“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God” (1 John 4:7, NKJV). 

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:7–8). 

The term “love” is found in some form six times in these two verses. Love has already been a prominent topic of John’s letter and will continue to be a prominent topic, the term used nine more times in the next three verses. Here, John issues a call to love, followed by positive and negative rationale for that call, and concluding with the definitive statement that God is love. 

We want to remember that much of John’s letter has to do with symptoms of salvation and the assurance they bring to the believer. The telltale sign that we are of God and know God is the trait of love. 

My daughter-in-law has prominent eyes. They are big, blue, and have a distinctive shape. Her little girl, our grandchild, shares those same prominent eyes. There is no mistaking whose daughter she is. 

The same is true of us and our Father in heaven. People should be able to look at us and see His love reflected in us. By His work of grace in our lives, His love is poured into our hearts and characterizes our relationship with Him. Our relating to Him is not in sterile duty or disembodied dogma, but in intimate fellowship with Him who first loved us and who Himself is love. 

A loveless believer is an oxymoron, like dehydrated water. Love is essential to who we are in Christ. Just as we are light and therefore are to be light (Eph. 5:8), so our new being is infused with love and is to manifest itself in our lives, both in our relationship with God and with our neighbor. 

As ones loved, love in the family of God is to be particularly prominent. We look at earthly families and we can see a scarcity of love, primarily because of self-interest. The starting point for our loving our fellow believers, however, is not family ties but the family Father. The more we are compelled by the love of our God for us, the more our actions and interactions will be driven by the hallmarks of love. 

Paul lays out some these hallmarks for us. “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection” (Col. 3:12–14). 

If God is love, what does it mean for us to be of God?