The Scribes: Which Is the First Commandment of All?^(A)

^34 (B)But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. ³⁵ Then one of them, ^(C)a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

³⁷ Jesus said to him, ^(D)“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ^(E)‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ^40 (F)On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

¹¹ And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, ^(A)for the ^[a]edifying of ^(B)the body of Christ, ¹³ till we all come to the unity of the faith ^(C)and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to ^(D)a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; ¹⁴ that we should no longer be ^(E)children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of ^(F)deceitful plotting, ¹⁵ but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the ^(G)head—Christ—

^4 (A)Love suffers long and is ^(B)kind; love ^(C)does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not ^[a]puffed up; ⁵ does not behave rudely, ^(D)does not seek its own, is not provoked, ^[b]thinks no evil; ^6 (E)does not rejoice in iniquity, but ^(F)rejoices in the truth; ^7 (G)bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.