³⁵ One of them, an expert in the law,^(A) tested him with this question: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^{[a](B) 38} This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^{[b](C) 40} All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”^(D)

⁸ If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,”^[a](A) you are doing right. ⁹ But if you show favoritism,^(B) you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.^{(C) 10} For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles^(D) at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.^{(E) 11} For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,”^[b](F) also said, “You shall not murder.”^[c](G) If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.

⁵ And hope^(A) does not put us to shame, because God’s love^(B) has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit,^(C) who has been given to us.

⁶ You see, at just the right time,^(D) when we were still powerless,^(E) Christ died for the ungodly.^{(F) 7} Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.^(G)