John Calvin Commentary Matthew 22:39

"And a second like [unto it] is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." — Matthew 22:39 (ASV)

And the second is like it. He assigns the second place to mutual kindness among people, for the worship of God is first in order. The commandment to love our neighbors, he tells us, is like the first, because it depends on it.

For, since everyone is devoted to themselves, true charity towards neighbors will never exist unless the love of God reigns. The love⁷⁶ that the children of the world have for each other is mercenary, because each of them looks to their own advantage.

On the other hand, it is impossible for the love of God to reign without producing brotherly kindness among people.

Again, when Moses commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves, he did not intend to put the love of ourselves in the first place, so that a person may first love themselves and then love their neighbors; as the sophists of the Sorbonne are accustomed to quibble that a rule must always go before what it regulates.

But as we are too much devoted to ourselves, Moses, in correcting this fault, places our neighbors in an equal rank with us. He thus forbids anyone from paying so much attention to themselves as to disregard others, because kindness unites all in one body.

And by correcting the self-love (φιλαυτίαν) that separates some people from others, he brings each of them into a common union and, as it were, into a mutual embrace.

Therefore, we conclude that charity is justly pronounced by Paul to be the bond of perfection (Colossians 3:14) and, in another passage, the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:10).

For all the commandments of the second table must be referred to it.

⁷⁶ “Car l’amour qu’ont les enfans de ce monde les uns envers les autres n’est point une vray amour, mais est une amour mercenaire;” — “for the love which the children of the world have for each other is not a true love, but is mercenary love.”;” — “for the love which the children of the world have for each other is not a true love, but is mercenary love.”