It may seem easier to love God who we have not seen and not quite as easy to love our fellow believer who we have seen. We can easily view God as worthy of our love while our fellow believer might seem less than worthy. But love is not about feelings or emotion, it is about action. John has already told us we must love in deed and in truth (1 John 3:18). Our expression of love to both God and man is in obedience to God’s commandments. If we say we love God but do not obey His command to love our brother, then we lie—harsh but true.

Who is our brother? I have already referred to them as our fellow believer because it is everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ. Every believer is a child of God and whoever loves the Father, should love His children. We cannot say we love the Father but do not love His children. How do we know if we love God’s children, our fellow believers? By keeping God’s commandments (which includes loving our fellow believer). It seems logical that if you want to express love to God you will want to do what pleases Him and where better to find that than in His commands. The wonderful thing is that His commands are not burdensome (Mat 11:30)—this doesn’t mean they’re necessarily easy, they may be difficult but they are a delight. Not only are they not burdensome but we, by virtue of our faith, have overcome the world. The victory achieved by our new birth makes obedience to God’s commands something we can achieve. We begin our Christian life by faith and we live our Christian lives by faith.

A major lie of the world system is that love is something that must be earned—you must be lovable. But God showed us that love is something to be given. God showed His love by loving the unlovable—you. If your love for God is measured by the person you love least, what does that say about your love for God? How does your thinking about love need to be rewired based on what you have learned today?