I regularly enjoy the folding of logic that we find in the immeasurable wisdom of God through his word. Here we learn that love of God and love of one another are not only specifically and necessarily intertwined, but the relationship of the two removes the pressure of works-based goodness and replaces it with existential motivation. As I learn to relinquish my personal agendas and desires toward the end of loving God more fully and receiving into myself the love of God, loving others will become my native tongue. Loving my brother and sister in contrived efforts to be acceptable to God as one who loves, will never ascend to the standard of real love if separate from the source of love…that being God. In other words, our good works of love, by the grace of God, will become the evidence of God’s love alive and at work in us. We often see our love of others as an activated benevolence inherent within humanity whereas the reality of love is this: He loved us…we receive his love and reciprocate it to him…his love in us loves others through us. Loving others is who we are…not just what we do.
"We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen."
1 John 4:19-20