Jesus replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” [Matthew 22:37-39 (NLT)]

How could Jesus condense over 600 rules and regulations of the Old Testament into two simple laws? Actually, it was pretty easy since we can’t do one without the other! If we love God, we also love our neighbor and, let’s face it, it’s impossible to love our neighbor without loving God! Moreover, once we love our neighbor, our behavior toward him changes. We won’t envy or gossip about him, we won’t violate his marriage, or lie about him. If we love our neighbor, we certainly won’t steal from him, harm or kill him. God’s rulebook is quite simple. We have only two rules: love God and love our fellow man.