....choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell:
but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
Joshua 24:15
"The issue is always planted in God's created soil of Freedom.
Before
love, there had to be freedom. 
All created intelligences, beginning with
the angels and extending throughout the inhabited worlds, were endowed
with freedom—the freedom even to say No to God's plan for them.
In other
words, responsibility (ability-to-respond) was the actionable
word—freedom to respond to their Creator, either positively of
negatively.
Love is an attribute found only in the larger embracing air
of freedom.
Throughout the Biblical story, God was trying to make clear
what He planned to accomplish with His salvation plan, as He manifested
His fairness, love, and trustworthiness through His dealing with, first,
the Israelites and eventually, in the person of Jesus Christ."
Herbert Douglass