How great is the love the Father has lavished on me,
1 John 3:1 CSB
that I should be called a child of God—and I am!
Therefore the world does not know me,
because it did not know Him.
God’s Very Nature
8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:8 CSB
Evidence of God in our lives is His Love
“…because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” See the context:
5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace[Other mss read faith, let us have peace, which can also be translated faith, let us grasp the fact that we have peace] with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 We have also obtained access through him by faith[Other mss omit by faith] into this grace in which we stand, and we boast[Or rejoice, also in vv. 3,11] in the hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, 4 endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. 5 This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Romans 5:1-5 CSB
“This hope will not disappoint us…” because “God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Therefore, a mark of the Holy Spirit in someone’s life is the presence of God’s love (agape).
Agape – unconditional “God” love
Charity (agápē, Greek: ἀγάπη) is the love that exists regardless of changing circumstances. Lewis recognizes this selfless love as the greatest of the four loves, and sees it as a specifically Christian virtue to achieve.
Author: C. S. Lewis as quoted in Wikipedia, “The Four Loves”
Here Lewis was wrong. It is not a Christian virtue “to achieve”, but a by-product (or “virtue” or “fruit”) of the Holy Spirit’s presence in our life; that is, a fruit of the spirit as explained in Galatians 5:22.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.[Or Against such things there is no law]
Galatians 5:21-23 CSB
Practical evidence of our spiritual condition is the presence of God’s love in our lives:
We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death.
1 John 3:14 CSB
The presence of God’s love coming out of us is a practical illustration of Jesus’ prophecy of the result of the coming Holy Spirit into people’s lives:
37 On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me[e] and drink. 38 The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.” 39 He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit[f] had not yet been given[g] because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
John 7:37-39
Access to God’s love is through the Holy Spirit
Notice the verses above indicate the presence of God’s love is a result of our belief in Jesus bringing about the transformation of our inner self (“reborn” – see John 3) “from death to life”:
“Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life.
John 5:24 CSB
Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:4 CSB
2:1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins 2 in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.[a]3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!
Ephesians 2:1-4 CSB