“If the world hates you, be aware ¹  that it hated me first. ² 

Or who has first given to God, ¹  that God ²  needs to repay him? ³ 

However, the spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and then the spiritual.

The first man is from the earth, made of dust; the second man is from heaven.

“Honor your father and mother,” ¹  which is the first commandment accompanied by a promise, namely,

because of your participation ¹  in the gospel from the first day until now. ² 

The farmer who works hard ought to have the first share of the crops.

Now the first covenant, ¹  in fact, had regulations for worship and its earthly sanctuary.

But I have this against you: You have departed ¹  from your first love!

The first woe has passed, but ¹  two woes are still coming after these things!

He ¹  exercised all the ruling authority ²  of the first beast on his behalf, ³  and made the earth and those who inhabit it worship the first beast, the one whose lethal wound had been healed.

The disciples asked him, ¹  “Why then do the experts in the law ²  say that Elijah must come first?”

And when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each one also received the standard wage.

Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, ¹  so that the outside may become clean too!

By itself the soil produces a crop, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.

Then ¹  they asked him, ²  “Why do the experts in the law ³  say that Elijah must come first?”

And very early on the first day of the week, at sunrise, they went to the tomb.

Jesus ¹  said to another, “Follow me.” But he replied, ²  “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

Yet ¹  another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say goodbye to my family.” ² 

The ¹  Pharisee was astonished when he saw that Jesus ²  did not first wash his hands ³  before the meal.