Can those who aren't saved truly love?

[megan_26]

This is an honest question that I've been pondering for some time and I'd like to see what you all think.

"And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them."
1 John 4:16

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."
1 John 4:8

Based on these verses, we know that God is love. Whoever loves has God and whoever doesn't love doesn't have God. But does it go both ways? If God is love and someone is lacking God, then does that mean that they are lacking love?

Can those who aren't saved actually love? Or is it necessary to know God in order to truly know love?

 

[A_Thinker]

This is an honest question that I've been pondering for some time and I'd like to see what you all think.

"And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them."
1 John 4:16

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."
1 John 4:8

Based on these verses, we know that God is love. Whoever loves has God and whoever doesn't love doesn't have God. But does it go both ways? If God is love and someone is lacking God, then does that mean that they are lacking love?

Can those who aren't saved actually love? Or is it necessary to know God in order to truly know love?

I think that we can love ourselves ... and our own, but we cannot love as God wishes us to ...

 

[dreadnought]

This is an honest question that I've been pondering for some time and I'd like to see what you all think.

"And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them."
1 John 4:16

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."
1 John 4:8

Based on these verses, we know that God is love. Whoever loves has God and whoever doesn't love doesn't have God. But does it go both ways? If God is love and someone is lacking God, then does that mean that they are lacking love?

Can those who aren't saved actually love? Or is it necessary to know God in order to truly know love?

I think those who truly love are saved.

 

[Ken Rank]

Can those who aren't saved actually love? Or is it necessary to know God in order to truly know love?

In the sense of a deep heart felt emotion for another? Sure.... but not the love of Scripture. What did John say? "This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments." Godly love isn't just a deep heart felt emotion, it is a deep heart felt emotion COMBINED with action that defines and proves that love.

 

[dreadnought]

This is an honest question that I've been pondering for some time and I'd like to see what you all think.

"And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them."
1 John 4:16

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."
1 John 4:8

Based on these verses, we know that God is love. Whoever loves has God and whoever doesn't love doesn't have God. But does it go both ways? If God is love and someone is lacking God, then does that mean that they are lacking love?

Can those who aren't saved actually love? Or is it necessary to know God in order to truly know love?

I think those who truly love are saved.

Here would be the definition for “truly love”:

[34] But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sad'ducees, they came together.
[35] And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, to test him.
[36] "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"
[37] And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
[38] This is the great and first commandment.
[39] And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
[40] On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets." Matt 22:34-40 RSV

 

[Sabertooth]

Eros, philia & storge? Yes.

Jesus said [in Luke 11:11-13],

"If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

True agape? No, it is God-powered. Worldly altruism isn't good enough, per 1 Corinthians 13:1-3.

 

[Daniel Marsh]

This is an honest question that I've been pondering for some time and I'd like to see what you all think.

"And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them."
1 John 4:16

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."
1 John 4:8

Based on these verses, we know that God is love. Whoever loves has God and whoever doesn't love doesn't have God. But does it go both ways? If God is love and someone is lacking God, then does that mean that they are lacking love?

Can those who aren't saved actually love? Or is it necessary to know God in order to truly know love?

There are four Greek Words for Love. The Love spoken of by John is Agape which is God's Love described in I Cor 13:4-8

Non-Christians are capable of the Three other types of Love, like for example, Brotherly Love, Marriage Love and Erotic Love.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 The Passion Translation (TPT)
4 Love is large and incredibly patient.a Love is gentle and consistently kind to all. It refuses to be jealousb when blessing comes to someone else. Love does not brag about one’s achievements nor inflate its own importance. 5 Love does not traffic in shame and disrespect, nor selfishly seek its own honor. Love is not easily irritatedc or quick to take offense.d 6 Love joyfully celebrates honestye and finds no delight in what is wrong.f 7 Love is a safe place of shelter,g for it never stops believing the best for others.h Love never takes failure as defeat, for it never gives up.

Perfect Love
8 Love never stops loving.i It extends beyond the gift of prophecy, which eventually fades away.j It is more enduring than tongues, which will one day fall silent. Love remains long after words of knowledge are forgotten.

 

[Hazelelponi]

This is an honest question that I've been pondering for some time and I'd like to see what you all think.

"And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them."
1 John 4:16

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."
1 John 4:8

Based on these verses, we know that God is love. Whoever loves has God and whoever doesn't love doesn't have God. But does it go both ways? If God is love and someone is lacking God, then does that mean that they are lacking love?

Can those who aren't saved actually love? Or is it necessary to know God in order to truly know love?

Luke 6:32

Yes they can love.

 

[Sabertooth]

As an aside, some people [mistakenly] believe that God's Love (for them) is enough to save them when it is not. We need to be purified if we are to be saved, but God loved us enough to create a means for such purity.

