1 Corinthians 13:13 English Standard Version (ESV) So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 John 4:15-17 English Standard Version
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.
Some are of the “seeing is believing” mindset. The problem with that vision is judging ourselves by a standard we never could keep before Christ. The abiding love is God and God is Lord and the Lord is in charge. We are in fact helpless to control God, control love, and that means we cannot stop God from loving others.
Our failure in “seeing is believing” is self-effort. That effort has performance issues because it seeks to please self, to prove that we are acceptable rather than to believe we are accepted. The motivation is self-interest rather than to just love God and let God be the motivations of our hearts.
At the core of the “seeing is believing” viewpoint is insecurity, having never been good enough, we think we are still not good enough. This is why having a right understanding of justification is the only cure for that insecurity.
“How could God love a sinner like me?”
This is the root cause of spiritual insecurity. It is a spiritual matter and like all things spiritual, they are by faith. What God has done for us is how He can justify abiding in us. Justification makes that possible.
Romans 3:23-24 English Standard Version
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,