Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:7-8

Think you know what God expects of you?  Maybe you do, but maybe you don’t!

The beautiful thing about God’s expectations of us is that none of them are “stealth expectations.” He has communicated to us in Scripture, not a plan for the works that we must do, or the transformation that we must work in our own lives, but for our response to His love.

For example, His expectation is that, with His help, we will “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).  “The redeemed,” writes Harold Sala, “have an obligation to love the same way they have been loved—not to be worthy of what God has done, not to attempt to pay Him back for the pain and trouble we have caused, but to acknowledge we are His.””

We are His and we are loved.  “We love Him because He first loved us,” Scripture says (I John 4:19).  A love response both for God and for others is the strongest indicator that we truly understand how God views us and what He has done for us.

It’s simple:  God’s expectation is that we will accept His love, enter relationship with Him through His Son and love, as He does. “Dear friends, let us love one another,” the Bible book of I John implores us, “for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:7-8).

You are already worthy and your debt is paid.  Now, love lived out in your life shows that you are His.