Everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. For St. John the criterion for membership is pretty straightforward — love. In the gospel of Matthew Jesus says, “Not everyone who calls me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Mt 7:13). That will is love. Theologians make a distinction between orthodoxy (right belief) and orthopraxis (right behavior.) The first epistle of John suggests that you can’t have a right belief about God unless you have the right practice which is loving as God loves. The Church has developed creeds and catechisms to ensure right belief but unless we are people who love it is all for nought since we don’t know anything about God if we don’t love. The Belgian chanteur, Jacques Brel, had a song with the refrain “If we only have love … We’ll have conquered all time, all space, the sun, and the stars.”
