No, the Word of God here does not simply mean to impress upon us that there was indeed love in the mission of the Son of God to be a propitiation for our sins. It emphasizes a very particular truth. Love, it declares, true love, wherever you find it, whatever form it may assume, whether you know it as the love of God to you, or as your love to God, or as your love to the brethren, - love always consists in this, not that we love God, but that He loves us. This is clearly and indubitably revealed in that one great act of the love of God, that He sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. Therein you taste and see, not only that God loved us, but that His love is sovereign and free, self-existent and independent. . . .
Love is a bond.
It is the union between persons . Strictly speaking, love does not exist between inanimate creatures, nor between brute creatures. One abuses that noble word love when he speaks of loving his dog, or when she exclaims that she loves your new hat. Love is a bond between person and person. It exists only between rational, moral beings.