On These Two Commandments

I've been reading tidbits, just a few sentences a day, of the New Testament, sequentially, at home in quiet, to just ponder. Even though I know these texts, sometimes I'm just in awe...or something jumps out of at me differently than it previously had.

Here's an example. Yes, I'm very aware of - and sometimes refer to - the two Great Commandments; but the sentence following them really struck me this morning.

" 'Teacher, which is the greatest commandment?' And he said to them, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.' "
Matthew 22:36-40.

"On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets." I've read and heard that many times, but how much have I really thought about it? To love God and to love our neighbor....and, that nothing else supersedes that....nothing in law, nothing in prophecies. That's it, right there.

To love God and to love our neighbor. And in another place, someone asks Jesus who is our neighbor. And he told him, in the story of the Good Samaritan, who our neighbor is. That person doesn't have to think as we do. He can be different from us in some way. And yet he is our neighbor. We care for him.

No law or prophet is more important than to love God and our neighbor. No prophet, ordained by God or perceived by man, is more important than love for God and compassion for our neighbor.