How do you know that you love God?
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6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, 8 whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls. (1 Pe 1:6–9)
People who have received the end-result of their faith (i.e., the salvation of ther souls) love Jesus and rejoice in Him with a joy that cannot be put into words and which is full of glory. This is the tangible evidence that a person's faith in Christ is genuine, and it is how people can know they love God.
Joh 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
Rom 13:10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Jas 2:8 If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
1Jn 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
1Jn 5:2-3
2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
So it is more then words
Loving God is what causes us to obey.
Because of the love for God, our fruits show it.
Love comes from God by faith
You are right!
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (1 Jn 4:7–8)
Love is of God. Everyone who loves is born of God. A person who does not love does not know God.
20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also. (1 Jn 4:20–21)
A person who loves God must also love his brother. Love for God cannot exist without love for your brother, and vice versa.
...everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him (1 Jn 5:1).
This is a truism. If a person loves his heavenly Father, then he also loves the other people who are begotten of Him. This truism cannot be broken.
As we get to know and experience God in our heart we are filled with love for God and the same love results in obedience and works.
Works do not save us but are a result of God's love in us.
Rom 13:9-10
9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Psa 40:8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
Works do not save us but are a result of God's love in us.
Rom 13:9-10
9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Psa 40:8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
God is love.
And it isn't about what comes first.
The fruit of THE SPIRIT is love and faith.
Gal 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Eph 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
1Ti 1:14 And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
Phm 1:5 Hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all saints;
Love and faith are often connected.
God is love and regardless of our beliefs He loves us.
Do you think faith is vital to experience God's love?
Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
When my carnal tendencies are restrained for the love of God, I then know that I love Him more than I do myself. As a 'real life person' in a world of performing monkeys, I'm often asked, "what's wrong?" because I'm not wearing the prescribed 'jazz hands,' which I find painfully unbearable to watch others' exhibit of, unless it is entirely genuine, of course.
I just can't go along with such's pet delusions and find I am extremely tempted to demonstrate my acting skills in keeping with the script of their creation, just to lead them smack into reality with the abruptness of a brick wall and not without all the coarseness of every brick in the truth of exactly what the matter is... if it were not for the love of God that constrains me.
So, I don't.
And that is how I love those that poise themselves as my enemy by trying to offer me bs with 'jazzy hands' or whatever disingenuous sentiment they have in their 'tool' box in hopes that I will play along. However, this more often only confuses them because they rarely have any idea what true love actually looks like.
“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.”
1 John 5:2-3 KJV
“Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.”
John 14:23-24
Right the law has to be given first to reveal that all have sinned and then the gospel is revealed to save people from the law of sin and death
“Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”
Romans 3:19-23 KJV
no one could recognize sin and repent if we didn’t have a definition of what sin is
In Romans 7:25, Paul said that he served the Law of God with his mind in contrast with saying that he served the law of sin with his flesh, so the Law of God is not the law of sin and death. The Law of God leads us to do what is holy, righteous, and good (Romans 7:12) and is not sinful, but reveals what sin by contrast (Romans 7:7) while the law of sin leads us in the opposite direction by stirring up sinful passions in order to bear fruit unto death (Romans 7:5), so it is sinful and causes sin to increase (Romans 5:20). In Romans 321-22, the only way to become righteous that is testified about in the Law and the Prophets is through faith.
Yes, God's lovingkindness desires all sinners to repent and reflect His love,
but it is resistible or not compelling, because some souls choose to ignore or reject GW,
instead sinking deeper into their sins and hatred toward Him.
Sorry I should have been more clear...
I agree that God's love is always present and that God is love... God is Love
My question wasn't about the order or existence of God's perfect love.
It was about how we know and understand His love.
Do you think faith is needed to really know God's love?
I experienced God's unconditional love for me long before I ever came to believe in Him. It is part of my testimony that I have shared quite a few times in my years here, for I was at the end of myself, my marriage on the rocks, life pretty much burnt to the ground of my own doing, feeling broken and hopeless, a failure in every way. In fact I had just left my husband, and my daughter was not yet two. It was this time of year... coming up to Passover, and I saw that a nearby evangelical church was showing a movie on the life of Christ, based on the gospel of Luke. I had been raised in a religious home, and quit the church as a teen; I did not know Who Jesus was and certainly did not believe in God, but wanted to know more about Jesus, specifically. So I went two Saturday evenings, as they broke the almost four hour movie into two parts, and I also attended a Sunday service or two, as I was in a really hurting place and looking for answers... now I cannot remember at what point it happened, whether it was the first night or second night of the movie or at that church's service on a Sunday, maybe even Easter... my whole body was filled with the Light of God's love, I felt it in every fibre of my being, top to bottom, head to toes, and within that experience was imparted to me the knowledge that God understood all the ways and means and every decision I had made that brought me to that place of feeling so broken and hopeless and worthless in my life... but He loved me anyway, and more than that, He forgave me. The thing I could not do for myself... He let me know, He did (and of course it was through the cross of Christ but I did not understand that part of it yet). I felt so unworthy and of course we all are. It was profound and overwhelming and beautiful and I treasured that experience in my heart, but walked away wondering why God had to show me that in a church, because I was still trying to escape "all that." And it was many years after when God revealed Himself to me again in a way I could not deny as much as I wanted to... now I could say I believed there was something for truly I did, and I had had multiple experiences of the numinous and explored what I could of things that appealed to me in the spiritual fields that were of interest to me, but I did not believe in the God of the Bible until I was almost fifty, and that Passover experience was at the age of thirty three. It may have saved my life, for I was in a lot of emotional pain... a practising alcoholic and an addict, all things which God delivered me of when I cried out to him for help at the age of thirty nine when I first got clean and sober, again something I attribute to Him, and give all glory to Him for, though still I was devoid of faith. Did I need faith to experience those things? No. God broke through my lack of faith. People try to limit God and put people in boxes hammering away like we are some peg they are trying to smash into a shape that does not match. I call it cookie cutter Christianity. I sure don't agree with it, for it does not match my life or my experiences of God.