Act like the children you are

We are undeservedly children of God by the gift of his grace.

Yet while we do not deserve this status, we are called to live up to it, as we are reminded in today's first reading (1 John 3:7-10):

Children, let no one deceive you.

The person who acts in righteousness
is righteous,
just as he is righteous.

Whoever sins belongs to the Devil,
because the Devil has sinned from the beginning.

Indeed, the Son of God was revealed
to destroy the works of the Devil.

No one who is begotten by God commits sin,
because God’s seed remains in him;
he cannot sin
because he is begotten by God.

In this way,
the children of God
and the children of the Devil
are made plain;
no one who fails to act in righteousness
belongs to God,
nor anyone who does not love his brother.

By God’s grace, we are children of God.

With God’s help, we need to act that way.