First degree of love: man loves God for self’s sake

This is the first and the natural love of man.
Man loves himself first and selfishly, as it is written, ‘That was not first which is spiritual but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual’ (I Cor. 15:46). This is not as the precept ordains but as nature directs: ‘No man ever yet hated his own flesh’ (Eph. 5:29).
(Bernard of Clairvaux, On Loving God Ch. 8)

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