesus, but that did not make us less in God’s sight. In fact, He gave His only begotten Son up to death on a cross so that the adopted sons could join the family. And Jesus did not scorn this task either. He did not resent that He had to suffer for a motley crew of adopted sinners. No, but “Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross…” (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus saw it as joy that His Father was adopting all of these children at His expense.
Those of us who are parents (or have been children raised by parents) know that raising children in the Lord is a high calling and difficult task, and at the end of it, true faith is not guaranteed. However, when by the grace of God it comes through, it’s brilliant!
By Grace Barnes, Bible League International volunteer, Michigan U.S.
