Matthew 22:39

Matthew 22:39. And a second like unto it is this. Our Lord thus exalts the second table to an equality with the first God's moral law has unity: though one table is ‘great and first,' the ‘second' is ‘like unto it' Pharisaism puts the second in a lower place, thinking that seeming service of God can atone for want of charity to men. But supreme love to God is to manifest itself in love to men. Alike binding, the two are correspondent, not contradictory. The mistake of humanitarianism is making the ‘second' ‘the great and first' commandment.

Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. From Leviticus 19:18. ‘Man ought to love his neighbor, 1. not as he does love himself, but as he ought to love himself; 2. not in the same degree, but after the same manner, i.e., freely and readily, sincerely and unfeignedly, tenderly and compassionately, constantly and perseveringly' (W. Burkitt). Cases arise where man ought to love his neighbor more than his life, physical life, and has done so, sacrificing it for his fellows, his country, and the church, in imitation of the example of Christ and the martyrs.