Suppose you have many friends and you like them very much, or you admire many people and respect them very much. There is still a difference between your feelings toward them and your feelings toward the brothers and sisters in your own family. Somehow, there is a difference. If a person is born of your mother, if he is your brother, there is spontaneously a special and inexplicable feeling toward him. It is a feeling of instinctive love. This feeling proves that you and he belong to the same family.
The same holds true for our spiritual family. Suppose there is a person whose appearance, family background, education, disposition, and interest are totally different from yours. Yet he has believed in the Lord Jesus. Spontaneously, you will have an inexplicable feeling toward him. You will feel that he is your brother. He will be dearer to you than your brother in the flesh. This feeling proves that you have passed out of death into life.
First John 5:1 says, "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten of God, and everyone who loves Him who has begotten loves him also who has been begotten of Him." This is a very precious word. If you love God who has begotten you, it is only natural that you will love those who are begotten of God. It is impossible to say that you love God and yet have no feeling toward your brothers.
This love is proof that the faith we have acquired is a genuine faith. Such unspeakable love can only issue from genuine faith. This love for the brothers is something very special. A person loves for no other reason than the fact that the other person is a brother. He does not love because there is a common bond of interest. He loves simply because the other person is his brother. It is possible for two persons with different educational backgrounds, temperaments, family backgrounds, opinions, and views to love each other simply because both are believers. Both are brothers, and spontaneously they have fellowship one with another. There is an unspeakable feeling and taste toward each other. This feeling and taste is the proof that they have passed out of death into life. We know that we have passed out of death into life if we love the brothers.
It is true that faith brings us to God. Through faith we pass out of death into life, and through faith we are made members of the household of God and are regenerated. But faith brings us not only to the Father but also to the brothers. Once we have this life, we will have a feeling for the many people throughout the world who also have this life. Spontaneously, this life will draw us toward those who have the same life. This life takes pleasure in their presence; it delights in communicating with them and has a spontaneous love for them.
The Gospel of John and the Epistles of John show us God's ordained order: First, faith brings us out of death into life, and then those who have passed out of death into life have this love. By loving the brothers, we know that we have passed out of death into life. This is a very reliable way to ascertain the number of God's children on earth. Only those who love one another are brothers; those who do not love one another are not brothers.
Brothers and sisters! We must realize that in the eyes of God our love for the brothers is a test of the genuineness of our faith. We have no better way to tell whether a person's faith is true or false. In the absence of this discernment, the more perfectly the gospel is preached, the greater will be the danger of counterfeits. The more thoroughly the gospel is preached, the easier it will be for false ones to come in. The more the gospel is preached with grace, the more careless ones will creep in. There must be a way to discern and recognize genuine faith from counterfeit faith. The Epistles of John show us clearly that the way to differentiate true faith from false faith is not through faith itself but through love. There is no need to ask how great one's faith is. It is necessary only to ask how great his love is. Where there is genuine faith, there will be love. The lack of love proves the absence of faith. The presence of love proves the presence of faith. When we approach faith through the gateway of love, everything will become clear to us.
Whether or not a person is a genuine Christian depends on whether he has a special taste for and attraction toward other children of God. The life which God has given us is not an independent life. It is a life which spontaneously draws us toward those with the same life. It loves and desires mutual intimacy. Those who have such feelings have passed out of death into life.