Live2love with God's love

Probably the most overused word and definitely the word most misunderstood: Love.. Well I've had it wrong all along. We all know love's description in 1 Corinthians 13, but then I looked at this verse in 1 John 4: 7-8 "dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God (for God is love)" I was struggling to accept the idea that my love doesn't look very different from those who do not believe, because, "anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God". So, this raises the question.. what kind of love is John speaking about which proves that you know God? This thought challenged me to examine my heart. I started to ask the question, what is the motivation of my love? When this mystery of truth was revealed to me, I got convicted like never before. My whole life my motivation to love others was to benefit from it in some way or another. My selfishness was the motivation. Okay, let me give you an example: Peter and I are close friends and I love him in a way that really wants the best for him. But self-righteous me never realized that "wanting the best for Peter" was just to make him happy so that he can make me happy. Boom... That blew my mind. We were just using each other to be happy. And that is what I did in all my relationships. I was only loving to get.. just like anyone else that doesn't know God. God loved us so much that he gave Jesus to be the sacrifice so that we can be reconciled with Him forever. He gave everything, knowing that we can offer Him nothing worthy in return. This is real love! This is why we are called to live to love with God's love