Mark 12:31 (DRB)

Passage

And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these.

Nearby Context

Mark 12:29 And Jesus answered him: The first commandment of all is, Hear, O Israel: the Lord thy God is one God.

Mark 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul and with thy whole mind and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment.

Mark 12:31 And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these.

Mark 12:32 And the scribe said to him: Well, Master, thou hast said in truth that there is one God and there is no other besides him.

Mark 12:33 And that he should be loved with the whole heart and with the whole understanding and with the whole soul and with the whole strength. And to love one's neighbour as one's self is a greater thing than all holocausts and sacrifices.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "second", "like", "thou", "shalt", "love", "neighbour", "thyself", and "other". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "second" and "like", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 30's "And thou shalt love the Lord thy..." into verse 32's "And the scribe said to him Well...", so "second" and "like" belong inside that flow. In Mark context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "second" and "like" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.