Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.Here's another question I received about this verse. [See yesterday's post for the first in this series.]
There seems to be people who are able to love others with a generous heart beyond themselves and yet don't claim to know or love God. Does God give them this love even if they don't acknowledge it is from God?Yes, people who are not godly can show kindness to others. This love is from God, yet it is not borne out of a relationship with God. This is part of what we call "common grace"-- the goodness of God experienced by and expressed through those who have not necessarily been redeemed. We readily acknowledge that our understanding of "total depravity" means that we are completely sinful, but not that we are as bad as we could be. And that's a good thing, or else our world would be a completely unlivable place.
Yet this love is not the purest, truest kind of love. If this love to others does not flow out of a life whose first love (highest allegiance, first commitment) is to God, then that love to others will be tainted by sin, usually variations on self-centeredness: manipulation, greed, lust, or milder forms of insecurity or indulgence.
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