^7 [a]Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had ^(A)from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard ^[b]from the beginning.

^18 (A)You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, ^(B)but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

¹¹ For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, ^(A)that we should love one another,

²⁹ Jesus answered him, “The ^[a]first of all the commandments is: ^(A)‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰ And you shall ^(B)love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ ^[b]This is the first commandment. ³¹ And the second, like it, is this: ^(C)‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than ^(D)these.”

³² So the scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, ^(E)and there is no other but He. ³³ And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, ^[c]with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, ^(F)is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

³⁴ Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

^(G)But after that no one dared question Him.

⁵ And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: ^(A)that we love one another. ^6 (B)This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that ^(C)as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.