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](A) 38} This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^{[b](B) 40} All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”^(C)

¹⁹ We love because he first loved us.^{(A) 20} Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister^(B) is a liar.^(C) For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen,^(D) cannot love God, whom they have not seen.^{(E) 21} And he has given us this command:^(F) Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.^(G)

⁵ I am reminded of your sincere faith,^(A) which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice^(B) and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

Appeal for Loyalty to Paul and the Gospel

⁶ For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.^{(C) 7} For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid,^(D) but gives us power,^(E) love and self-discipline. ⁸ So do not be ashamed^(F) of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner.^(G) Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel,^(H) by the power of God.

³¹ Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived.^(A) Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. ³² A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

³³ “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.

³⁴ Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵ Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

A Prayer for the Ephesians

¹⁴ For this reason I kneel^(A) before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family^[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches^(B) he may strengthen you with power^(C) through his Spirit in your inner being,^{(D) 17} so that Christ may dwell in your hearts^(E) through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted^(F) and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people,^(G) to grasp how wide and long and high and deep^(H) is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge^(I)—that you may be filled^(J) to the measure of all the fullness of God.^(K)