The One Question to Answer that Will Reveal if you're a Christian

"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." - 1 John 4:7-8

The first question to be answered is, what is love? For if love is the foundational way that we can know whether we are actually a believer or not, it is incredibly important to know what love is, and even more important to know the burning question:

Do you love?


To answer this question, I find it appropriate to again see what John has to say just a chapter earlier.

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?" - 1 John 3:16-18

John says, as I posted at the top, "anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." In other words, with the previous definition of love that John gives us, this seems to be saying, anyone who is not willing to lay down every aspect of their life for people in need does not know God. 

Why?

Because God is love. In Jesus, we see just the sort of selfless love that God actually possesses.

If God is love, it follows that those that God manifests himself in by way of the holy spirit must physically, emotionally, mentally, and existentially experience this sort of love for those in need. 

Notice the difference.

The actions here are not the key. 

The key is the experience. It's not whether you actually give to those in need, it's whether you experience a reality that pity's those who are in need. 

I'm not saying that doing isn't part of it. In fact, it's an important part of it. Those who experience a reality of pity for those in need will do. There are those, however, who do apart from experiencing a legitimate desire to help. 

Why, someone will ask, would someone help who doesn't have the desire to help?

This question assumes that every person always does the very thing that they really want to do. But human experience tells a different story. Why are people constantly fighting their struggle with obesity? Why are people constantly fighting a lifestyle of discipline? 

People fight these things because the thing they really want in life is in direct opposition to what they are doing. Thus it is completely possible that someone would donate to charity, feed a homeless man, or volunteer at a homeless shelter for reasons other than, they simply want to. 

Some of these reasons often include a desire to be seen or a desire to be fulfilled through helping. 

Here is the beauty of Christianity and of God living in us:

It's simple.

We don't love because we want to be seen, we don't love because we want to be fulfilled in our souls. 

No.

We love because we want to.

It's really that simple. That is the single thing that sets the Christian against the rest of the world. The single thing that makes us different. We don't love out of obligation, we love out of a simple, nonsensical, and profound desire to love.

So, the questions isn't, do you love?

The question is:

Why do you love?

"We love because he first loved us." - 1 John 4:19