Whose Child Are You?
10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
Love One Another
11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
1 John 3:10-15

Whose child you are – a child of God or a child of the devil? John tells us how we can know who we belong to: “Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.”(verse 10) Those are frightening words because none of us always does what is right, and none of us can always love his brother. Some people seem so unlovable. How is it possible to love them? And yet we are called to love. If we struggle with this, does that make us children of the devil?
The struggle is important. If we simply dismiss someone and decide that person is not worthy of love, or of salvation, or of life, then we are in danger. But if we look at the most unlovable person and say to ourselves, “I struggle to love this person, but God loves him/her, and I will try to do the same” then we are on the path to growing in the love that God calls us to. God does not expect us to be perfect, but He does expect us to change, to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2).
Love is the first of the fruit of the Spirit listed by Paul along with “ … joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23) Do you see yourself change and the fruit of the spirit appearing in your life? Even if it is only the tiniest amount, can you see yourself loving in ways that you never did before. That change is God working in your life, leading you and teaching you as His child.
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Prayer:
• Are you willing to turn to God and say to Him, “Lead me Father to grow to be the son/daughter that you call me to be”?
Let this be your prayer today and every day.