I John 5:2 “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.”
While our natural mind is often filled with doubts and fears, our God-given “love” is the Blessed Assurance that comforts and consoles us. Here, we are given the test of whether or not our attraction to the Church, “the children of God”, is true and for the right reason. When our souls are at peace because “we love God” and we know that we “love God” because we joyfully and lovingly “keep his commandments”, then we are assured “that we love the children of God” simply because they are “children of God”. Because they are “the children of God”, they have within them the same tender love and conviction of heart toward God that we do. Thus, because “God” is our Heavenly Father, “the children of God” are our Brothers and Sisters, and Jesus Christ is the Elder Brother of us all (Romans 8:29)! This blessed “love” is universally understood; it breaks the barriers of unknown languages and nationalities, it overcomes regional traditions, it binds together the educated and the uneducated and the poor and the wealthy, and it is the common bond when little else is common. This is that Holy Magnetic Love that draws us to God and to each other: “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” (Jeremiah 31:3)!