Today Jesus summarizes the law in response to the challenge of the Pharisees. He manages to integrate both the demands of love and the law by citing Deuteronomy 6: 5 and Leviticus 19: 18. He is not teaching anything original, in the Jewish context. So where does Jesus innovate? He does so by revealing the awesome depth and power of God's love for us: "God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins." (1 Jn 4: 9-10) As a result, our motivation and capacity to love God and one another is increased, since we no longer live by our own power but through the transforming action of the Holy Spirit: "For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Gal 2: 19-21). The litmus test for how much we love God is given in how we love one another: "We love because he first loved us. Those who say, 'I love God,' and hate their brothers and sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also." (1 Jn 4: 19-21)
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