“love” here is phileo, the warm, friendly love. God’s love for the world (John 3:16) is agape, but for those who love Jesus and believe that He came from the Father it is phileo. Basically, love is fellowship between persons and an act of self-surrender. Phileo best expresses the former while agape best exemplifies the latter. Phileo is the love that cherishes and expresses itself in tender affection or fellowship. Agape is an unselfish love that is ready to serve. Why does God use agape to speak of His love for the world and phileo to express His love for those who love His Son? Note that we are commanded to agape God (Matt 22:37) but not to phileo Him, and yet if we really know Him, is it  possible not to phileo Him?

John 3:16  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Matthew 22:37  Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’

“the Father himself” is emphatic. The reason Jesus does not need to intercede for the disciples is that there is no necessity to do so. The Father loves them and does not need to be persuaded to give them grace. We sometimes carry a picture of God being the Judge who is only holding back His wrath from us because Jesus is keeping us protected from Him, but this is not the case. God the Father loves us and His love for us was the motivating factor in Him sending Jesus to earth in the first place! Jesus is telling His disciples that they can go to God on their own for the sole reason that God loves them. As Barclay points out, Jesus “did not die to change God into love; he died to tell us that God is love.”

The reason given here for their acceptance before God is their relationship with Jesus. They have loved Jesus. This does not mean that their love for Jesus earned their acceptance before God; it was a work of God in them that caused them to love Jesus in the first place. But God didn’t bring man to love Jesus so that He could love them. As Augustine notes, “He would not have wrought in us something He could love, were it not that He loved ourselves before He loved it.” God’s motivation in sending His Son to redeem the world was His love for all the people in it (#3:16).

John 3:16  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Note also that a right faith is involved here. God loves all men but He has a special regard for those who have faith in His Son.