My question:
1 Corinthians 8:3 (HCSB)
But if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.
This is an interesting verse. Could this be a good question to ask people when evangelizing:
Do you love the Creator?
Their answer might be helpful in how you then proceed in the conversation (if they are interested in doing so).
Thoughts? Think deeply…
ChatGPT response:
Yes. I think that could be an unusually good evangelistic question, especially if your goal is to discover where a person actually stands rather than immediately presenting them with a theological proposition.
In 1 Corinthians 8:3, Paul says:
“But if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.”
The immediate context is knowledge versus love. “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (8:1). So Paul is not giving a complete formula for salvation in one sentence. Nevertheless, the verse reveals something important: the decisive relational issue is not merely what someone knows about God, but whether they love him.
That makes “Do you love the Creator?” a potentially penetrating question.
It may actually be more revealing than many standard evangelistic questions such as “Do you believe in God?” A person can believe that God exists and still dislike him, distrust him, resent him, ignore him, or simply feel indifferent toward him. James 2:19 already shows that bare belief in God’s existence is not the issue.
“Do you love the Creator?” moves immediately into the realm of relationship, disposition, and allegiance.
If the gospel is fundamentally the announcement that the Creator has acted through his Son, has enthroned Jesus as Lord, and is calling humanity back into reconciliation and allegiance, then an evangelistic conversation could begin even further upstream:
What is your present disposition toward the Creator?
“Do you love the Creator?” is a very accessible way of asking that.
The answer could open several very different conversations.
If someone says, “Yes, I think I do,” you could ask, “What makes you say that?” That allows you to hear what they mean by God, love, worship, obedience, gratitude, or creation. Eventually the conversation can move toward Jesus: If you love the Creator, would you want to know what the Creator has done and what he asks of us?
If someone says, “No,” that may be even more fruitful. You could simply ask, “Why not?” Now you may discover grief, anger, the problem of evil, hypocrisy in the church, intellectual objections, or a conception of God that they find morally objectionable. Instead of giving them a rehearsed gospel presentation, you are addressing the actual obstacle between that person and God.
If they say, “I don’t know,” that is also enormously revealing. You might ask, “Have you ever thought about whether the Creator might actually be someone who could be loved?” That could lead naturally into Jesus as the revelation of God’s character.
And if they say, “I don’t believe there is a Creator,” then you have discovered that the conversation needs to begin somewhere else entirely. You would not start by explaining justification or atonement. You might begin with creation, existence, consciousness, morality, or why they think reality has no Creator.
So the question functions almost like a diagnostic doorway.
There is another biblical reason I like it. Jesus himself summarizes humanity’s fundamental obligation toward God not primarily as believe that God exists, but:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
— Matthew 22:37
That means “Do you love the Creator?” goes very close to the heart of the biblical problem.
It also connects beautifully with Romans 1. Paul’s indictment of humanity is not merely that people lack information about God. They “knew God,” yet “did not glorify him as God or show gratitude” (Rom. 1:21). In other words, something has gone wrong in humanity’s orientation toward the Creator. We receive creation while refusing the Creator the gratitude, honor, and loyalty appropriate to him.
Seen that way, evangelism could begin with something like:
“Do you love the Creator?”
And then, depending on the answer:
“Would you like to?”
That second question may actually be extraordinarily important.
Because Christianity’s message is not merely, “There is a God and you are obligated to obey him.” It is also the announcement that God has shown humanity what he is like in Jesus. Someone who says, “I’m not sure I could love God” can then be invited to look at Christ.
There is one caution I would make about 1 Corinthians 8:3 itself. I would not interpret it to mean simply:
If a person has some affectionate feeling toward God, God therefore recognizes that person as saved.
Paul’s language of loving God exists inside a covenantal, Christ-centered context. And “known by God” elsewhere in Paul can carry a strong relational/election sense (compare Gal. 4:9). So the verse is deeper than mere emotional affection.
In biblical terms, loving God involves trust, gratitude, loyalty, and obedience. Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commands” (John 14:15). Love therefore moves toward allegiance.
That may actually make your question even better.
