1 John 4:19 19We ourselves love, because he first loved us.
John makes a strong summarizing statement that has an implied exhortation and call to love. Our source for loving comes from God’s love towards us. God’s love provides the ability for us to love. Only when we open ourselves to God will we experience God’s love. God loves all people, but not all people receive this love with faith and openness. God’s love is not coercive or imposing but inviting. We have a choice to accept God’s love and to allow it to influence our lives. Faith is the open door to receiving God’s love. God’s love leads to life everlasting for those who will receive it, trust it, and respond to it. Any human love detached from God’s love will be conditioned by earthly concerns. Even human-source love can be good and helpful, but it is only a reflection of the divine grace of love already working in our lives through the Holy Spirit speaking to our consciences. Every human has an innate sense of love and goodness that can be suppressed and distorted or nurtured and grown. Even though human love can be good, it is still partial and conditioned and cannot lead to eternal life. Only by receiving God’s love shown through the Son can we have eternal life.
In addition, God’s love provides the motive for loving others. We owe a debt of gratitude to God for being given physical and eternal life. Paul the Apostle wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:13 that Christ’s love compelled or motivated him in his ministry. Life has many hardships and trials, especially when we walk in the light, since the darkness hates and rejects it. Because we have allowed God’s love into our hearts, we are no longer motivated by our own ideas, attitudes, emotions, or agendas, but by the cross. God’s love provides the source, power, and reason for why we love others.