Leviticus 19:18

This verse contains one of the most famous commands in all of Scripture: love your neighbor as yourself. Long before it was quoted in the Gospels, it stood here in the Law as the summary of how God's people are to treat one another. What is easy to miss is how the command begins -- with two prohibitions. Before God says "love," He says "thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge." Love of neighbor starts by letting go of the desire to settle the score and refusing to nurse resentment in the heart.

The word for "love" here is not merely a feeling but active goodwill -- seeking the welfare of another as naturally as you seek your own. The standard "as thyself" assumes that we instinctively care for our own needs, and it calls us to extend that same care outward. Jesus would later lift this single verse to the height of the Law, joining it with the command to love God and declaring that on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. The closing words, "I am the LORD," anchor the whole command: this is not human advice but the will of God Himself, rooted in His own character of steadfast love.