The second and third degrees of love

The second degree of love, is no longer do we love God because of our necessity, but because we have tasted and seen how gracious the Lord is. As the Samaritans told the woman who announced that it was Christ who was at the well: ‘Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the savior of the world’ (John 4:42)

The third degree of love, is to love God on His own account, solely because He is God. Whosoever praises God for His essential goodness, and not merely because of the benefits He has bestowed, does really love God for God’s sake, and not selfishly.

(Bernard of Clairvaux, On Loving God Ch. 9)

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