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The Greatest Commandment
All of the New Testament teachings on interpersonal relations follow from Jesus' commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." When Jesus was asked which of the commandments was most important, He replied,
The first is, "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength." The second is this, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." There is no other commandment greater than these. (NRSV, Mark 12:26-31)
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"Love your neighbor" was not a new commandment (Leviticus 19:18), but the people of Jesus' time had developed a rather narrow view of who should be considered a "neighbor." In His Parable of the Good Samaritan**, Jesus corrected that view and teaches us that a "neighbor" is anyone we come in contact with.
*Today's Who Am I? DailyDevo is an excerpt from http://www.christianbiblereference.org/faq_interpersonal.htm .
**The Parable of the Good Samaritan is in Luke 10:25-37.
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