You could think of the evangelistic sequence as:
Do you believe there is a Creator? → What do you think the Creator is like? → Do you love the Creator? → Would you want to be reconciled to the Creator? → Let me tell you what the Creator has done through Jesus.
And that last movement is crucial. Evangelism then becomes less about convincing someone that God is willing to stop hating them, and more about announcing that God has acted in Christ to reconcile humanity to himself and inviting the person to turn toward him in trusting allegiance (2 Cor. 5:18–20).
So yes—I think “Do you love the Creator?” could be a remarkably fruitful evangelistic question precisely because there is no single canned response to it. Their answer tells you where the real conversation needs to begin.
I then asked:
If they answer “yes” would it be helpful to then show them that the Bible says that those who love God are actually known by Him? As per:
1 Corinthians 8:3 (HCSB)
But if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.
ChatGPT response:
Yes. In fact, I think that could make the question much more than a conversational icebreaker. It could become a genuinely encouraging bridge into the gospel.
Suppose you ask:
“Do you love the Creator?”
And the person sincerely answers, “Yes.”
You could then say something like:
“That’s interesting, because the Bible actually says something remarkable about people who love God: ‘If anyone loves God, he is known by Him’ (1 Corinthians 8:3).”
That changes the tone of the conversation. Rather than immediately telling the person, “You’re separated from God, and here’s what you need to do,” you are beginning with something Scripture itself says about their professed disposition toward God.
The significance of “known by Him”
The Greek is striking:
εἰ δέ τις ἀγαπᾷ τὸν θεόν, οὗτος ἔγνωσται ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ
Literally, approximately:
“But if anyone loves God, this one has been known by him.”
The verb ἔγνωσται is perfect passive: has been known. This isn’t merely “God knows that this person exists.” Obviously God knows everyone in that sense. It has a relational quality—compare Paul’s wording in Galatians 4:9: “you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God.”
That could lead somewhere very interesting evangelistically.
You wouldn’t necessarily have to tell the person immediately, “Therefore you’re saved.” 1 Corinthians 8:3 isn’t giving us a complete doctrine of salvation, and we shouldn’t make their self-assessment infallible.
But you could say:
“If you genuinely love the Creator, Scripture says something quite extraordinary about that: you are known by him. So perhaps the next question isn’t simply whether you believe God exists. Maybe it’s: Would you like to know more about the God who already knows you?”
And that is where Jesus enters the conversation naturally.
The movement could be:
“Do you love the Creator?”
“Yes.”
“The Bible says that the person who loves God is known by God.”
(1 Cor. 8:3)
“Would you be interested in knowing what this Creator has done for you?”
Then you can announce the gospel: the Creator has acted through Jesus, reconciled the world to himself, raised Jesus from the dead, enthroned him as Lord, and now calls people to reconciliation and allegiance (2 Cor. 5:18–20; Rom. 10:9; Acts 17:30–31).
There may even be an important biblical precedent for thinking this way. Cornelius in Acts 10 immediately comes to mind. Peter does not encounter a man with absolutely no relationship toward God. Cornelius already fears God, prays, and gives generously (Acts 10:2), and God acknowledges those acts (10:4). Yet God sends Peter to tell him about Jesus.
So the pattern isn’t necessarily:
“You have absolutely no relationship with God → hear about Jesus → now God notices you.”
It can look more like:
“You are already responding positively toward the Creator → God sees that response → now you need to hear what the Creator has accomplished through Jesus.”
That makes 1 Corinthians 8:3 especially intriguing alongside Cornelius.
And it gives your original question a distinctly non-confrontational but still deeply biblical purpose:
“Do you love the Creator?”
If no → Why not?
If I don’t know → Let’s talk about what the Creator is like.
If I don’t believe in one → Let’s begin there.
If yes → “Then I’d love to show you something the Bible says about people who love God: ‘If anyone loves God, he is known by Him.’ Now let me tell you about the One through whom this Creator has made himself known—Jesus.”
That last path strikes me as especially powerful because you are not beginning by denying the person’s existing orientation toward God. You’re taking it seriously and then directing that love toward the fuller revelation of the Creator in Christ.
It reminds me of this from Acts 17:
Acts 17:26-27 (HCSB)
From one man He has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. He did this so they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.
Godspeed, to the brethren!
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