Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:7-8

Love, as a condition and attitude of the heart, is a product of knowing God. This is the love of self-sacrificing, prioritizing others (even enemies) and doing what is right no matter what. We contrast this godly love very sharply with worldly affections and even the purest of emotions.

This is not to say that nonbelievers are incapable of that kind of love, but that Christians are uniquely responsible to love; we cannot flinch from our calling to love, or else we prove we don’t know God as we should.

Ethan Kirl