Berean Standard Bible
Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.
King James Version
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.
About this verse
The opening word is a command to stop and stare: "Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God." What manner — what foreign kind, as if examining something with no earthly category. Then John does something a careful writer only does deliberately: he interrupts himself to verify the claim. "And that is what we are!" Not called children as a courtesy title or legal fiction. The name states a fact.
John, the aged apostle, writes to churches unsettled by teachers who had left and were sowing doubt about who really belonged to God. His whole letter circles back to assurance, and this verse is its warmest moment. The sober second half belongs to the same pastoral aim: "The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him." Being misunderstood, John says, is not evidence against your identity; it is a family resemblance.
Notice the verb of acquisition: this love "has given to us." Every other identity you hold was achieved, or assigned by people who can revoke it. This one was given — and given identities do not depend on performance to persist. The verse invites you to do what its first word says: behold it, long enough for it to feel true.
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