A man once asked a Rabbi, “Tell me why do you Jews always answer a question with a question?” The Rabbi answered, “Why shouldn’t we?”

In today’s Gospel reading the Rabbi’s have been asking Jesus trick questions, trying to trap him into saying something that would get him in trouble. Jesus has seen right through it, but then one of them fascinated with the wisdom of Jesus answers, forgetting himself, asks Jesus an honest question.

We can ask all sorts of questions, ones meant to teach the person that we are asking, ones meant to trick, some meant to prove our point, or show that the other person is wrong, some designed to show off our intelligence. But I like a good honest question, with no ulterior motive, asked just to learn something. No honest question is stupid. This scribe asks an honest question of Jesus.

“Sir, which is the most important command in the laws of Moses?”

Jesus sees his heart, he is obviously the kind of person that likes to get things right. He wants to know is he right with God. The Jews have a hard time with that they have 613 rules to remember, so Jesus condenses them down to 2, just 2. Jesus says all the Law and the prophets hang on just 2 commands – Love God, Love your Neighbour.

This is a good filter, if you have actions or behaviours in your life that you are not sure about, just ask how would God feel about me doing this? Would it hurt someone else? If it wouldn't please God and/or would hurt someone else - DON'T DO IT! STOP DOING IT! Of course to know how God would feel about anything you need to get to know Him better. That requires reading the Bible, or asking Him.

”We are to solve our problems by responding again and again to God’s love. When we start with God’s love, then we are ready to turn to our particular problem -- our relationship to our wife, children, neighbor, friend, or boss. Then we are freed to love our neighbor as ourselves. The same process that reached us and won a response from us, we are now to pass on to somebody else. . . . All the social humanities of our day teach us that we ought to love our neighbor and they are right. But if we start there, without loving God first, we find ourselves incapable of loving others.” - Ray C. Steadman