All the "commandments and statutes written in this book of the Law" may well seem very complicated and unnecessarily burdensome. However, Moses suggests that they can be gathered together toward one purpose: to help us return to the Lord our God with all our hearts and souls. Wherever and whenever the Word of God is spoken to us, it will always be an expression of God's desire that we be united with Him forever in eternal life and eternal bliss.

The question of how best to express the essence of the law was one that exercised the minds of many of Jesus' contemporaries. Thus the lawyer could ask: "What must I do to inherit everlasting life?" While he could read all the commandments and statutes written in the book of the law, he needed assurance about the essential elements of it all. He was trying to grasp the core meaning of all that was required. Even when he did have a good answer for Jesus, there was still the puzzle: "Who is my neighbour?" The lawyer's question was most likely a reasonably honest one, but Jesus gave it greater depth by turning it around: "Who can you be neighbour to?"