³⁶ “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?”

³⁷ He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.^{[a](A) 38} This is the greatest and most important^[b] command. ³⁹ The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.^{[c](B) 40} All the Law and the Prophets depend^[d] on these two commands.”^(C)

⁵ So now I ask you, dear lady—not as if I were writing you a new command, but one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another.^{(A) 6} This is love:^(B) that we walk according to his commands.^(C) This is the command as you have heard it from the beginning: that you walk in love.^[a]