The first Christians talked about having a ‘law’ of love. Instead of focusing on a comprehensive list of do’s and don’ts, they insisted that if you truly seek to love those around you, you’d be fulfilling the rest of the ethical commands out there. There would be no need for prohibitions against lying or cheating or murdering or stealing—not because they weren’t wrong, but because these things wouldn’t even come into play if we were truly acting in love.
But since we don’t always act out of love, we need all these other boundary markers to let us know what’s acceptable and what’s not. Yet, if we just followed the basic principle of seeking to love our neighbor, these other rules would be rendered unnecessary.