God's Self-Originating Love

While studying spiritual gifts today, I was reading D. A. Carson's book, Showing the Spirit: A Theological Exposition of 1 Corinthians 12-14. I came across this Gospel quotation and my heart leaped in joy and thanked God for His self-originating love:

"If I must say in few words what is distinctive about God's love for us, it is that it is self-originating. When a young man reveals his heart with a passionate declaration, "I love you!" at least in part he means that he finds the woman he loves lovely. At least some of his love is elicited by the object of that love. But God loves what is unlovely. If, as John 3:16 tells us, God loves the world, it is not because the world is so lovely God cannot help himself: judging by John's use of the term world, God loves the world only because of what he is."