NOTES for Jo1 3:1
The words of the apostle John in today's passage from his First Catholic Epistle in many ways continue the way of thinking and speaking by which God spoke through the Old Testament prophets. Many of them said that the main reason for sin and lawlessness in people is ignorance of God. Not a lack of information about the norms of the law, but a lack of knowledge of God. And now, after all the events of Christ's earthly life, death, and resurrection, the apostle says that the truth about God has now been revealed to us. And this truth is such that it gives us the possibility of abiding in the Father and the Son. What does this mean, how should we understand these words about abiding in God?
The apostle himself explains this with the famous words: "Behold what love the Father has given us, that we should be called and be children of God." This, in fact, is the basic meaning of knowing God: to see, to know this love of God, to experience it not only as theoretical knowledge, but as our own experience. Only this experience of our adoption by God in Christ is able to give a person life. Only the vision of this love of God gives meaning to everything that happens to us in this world.
In our present times, frightening and cruel, this is very important. In the monstrous, senseless violence that overwhelms us, whose victims are random people, we cannot help asking ourselves and God questions about the causes of this horror, about the meaning of suffering. But the point is that death is always meaningless and out of place in the world created by God. The answer to our questions will not be some reasoning about the causes of one or another manifestation of evil. The answer is these words of John the evangelist: "Behold what love our heavenly Father has given us." This is not the answer we expect, but it is the only answer that opens for us the possibility of living.
And returning again to one of the main themes of the epistle, the apostle speaks about the distinguishing marks of God's children. They are doing righteousness and love for the brothers. This is the path for us, adopted by God, and on this path we trust that victory over evil and death will be given to us: the very victory that was accomplished on the Cross and in Christ's Resurrection.