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| Source We see ourselves in terms of yesterday and today. Our Heavenly Father sees us in terms of forever. Although we might settle for less, Heavenly Father won’t, for He sees us as the glorious beings we are capable of becoming.... When Jesus gave His disciples a new commandment to “love one another; as I have loved you,” He gave to them the grand key to happiness in this life and glory in the next. Love is the greatest of all the commandments—all others hang upon it. It is our focus as followers of the living Christ. It is the one trait that, if developed, will most improve our lives. |
Brethren and sisters, I would like to ask one very important
question. What quality defines us best as members of The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints?
Today I would like to speak about the answer to this
question.
In the first century A.D., members of the growing Church in
Corinth were enthusiastic about the gospel. Almost all were recent converts to
the Church. Many were attracted to it through the preaching of the Apostle Paul
and others.
But the Saints at Corinth were also contentious. They argued
amongst themselves. Some felt superior to others. They took each other to
court.
When Paul heard this, feeling a sense of frustration, he
wrote them a letter, pleading with them to become more unified. He answered
many of the questions they had been arguing about. Then, toward the end, he
told them that he wanted to show them “a more excellent way.”1
Do you remember the words he wrote next?
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and
have not charity,” he told them, “I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling
cymbal.”2
Paul’s message to this new body of Saints was simple and
direct: Nothing you do makes much of a difference if you do not have charity.
You can speak with tongues, have the gift of prophecy, understand all
mysteries, and possess all knowledge; even if you have the faith to move
mountains, without charity it won’t profit you at all.3
“Charity is the pure love of Christ.”4 The Savior
exemplified that love and taught it even as He was tormented by those who
despised and hated Him.
On one occasion the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus by asking
Him a seemingly impossible question: “Master,” they asked, “which is the great
commandment in the law?”5
The Pharisees had debated this question extensively and had
identified more than 600 commandments.6 If prioritizing them was such a
difficult task for scholars, certainly they thought the question would be
impossible for this son of a carpenter from Galilee.
But when the Pharisees heard His answer, they must have been
troubled, for it pointed to their great weakness. He replied:
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
“This is the first and great commandment.
“And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself.
“On these two commandments hang all the law and the
prophets.”7
Since that day, this inspired pronouncement has been
repeated through many generations. Now, for us, the measure of our love is the
measure of the greatness of our souls.
The scriptures tell us that “if any man love God, the same
is known of him.”8 What a wonderful promise—to be known of Him. It makes the
spirit soar to think that the Creator of heaven and earth could know us and
love us with a pure, eternal love.
In 1840 the Prophet Joseph sent an epistle to the Twelve
wherein he taught that “love is one of the chief characteristics of Deity, and
ought to be manifested by those who aspire to be the sons of God. A man filled
with the love of God, is not content with blessing his family alone, but ranges
through the whole world, anxious to bless the whole human race.”9
As we reach out in love to those around us, we fulfill the
other half of the great commandment to “love thy neighbour as thyself.”10
Both commandments are necessary, for as we bear one
another’s burdens, we fulfill the law of Christ.11
Love is the beginning, the middle, and the end of the
pathway of discipleship. It comforts, counsels, cures, and consoles. It leads
us through valleys of darkness and through the veil of death. In the end love
leads us to the glory and grandeur of eternal life.
For me, the Prophet Joseph Smith has always exemplified the
pure love of Christ. Many asked why he gained so many followers and retained
them. His answer: “It is because I possess the principle of love.”12
The story is told of a 14-year-old boy who had come to
Nauvoo in search of his brother who lived near there. The young boy had arrived
in winter with no money and no friends. When he inquired about his brother, the
boy was taken to a large house that looked like a hotel. There he met a man who
said, “Come in, son, we’ll take care of you.”
The boy accepted and was brought into the house, where he
was fed, warmed, and was given a bed to sleep in.
The next day it was bitter cold, but in spite of that, the
boy prepared himself to walk the eight miles to where his brother was staying.
