God Loved Us First

The apostle John exhorts believers in every generation to love one another in the same sacrificial way that God loved us first. We are to love one another because love reflects God's character and nature, and He demonstrated true love by giving His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who took the penalty that we deserved because of our sin. If God has loved us this way and to this extent, we ought to love one another in the same way, showing a watching world what God is like because we reflect His love to us in the way that we treat one another.