Jesus confirms that there is an certain order to the way that we are supposed to fulfill God’s law to love.  Human love is not haphazard or at random.  Rather it proceeds in accord with the way we were made by our Creator.

 

First: God

Second: Yourself

Third: Your neighbor and everybody else

 

For some it may not be quickly self-evident that second place in the order goes to yourself and only then comes your neighbor.  But before we get to that, it would be a big mistake to pass too quickly over that which comes first.

 

God gets first place.  When he doesn’t have, everything is chaos.  When he has it, everything is peace.  Man’s first responsibility is to consecrate himself solemnly and wholeheartedly to this priority.  Having labored there to bring it about, as best he can only then will he be able to proceed with confidence to his subsequent responsibilities.  To allow anything else to possess that privilege which is uniquely God’s is to will the destruction of that thing.  God comes first.

 

Our Lord thinks the second priority is comparable to the first when he says, “The Second is like it.”  But, what is the similarity between loving your neighbor as yourself and loving God above all else?  Prioritizing the love of God enables us then properly to love everything that’s not God.  So, too, prioritizing in the second place the love of self enables us then properly to love our neighbor.

 

What is love?  Willing the good of the other.  What is the “good” of the other?  The end for which it exists.