Questions on 1 John 4:7, Part 3

1 John 4:7

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

In light of this verse, I was asked the following question:

Can we be born again by our love even if we don't ask forgiveness for our sins or ask God to come into our hearts and submit to Him?

My response:

John is not saying that we're born again by loving others. In the context of the entire paragraph (1 John 4:7-12), John is very clear that our sins are taken away only by what Jesus did, not by what we do. Rather than understanding this verse to be saying, "Because you love others, God will save you" we should hear it as "Everyone who truly loves shows that he has been born again, having the new life of God in him." This is a matter of assurance of our new birth through the demonstration of that new life, not about receiving regeneration by acting like it or earning it.

Here's the whole passage again: 1 John 4:7-12

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.