 

[Doug Melven]

Can those who aren't saved actually love? Or is it necessary to know God in order to truly know love?

They can love, but not God's kind of love, that requires His presence in us.

 

[Basil the Great]

There are surely examples of non-Christians who have lived lives of true service to humanity, some even laying down their lives to protect loved ones.

 

[Anguspure]

This is an honest question that I've been pondering for some time and I'd like to see what you all think.

"And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them."
1 John 4:16

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."
1 John 4:8

Based on these verses, we know that God is love. Whoever loves has God and whoever doesn't love doesn't have God. But does it go both ways? If God is love and someone is lacking God, then does that mean that they are lacking love?

Can those who aren't saved actually love? Or is it necessary to know God in order to truly know love?

Gods Love comes from His infinite Goodness.
Those who are saved are also able to appropriate that goodness, if they choose to.
Those who are not saved only have themselves and the goodness they can get from thier lives.
The unfortunate reality of Christianity is that the vast majority of us do not appropriate the Goodness of God and then fail even to gain good enough lives to love more than the unsaved man.

 

[juvenissun]

This is an honest question that I've been pondering for some time and I'd like to see what you all think.

"And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them."
1 John 4:16

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."
1 John 4:8

Based on these verses, we know that God is love. Whoever loves has God and whoever doesn't love doesn't have God. But does it go both ways? If God is love and someone is lacking God, then does that mean that they are lacking love?

Can those who aren't saved actually love? Or is it necessary to know God in order to truly know love?

Saved or not, all humans are made in God's image. What's inherited in that image? Love is certainly an important ingredient.

 

[creslaw]

Do we really love others when we fail to tell them the whole truth of Christ's Gospel ... even the parts that may not be so "nice" (Matthew 10:28)?

 

[Niels]

Yes. People are made in God's image. Our creator is love, so they can also love. When they love, it's arguably also God's love. They just don't necessarily recognize it as such.

 

[Apologetic_Warrior]

This is an honest question that I've been pondering for some time and I'd like to see what you all think.

"And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them." 1 John 4:16

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." 1 John 4:8

Based on these verses, we know that God is love. Whoever loves has God and whoever doesn't love doesn't have God. But does it go both ways? If God is love and someone is lacking God, then does that mean that they are lacking love?

Can those who aren't saved actually love? Or is it necessary to know God in order to truly know love?

The following passage of Scripture comes to mind:

Matthew 5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 “that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 “And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

The difference in love from the above passage is between loving conditionally and loving unconditionally. Although it is not uncommon for the non-Christian to confuse the love of mercy and the love of justice in a way that is related to loving righteousness. An obvious example would be the release of Barabbas in exchange for Christ Jesus.

 

[ViaCrucis]

It is important to understand that even as Christians our love is hardly perfect godly love--we are sinners after all. As such all our works, all of the gifts we bring are tainted by our sin--even our love. The call and command to love is not something we can obey perfectly, as sinners we do not fulfill the Law, which is why the Law cannot justify us.

The difference between Christians and non-Christians isn't the quality of love; it is that the Christian confesses the perfect love which God has for the world in Jesus, and has set that love as the example to imitate. Not that we actually fulfill the righteous command to love as God loves, but that it does remain our example set before us.

Christians and non-Christians both fail to love as we ought.
And Christians and non-Christians both are able to love imperfectly, and to be kind, generous, and sacrificial to our neighbor (again, imperfectly, and still tainted with our own sin).

The difference between us isn't in our ability and works; the difference is in what we as Christians confess as the chief exemplar of love: Jesus Christ our Lord.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[ViaCrucis]

Do we really love others when we fail to tell them the whole truth of Christ's Gospel ... even the parts that may not be so "nice" (Matthew 10:28)?

The Gospel is always good news to the sinner, never bad news.

The Law is what condemns, not the Gospel. Matthew 10:28 pertains to Law, not Gospel.

Don't confuse the two. The Law reveals what we ought to do, and that we do not do it; through the Law we behold the utter holiness of God, and in our sin causes us to dread, like the Israelites at the foot of the mountain who in terror beg Moses to be the mediator between them and God.

The Gospel, conversely, is the good news, the promise, of God and what He has done for us through Jesus Christ as pure and unmerited gift.

The Law can drive us to our knees in sorrow and despair over our sin, but it cannot lift us up to be reconciled to God--only the Gospel can do that.

A proper distinction between Law and Gospel, and the proper preaching of Law as Law and Gospel as Gospel is essential. If we preach the Law as though it were Gospel, then no, we are not loving our fellow man because we are not bearing before him the good news of God's salvation in Jesus and God's embrace of sinners in Jesus, we are merely preaching the condemnation of the Law.

-CryptoLutheran