The middle berakhah of the Amidah for Yom Tov begins:

אַתָּה בְחַרְתָּנוּ מִכָּל הָעַמִּים
אָהַבְתָּ אותָנוּ
וְרָצִיתָ בָּנוּ
וְרומַמְתָּנוּ מִכָּל הַלְּשׁונות
וְקִדַּשְׁתָּנוּ בְּמִצְותֶיךָ
וְקֵרַבְתָּנוּ מַלְכֵּנוּ לַעֲבודָתֶךָ
וְשִׁמְךָ הַגָּדול וְהַקָּדושׁ עָלֵינוּ קָרָאתָ

You have Chosen us from all the nations
You Loved us
and Desired us.
You Uplifted us from among [the speakers of] all languages
and sanctified us with Your mitzvos
You brought us closer to You our King
and you proclaimed Your great and holy Name upon us..

There are a lot of ways in which the relationship between Hashem and Benei Yisrael is being identified as special in this paragraph. The sequence is interesting, in that Chosenness precedes Love, Love precedes Ratzon (Desire / Will), then comes being Uplifed — which somehow has to do with language? And only then — mitzvos.

Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch (ad loc.) understands the Divine equivalent of choosing as “You have found our character not entirely in contradiction with the sanctity of Your own Being.”

About that detour into calling us a Lashon, community defined by the language we speak. The only similar thing I can think of in modern times is the way “Arab” is defined as someone who is a product of the Arabic language and attendant culture.

How did we become the speakers of Leshon haQodesh, the Holy Language?

A medrash on the beginning of the book of Yonah discussed two people who refused to participate in building the Tower of Bavel: one was Avraham Avinu, the other, Ashur. As the Torah says, “From that land went forth Ashur, and he built Nineveh…” (Bereishis 10:11). Asher left the scene. Because of this, we retained the Holy Language, but Ashur received the Holy Script. (And that Ninevah would later get that warning from Yonah, thus the location of the medrash.)

It is Avraham’s unwillingness to go with the crowd, to be an Ivri not only in terms of descending from Eiver but also in willingness to stand outside an evil plan, that uplifted us.

So, the first three steps are about character and culture, things more fundamental to identity than abstract ideas. And having an ability to perpetuate a culture whose central value is good middos could be what Hashem means, when He describes the motive for that choice as “כִּי יְדַעְתִּיו לְמַעַן אֲשֶׁר יְצַוֶּה אֶת בָּנָיו וְאֶת בֵּיתוֹ אַחֲרָיו וְשָׁמְרוּ דֶּרֶךְ ה’ לַעֲשׂוֹת צְדָקָה וּמִשְׁפָּט… — Because I Know him, that he would command his descendents and his household after him, and they will guard the Way of Hashem, to do tzedaqaqah and mishpat.” (Bereishis 18:19)

Also, if Avraham and language is this far down the list, it would seem that we aren’t talking about the Chosenness of Benei Yisrael once we became Benei Yisrael. Rather, that, the Love, the Ratzon and the language is the product of the earlier covenants with the Avos.

And that is why, I closed the opening paragraph, we don’t gety to mitzvos until number four.

We were not Chosen, Loved, Desired, and lifted from communities of speakers of other languages because we are the bearers of Torah and mitzvos. Rather, we were given the Torah, assigned the mitzvos, made servants of the King to the point of being His representatives, His “name” in this world, because we are Chosen, Beloved, and embrace a special language and culture.

The love is inherent.

כָּל אַהֲבָה שֶׁהִיא תְּלוּיָה בְּדָבָר,בָּטֵל דָּבָר, בְּטֵלָה אַהֲבָה
וְשֶׁאֵינָהּ תְּלוּיָה בְּדָבָר,אֵינָהּ בְּטֵלָה לְעוֹלָם

All love which depends on something else — when that thing ceases, the love ceases;
and that which doesn’t depend on anything — never ceases forever.
– Avos 5:16