Our readings this week are 1 John 3:11-24 and Matthew 15.10–20.

John's opening line in this week's reading pretty much says it all, 'For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.'

It's a message he apparently preached his whole life. According to the tradition, John is the only one of the apostles to have died of old age, rather than martyrdom. It's said of him that he preached into that old age - that he would be brought out in his infirmity to speak to the crowds gathered to listen. By the end his sermons were not long, 'Brothers, Sisters,' he would say, 'Love one another.' That's it - because when it boils down to it, what more do we need?

Jesus puts it slightly differently, but says basically the same: get your heart right, and the rest follows.

It's so incredibly simple, it's extraordinary that we've made it so complicated; and failed so dramatically again and again through history to keep this one rule that will in the end restore and reconcile everything. Perhaps we do not always have time enough for love, or strength enough, or even desire enough. Simple is not the same as easy.

I'm rather taken, though, by C.S. Lewis' route through the difficulty, which he presents in Mere Christianity:

"The rule for all of us is perfectly simple. Do not waste time bothering whether you “love” your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less."

In honour of St. John's brevity, which I'm unlikely ever to match, I'll leave it there.