Expert: Dean Gade - 12/15/2006

Question
Hi, I've been asking about love, we are told to love God, love your enemies, love yourself.  Are all these the same?  Can you elaborate?  Thank you.

Answer
Yes, they are the same sacrificial (agape) love.   The two which are commandments are to Love God ABOVE ALL THINGS....
Love YOUR NEIGHBOR AS MUCH AS you love yourself.

There is no command to love yourself.  That is taken for granted as when St. Paul speaks about a man loving his wife:

Eph 5:28-29
28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it
(from New International Version)

We have been made more loveable by our rebirth into Christ.  So, we naturally love ourselves.

Our love for God is to have top priority. Love is from God both as a gift and then as something which we produce because of God's love:

1 John 4:19-21

19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
(from New International Version)

There are different words for love in the Bible (and even more in the Greek, original language of the New Testament) but this type of love that we are aiming for is an unconditional love which expects nothing in return.

1 Cor 13:2-8
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails.
(from New International Version)

I hope that helps.