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III. Love for One Another

11 [a]For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: we should love one another,(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 3:11–18 Love, even to the point of self-sacrifice, is the point of the commandment. The story of Cain and Abel (1 Jn 3:12–15; Gn 4:1–16) presents the rivalry of two brothers, in a contrast of evil and righteousness, where envy led to murder. For Christians, proof of deliverance is love toward others, after the example of Christ. This includes concrete acts of charity, out of our material abundance.

Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength.(A)

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37 (A)He said to him,[a] “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and the first commandment. 39 (B)The second is like it:[b] You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 [c](C)The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

The Question About David’s Son.[d]

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Footnotes

  1. 22:37–38 Cf. Dt 6:5. Matthew omits the first part of Mark’s fuller quotation (Mk 12:29; Dt 6:4–5), probably because he considered its monotheistic emphasis needless for his church. The love of God must engage the total person (heart, soul, mind).
  2. 22:39 Jesus goes beyond the extent of the question put to him and joins to the greatest and the first commandment a second, that of love of neighbor, Lv 19:18; see note on Mt 19:18–19. This combination of the two commandments may already have been made in Judaism.
  3. 22:40 The double commandment is the source from which the whole law and the prophets are derived.
  4. 22:41–46 Having answered the questions of his opponents in the preceding three controversies, Jesus now puts a question to them about the sonship of the Messiah. Their easy response (Mt 22:43a) is countered by his quoting a verse of Ps 110 that raises a problem for their response (43b–45). They are unable to solve it and from that day on their questioning of him is ended.