Wesley will not let “world” shrink to the elect. The love from which salvation comes is free in all and free for all. Arminius locates the controversy in the mode of grace, not in whether God is gracious: many resist the Spirit and reject what is offered. Love that cannot be refused, they argue, is not the love the New Testament holds out to hearers.
John 3, John 15’s “abide in my love,” and the command to love enemies are of a piece: the Father’s love is the pattern and the power. Election “in love” (Ephesians 1) is heard as the affectionate choosing of those in Christ, not as a decision to pass over the rest without desire for their life.
Pastoral Arminian notes refuse both a sentimental God who never judges and a decree that makes gospel invitations insincere. The fork is whether God’s love, in the design of the cross and the call, terminates on every person.
Calvin’s comment on John 3:16 is more invitational than some expect: “whosoever,” “all indiscriminately,” “all men without exception.” Reformed catholicity includes a free offer. Dort begins its election head by quoting the same love—God sent the Son that whoever believes should not perish.
The further Reformed claim is that this love has a particular, effectual depth in election and atonement. “In love he predestined us” is not a mood; it is the eternal goodwill that actually brings a people home. Distinctions among love of benevolence, the gospel offer, and electing love are how many Reformed writers keep John 3 and John 17 in one Bible.
Pastoral Reformed notes insist that particular love is not cold. It is the love that will not let the sheep perish. The fork is whether “world” and “all” name every individual as the intended objects of saving love, or a larger set of distinctions that still underwrite a serious invitation.
Key contrast Arminians typically read God’s saving love as sincere toward every person and resistible in its grace; the Reformed typically confess an invitation to all and a particular, effectual love that actually saves the elect—without meaning that God is unloving toward the world he has made.