Know the order

I John 4:10 “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” Natural human thinking is the opposite of natural God thinking.  Human thinking is: We have some lovable trait which is attractive to another person.  Some feature of ours is desired.  We have something to offer.   God thinking is just the opposite: God loves us even though we offer nothing.  There is nothing we can do to attract God’s love.  We are only loved because of God’s great mercy and desire to call us His child.  You and I can do nothing to earn God’s love.  His love is a free and undeserved love.  That is the epitome of love.  How could we not love Him in return?