Confident Identity

John teaches the believers in and around Ephesus core truths about who they are in Jesus. One foundational truth he emphasizes is that something important marks their identity. These young believers are struggling to understand that they are God’s children. They have put their faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of sin. Now, John reminds them, they can live confidently because they’ve been adopted into God’s family. In a city like Ephesus, where child abandonment was practiced, these believers may not have known their biological parents. John writes that what is most true about them is not who abandoned them, but that God has adopted them. They are his beloved sons and daughters.