"Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and whoever loves the Father, loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments."

According to the study notes in my NASB Open Bible, there is a threefold proof of the new birth of every born again child of God: inward proof, outgoing proof and outward proof.

1) "whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God" (v.1a), our faith in Jesus, that He is God, is inward proof of our new birth (personal evidence that we are a child of God).

2) "whoever loves the Father, loves the child born of Him." (v.1b) In the flesh we are not capable to love our fellow man with the love God has for them, only God can love them through us; when we surrender to God then we allow Him to love through us as He desires us to. This is our outgoing proof.

3) "By this we know ... when we love God and observe His commandments." (v.2) The outward proof of our new birth here is our desire to practice righteousness. We make a practice of doing what is right in the eyes of God rather than those of men.

"And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him" 1 John 5:14-15

Heavenly Father, we thank you for Your love and faithfulness to love others through us. We thank you for the inward, outgoing and outward proofs that we are Your children. And we thank you for the promise 1 John 5:14-15 holds. Father if there are any who read this devotion who don't know You and have these proofs manifest in their lives, open their eyes to Your truth and soften their hearts and may they believe in Your precious Son, our Lord and Savior. We know that it is Your desire that none should parish Father, we thank you for hearing and for answering this prayer we pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Have a joyous day in our Lord!
April
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