Because God is love, John 3:16 teaches that he has a love for the world and that love manifested itself in the giving of the Son for the world. Now it is imperative we keep in mind that his love is not the least bit based on a positive or lovable perception of the object of his love, namely the world. Rather, God’s love is entirely and completely and exclusively based on his choice to love. This principle was already established back in Deut. 7 as the Lord speaks through Moses to tell his people why he loves them. See if you can identify the reason—7 “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Even Eph. 5 makes it very clear that Christ did not love the church because the church was glorious, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Rather, Christ chose to love the church and as a result of that love, he gave himself for the church to make her glorious, holy and blameless. The point is that it should be impossible to walk away from this text without contemplating: How is it possible that can God love the world? Moreover, how inexplicable is God’s love that he can love you and me? The high degree of love portrayed in this verse is so extravagant precisely because of the extreme unworthiness of the object of God’s love. Nevertheless, God so loved the world…