Love is the proof that we are born of God.

1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. I would like to amplify this verse to encourage us to live to love with Jesus. Sometimes it helps me to study the verse and then say it in my own words with the ideas I gleaned from the study. Here goes. “Those whom God has chosen to love with the same love with which He loves His own Son, let us love one another with Jesus in and with the love we have received from Him. Everyone who loves like God loves is a child of God and knows Him firsthand.” What do you think? Let’s slow down and think about what John wrote and what an encouragement this is to us who live to love with Jesus. John used forms of the word agape in this verse. W.E. Vines wrote that this word is used to “describe the attitude of God toward His Son in John 17:26. “And I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” Vines continues, “It was an exercise of the Divine will in deliberate choice, made without assignable cause save that which lies in the nature of God Himself. Love had its perfect expression among men in the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:14. Christian love, whether exercised toward the brethren, or toward men generally, is not an impulse from the feelings, it does not always run with the natural inclinations, nor does it spend itself only upon those for whom some affinity is discovered. Love seeks the welfare of all, and works no ill to any; love seek opportunity to do good to all men, especially toward them that are of the household of the faith. In regards to God, it expresses the deep and constant love and interest of a perfect Being towards entirely unworthy objects producing and fostering a reverential love in them toward the Giver and a practical love toward those who are partakers of the same, and a desire to help others to seek the Giver.” That’s why I described Beloved in this way, “Those whom God has chosen to love with the same love with which He loves His own Son.” Notice what Jesus said above. He made His Father’s name known so that the love the Father has for Him would be in them, and He would be in them. So I amplified that truth with “let us love one another with Jesus in and with the love we have received from Him.” I believe this verse calls all believers to live to love with Jesus. God has loved us as He loves His Son and has given His Son to be in us so that His love will make us one and bring glory to the Father. Have you grasped that this is a change of purpose for everyone who believes in Jesus? Love is the core of who we are. The definition of love that I have used in Live to Love is this: God’s love is the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost in the power of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God. All of what Vines said is echoed in this brief definition of love. It is this love with which we have been loved, and therefore we are called and exist to express it our entire lives in any situation or relationship. With this love in our hearts and souls flowing to others, we know we are born of God and know God. God’s love is a reality, the truth, not merely a feeling. Love is the proof that we are born of God.