Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
10 Herein is love He amplifies God’s love by another reason, that he gave us his own Son at the time when we were enemies, as Paul teaches us, in Romans 5:8; but he employs other words, that God, induced by no love of men, freely loved them. He meant by these words to teach us that God’s love towards us has been gratuitous.
Love descends from heaven itself, it is God's nature and the fruit of His Spirit. Whoever loves with genuine holy affection is born of God and knows Him truly. But whoever loves not, knows not God; such a soul shows by its very coldness that true knowledge of the divine nature has no dwelling place within it.
AI summary
Commenting on 1 John 4:7-13
Herein is love,.... The love of God, free love, love that cannot be matched: herein it is manifested, as before; this is a clear evidence of it, an undoubted proof, and puts it out of all question: not that we loved God: the love of God is antecedent to the love of his people; it was when theirs was not; when they were without love...