“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love… So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” 1 John 4:7-8, 16 (ESV)
Born of God is inseparably connected to love. The stream of love that flows to us from the One Who is love is meant to flow out of us to love others. If we stop the flow in not loving our brother or sister we are not born of God, according to John. If love stops with us as a mere consumer of God’s love, then we do not have the Father’s DNA of love in us. It does not matter if we claim a past religious experience. The test of all religious experience is love, nothing more and nothing less. It is the evidence that the Holy Spirit has been poured out in us (Romans 5:5). We are in a relationship with God and with all the people He loves.
