1 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.
2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
We see at the star of this chapter that God has bestowed upon us a divine love which makes us sons of God. Because of this the world does not know who we are because they do not know God. Even as we are the sons of God because we believe in Him we still cannot know what we will be. But when He appears we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is. So we need to keep ourselves in tune with God at all times to be ready when He does appear. even though the world is going in the other direction.