We Love Because He First Loved Us — What It Really Means

“We love him, because he first loved us.” – 1 John 4:19 (KJV)

To read this verse through Neville Goddard’s understanding is to see beyond the surface of sentiment and into the structure of consciousness itself. God, to Neville, is not a distant being but the I AM (Exodus 3:14) within each of us—the eternal awareness of being.

This verse speaks not of a divine romance between two separate beings, but of the rhythm of manifestation. Love begins in the unseen. Imagination (God) loves us first—that is, it impresses itself upon the subconscious as the feeling of already having. When we feel loved, valued, or safe, it is because the inner I AM has already claimed it. Our conscious love is a response to having first been loved inwardly.

In practical terms, this means:
We cannot truly love—or believe in—the good we desire unless the feeling of already being loved (or already having) has been accepted within. The seed of love is sown in stillness, in the invisible act of assumption.

So when you desire something—a change, a healing, a new beginning—Neville would say: assume it is yours. Let the inner God “love you first.” Then your outer world will reflect your love right back.