John’s call to love does not refer to some warm feeling or an abstract ideal. He is talking about clear-headed action toward God and others that is rooted in Jesus’ sacrificial action on our behalf.
From the outset John makes it clear that our love is not an originating love but a responding love: “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
Nor is God’s love toward us vague or ethereal. From years of contemplating the divine condescension, John saw that
“God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
Richard Foster | Streams of Living Water p.39
