Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume II/On Christian Doctrine/Book I/Chapter 27

Chapter 27.—The Order of Love.

28.&#160; Now he is a man of just and holy life who forms an unprejudiced estimate of things, and keeps his affections also under strict control, so that he neither loves what he ought not to love, nor fails to love what he ought to love, nor loves that more which ought to be loved less, nor loves that equally which ought to be loved either less or more, nor loves that less or more which ought to be loved equally.&#160; No sinner is to be loved as a sinner; and every man is to be loved as a man for God&#8217;s sake; but God is to be loved for His own sake.&#160; And if God is to be loved more than any man, each man ought to love God more than himself.&#160; Likewise we ought to love another man better than our own body, because all things are to be loved in reference to God, and another man can have fellowship with us in the enjoyment of God, whereas our body cannot; for the body only lives through the soul, and it is by the soul that we enjoy God.