"By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother" (1John 3.10).
Almost perfectly in the middle of the first epistle of John is the above verse which not only summarizes the book, but also the Biblical conditions that prove I am a child of God. John writes about practicing righteousness: "By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments" (2.3). Righteousness is the fruit of obedience and is the first indicator that we have come to known God. The second is like it: "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love our brothers" (3.14). The second evidence produced from becoming a child of God is a love for other children of God. The question is, what does that love look like?
"By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments" (5.2,3). Very simply, we love the children of God by first obeying His commands (the first piece of evidence) and by helping them do the same (thereby reproducing the first piece of evidence in their lives). Jesus summed the entire Bible up in these same two commands: "Love The Lord your God... [and] love your neighbor as yourself" (Mt. 22.37-39).
If Christians would believe the simple truth of this statement, discipleship would be real easy: we love God by obeying His commands and we love His people by helping them to do the same.
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