Jesus once shocked the Pharisees, saying: “…thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40). They had hoped to trap Him in some contradiction concerning the law given to Moses. His answer silenced them.

Explaining Paul’s effort to drive home this same great truth to the Christians at Rome, Dr. H. A. Ironside wrote: “ ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ He who thus loves could, by no possibility, ever be guilty of adultery, murder, theft, lying, or covetousness. It is impossible that love should be manifested in such ways as these. ‘Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.’ It is in this way that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.”

Year after year, legislatures and parliaments grind out laws designed to keep the populace in line and to preserve the common peace. These laws, containing rules and sentences, are prepared and passed to keep citizens from wronging or hurting one another. How unnecessary most laws would be if love reigned! Billions in tax monies would be saved if love determined actions.

Prisons and jails would he empty if love was a way of life.

We cannot control the way others live, but we can fulfill the purpose of God in our lives by loving one another.

And our neighbors will notice!