The Source of True Love

The Source of True Love | Devotional

We love Him because He first loved us.
1 John 4:19

From the truth that God is love, the apostle John draws this corollary: “Love is of God” (1 John 4:7). God is the source of all true love. Love is therefore the best evidence that a person truly knows God: “Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

He who does not love does not know God” (vv. 7–8). In other words, love is the proof of a regenerate heart. Only true Christians are capable of genuine love.

Clearly, the kind of love the apostle is speaking of is a higher, purer form of love than we commonly know from human experience. The love of which he speaks does not flow naturally from the human heart.

It is not a carnal love, a romantic love, or even a familial love. It is a supernatural love that is peculiar to those who know God. It is godly love.

In fact, the apostle employed a Greek word for “love” (agape) that was highly unusual in first-century culture. In the sense that John uses it here, agape is unique to God.

He is the sole source of it.
His love is perfect love. It is that pure, holy, godly love that can be known only by those who are born of Him.

It is the same unfathomable love that moved God to send “His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:9).
All true believers have this love; and all who have it are true believers.

How has God’s love for you flowed out as a love for others?
The God Who Loves, 30–32