You may have to read this more than once – but it's worth it.
"The second command determines the meaning of the first:
in loving my neighbour I prove my obedience to God.
There is no obedience to God in a vacuum, so to speak,
no obedience separate from the concrete situation
in which I stand as a man among men,
no obedience which is directed immediately toward God.
Whatever of kindness, pity, mercy, I show my neighbour
is not something which I do for God,
the neighbour is not a sort of tool by means of which I practise the love of God,
and love of neighbour cannot be practised with a look aside toward God.
Rather, as I can love my neighbour only when I surrender my will completely to God’s will,
so I can love God only while I will what He wills, while I really love my neighbour."
Told you * you have to read it more than once!
(Rudolf Bultmann, Jesus and the Word.)
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