Verse of the Day for February 18

John writes this as an old man, decades after the events he witnessed, and the sentence still has an exclamation in it.

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.

What manner of is an old phrase for what country is this from — the sense is of something foreign, unlike anything produced locally.

And the result is a name rather than a feeling. Called the sons of God. Adoption in the Roman world was a legal act that transferred inheritance and could not be reversed by the child's behaviour.

John then adds a clause most of us skip: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Being loved like this makes you slightly illegible to people who have not encountered it.

He is warning them that the family resemblance will not read as impressive from outside.

Adoption language is chosen over friendship language on purpose. Friends can drift. Sons inherit.

Behold it. John's first instruction here is simply to look at it for a while.