Years ago, while I was first studying what Christ Jesus cited as the two great commandments, it struck me that the math might be off (see Matthew 22:35–40). Didn’t the master Christian give three commandments—love God, love your neighbor, and love yourself? 

The first two many readily agree with and even strive to practice. But love yourself? Isn’t that egotism? Self-centeredness? How can that be a requirement for a truly good life? 

Jesus’ categorical call to love God, love one another, and love ourselves may seem as unrealistic to a self-deprecating mentality as it is to self-absorbed thought. And yet these three highest calls to action are not only mutually binding but mutually fulfilling. For if we strive to love God heart, soul, and mind, we must come to know God. And to know God is to love Him, urging on the desire to discover our own God-given identity and nature as His child. From this unfolds our native ability to love our fellow beings.