Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
Their question:
Can we get to know God by being loving even if we don't read the Bible or associate with people who claim to know God?
My answer:
In one sense, yes, by practicing love, we get to know God by thinking and living the way he does. But remember that John is talking to believers here ("Beloved"). Thus, the knowledge that he is talking about is not coming to know God as your Savior in the sense of conversion; rather, it is of a believer coming to know God more and more in our understanding and the experience of fellowship and personal relationship. The basis of this fellowship is made possible by Jesus' death and resurrection, but our understanding and experience of it is deepened by daily godliness: walking with Christ and in the way he walked. See 1 John 2:1-6 for more along this line.
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