This was said by the Apostle Paul. It is brief, wonderful, incisive, clarifying. It tells us what should be the foundation of our Christian behaviour and what should always be our inspiration: love for our neighbour.

The Apostle sees the fulfilment of the law in the practice of this commandment. The law tells us not to commit adultery, not to kill, not to steal, not to covet… and we know that someone who loves does not do all this. Someone who loves does not kill, does not steal …

The whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’

Someone who loves does not just avoid evil. Those who love are open to others, desire what is good, do what is right, giving themselves: to the point of giving their life for the person loved. This is why Paul writes that in love for our neighbour not only is the law observed but the whole law is ‘summed up’.

The whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’

If the whole law consists in love for our neighbour, we should see the other commandments as means to enlighten and guide us so that, in the intricate situations of life, we can find the way to love others. We need to know how to read God’s intention, God’s will, in the other commandments.

He wants us to be obedient, chaste, mortified, humble, merciful, poor… in order to carry out the commandment of charity better.

The whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’

We might ask, how is it that the Apostle does not mention love for God? The fact is that love for God and love for our neighbour are not in competition. The one, our love for our neighbour, is the expression of the other, our love for God. Loving God, in fact, means doing God’s will. And God’s will is that we love our neighbour.

The whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’

How are we to put this word into practice? It is clear: by loving our neighbour, truly loving our neighbour.

This means: giving, but giving without self-interest, to our neighbour. Those who use their neighbour as an instrument to achieve their own ends, even the most spiritual, such as their own sanctification, are not loving. We must love our neighbour, not ourselves.

It is certain, however, that someone who loves in this way really will become a saint, will be ‘perfect like the Father’, because that person will have achieved the very best a human being can achieve. Such a person goes to the heart of God’s will, puts it into practice. Such a person wholly fulfils the law.

And isn’t this the only thing we will be examined on at the end of our lives?

Chiara Lubich

First published June 1983

8 Comments

  • sabe esta acontecendo muitas coisas em minha vida descobri que com deus tudo estou em uma situaçao que preciso muito dar a mao pra jesus pois e a mesma situaçao que me encontrava ha nove anos atras quero que deus ilumine meus passos pois fiquei muito traumatizada com as consequencias de minha separaçao do pai de meus filhos eles foram muito prejudicados hoje estou de novo separando mas porem estou com deus que coloquei minhaq vida em suas maos e pesso forças ao divino espirito santo para me g]]

  • Please, I need Word of life in my email.I am a voluntary in Brasil,Saõ José dos Campos – São Paulo….Thanks.

  • When I read this Word of Life it reminds me of one song, referring to my brother, “My way to go to GOD is you”.
    I pray to God that HE gives me an opportunity to always Love my neighbour as this is a sure way of loving God.

  • El Carisma de Chiara aporta algo al mandamiento nuevo de Jesús. Amar al projimo de verdad, sin instrumentalizarlo, sin utilizarlo para los propios fines. Donarse desinteresadamente. Así lo hacía Chiara durante su vida tan fecunda. Podemos nosotros, debemos hacerlo.

  • Great and inspiring word of life. My wish is to bring my neighbor to the bossom of the father. Lets take courage and be the word through the way we interact with our neighbor. Have a blsd month

  • Thank you for the Word of Life for July. We immediately start loving our neighbours in a concreat way. If possible please also post the audio copy of this Word of Life

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