I John 4:7b-8 ... "Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love."
When God created "the heavens and the earth," (Gen. 1:1), He established a law to govern the process of reproduction in every form of life, namely, that whatever lives must reproduce "after their kind," (vs. 1:11, 12, 21, 24, 25). This principle operates in the spiritual world just as in the physical. When He created man, "God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to our likeness' ... (and) God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him," (vs. 26-27). The operation of this fundamental principle occurs whenever God acts to regenerate a human soul, making it to be like His own Spirit. The text above proclaims that "God is love," so that we may know that God is love personified. Or pershaps it may more appropriately be said that love is God as He expresses His character to man. It has long been argued that love cannot be defined. If this means that the fulness of genuine love cannot be reduced to the limitations of human language without loss of meaning, then it cannot be defined. But in words of divine inspiration John declares that love is fully personified in God, and this writer maintains that love is indeed defined in the manifestation of God's character to us. All that He has ever done for man is an expression of His love. Even His judicial acts toward us, which are sometimes painful and very disagreeable, are also acts of love, (Heb. 12:6). And when God in His amazing grace enables a person to be reborn spiritually, He recreates that individual in love like His own.
Love in its highest and purest form, uncorrupted by self-interest and lust, comes only from God. The love that originates within the human psyche is by nature self-oriented. Although it may appear to benefit others and seem to be gracious, these positive features are really by-products of its fundamental goals. This principle has been recognized by non-religious philosophers who incorporated it into their own moral systems. For example, Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), an English philosopher and founder of utilitarianism, argued that "every man is naturally selfish and hence almost invariably seeks pleasure or the avoidance of pain for himself." Human love rises to its highest, noblest plane when the desires of the individual are cultured and refined. But only from God does man learn that love (called agapê in the New Testament original) which is invariably altruistic.
The featured text above says that "Everyone who loves is born of God." A person thus born is also said to "know God," which means to experience in his life the power, direction, and sovereignty of God through an understanding of and submission to the truth He has revealed. As one who is "born of God" perceives God's supreme love working in his life, transforming his mind and conduct to the norm of righteousness, (Rom. 12:2), he is coming to "know God" ever more fully.
We are told in v.12 following the featured text above that "If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us." God loves everyone, (John 3:16), even rebellious sinners, (Rom. 5:8). So when He recreates us in His own likeness, we receive the capacity, inclination, and motivation to transcend the inferiority of human love. And when we exercise our new nature to "love one another," God's Spirit is kindled within to "abide in us," and we come to "know God" in the fullest sense. The ability to know God is realized in the experience of "keep(ing) His commandments," (I John 2:5). Our featured text is not promoting an alternative approach to the knowledge of God, that is, an approach via love rather than obedience. Actually, the two approaches are one, being harmonized in Jesus' statement, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments," (John 14:15). Both love and obedience are intensive, yet comprehensive, experiences involving God that lead us further into really "knowing God" as they progress in their action within our lives.
