Jesus is trying to show us the importance of having a close relationship with God and also humankind. Loving God and loving people cannot be separated. Therefore it will be a lie to say we love God and yet be unable to love our brothers and sisters. Of course, there is a difference in liking and loving a person. Nobody can force us to like a person but the gospel imperative to love that same person, no matter how disagreeable, remains. Maybe we need to look inside ourselves to see what makes it hard to love the particular person.

The scribe spoke well of Jesus because he presented a point of view which he agreed with. We always seem to want people to agree with us - otherwise we find it hard to accept and love them. This is where we seem to confuse issues and persons. Surely it is possible for us to disagree with others on particular issues, and yet hold on to our friendships because we put persons in front of issues.

St John says that God is love and love is God. Jesus seems to be pointing us in discovering God through our love relationships with persons around us.