When the man of the house saw this, he told the young boy to
stay for a while. He said there would be a team coming soon and that he could
ride back with them.
When the boy protested, saying that he had no money, the man
told him not to worry about that, that they would take care of him.
Later the boy learned that the man of the house was none
other than Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet. This boy remembered this act of
charity for the rest of his life.13
In a recent message of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s Music
and the Spoken Word, a story was told about an elderly man and woman who had
been married for many decades. Because the wife was slowly losing her sight,
she could no longer take care of herself the way she had done for so many
years. Without being asked, the husband began to paint her fingernails for her.
“He knew that she could see her fingernails when she held
them close to her eyes, at just the right angle, and they made her smile. He
liked to see her happy, so he kept painting her nails for more than five years
before she passed away.”14
That is an example of the pure love of Christ. Sometimes the
greatest love is not found in the dramatic scenes that poets and writers
immortalize. Often, the greatest manifestations of love are the simple acts of
kindness and caring we extend to those we meet along the path of life.
True love lasts forever. It is eternally patient and
forgiving. It believes, hopes, and endures all things. That is the love our
Heavenly Father bears for us.
We all yearn to experience love like this. Even when we make
mistakes, we hope others will love us in spite of our shortcomings—even if we
don’t deserve it.
Oh, it is wonderful to know that our Heavenly Father loves
us—even with all our flaws! His love is such that even should we give up on
ourselves, He never will.
We see ourselves in terms of yesterday and today. Our
Heavenly Father sees us in terms of forever. Although we might settle for less,
Heavenly Father won’t, for He sees us as the glorious beings we are capable of
becoming.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of transformation. It
takes us as men and women of the earth and refines us into men and women for
the eternities.
The means of this refinement is our Christlike love. There
is no pain it cannot soften, no bitterness it cannot remove, no hatred it
cannot alter. The Greek playwright Sophocles wrote: “One word frees us of all
the weight and pain of life: That word is love.”15
The most cherished and sacred moments of our lives are those
filled with the spirit of love. The greater the measure of our love, the
greater is our joy. In the end, the development of such love is the true
measure of success in life.
Do you love the Lord?
Spend time with Him. Meditate on His words. Take His yoke
upon you. Seek to understand and obey, because “this is the love of God, that
we keep his commandments.”16 When we love the Lord, obedience ceases to be a
burden. Obedience becomes a delight. When we love the Lord, we seek less for
things that benefit us and turn our hearts toward things that will bless and uplift
others.
As our love for the Lord deepens, our minds and hearts
become purified. We experience a “mighty change in … our hearts, that we have
no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.”17
Brethren and sisters, as you prayerfully consider what you
can do to increase harmony, spirituality, and build up the kingdom of God,
consider your sacred duty to teach others to love the Lord and their fellowman.
This is the central object of our existence. Without charity—or the pure love
of Christ—whatever else we accomplish matters little. With it, all else becomes
vibrant and alive.
When we inspire and teach others to fill their hearts with
love, obedience flows from the inside out in voluntary acts of self-sacrifice
and service. Yes, those who go home teaching out of duty, for example, may
fulfill their obligation. But those who home teach out of genuine love for the
Lord and for their fellowman will likely approach that task with a very
different attitude.
Returning to my original question, What quality defines us
best as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? I would
answer: we are a people who love the Lord with all our hearts, souls, and
minds, and we love our neighbors as ourselves.
That is our signature as a people. It is like a beacon to
the world, signaling whose disciples we are.18
At the final day the Savior will not ask about the nature of
our callings. He will not inquire about our material possessions or fame. He
will ask if we ministered to the sick, gave food and drink to the hungry,
visited those in prison, or gave succor to the weak.19 When we reach out to
assist the least of Heavenly Father’s children, we do it unto Him.20 That is
the essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
If we wish to learn truly how to love, all we need to do is
reflect on the life of our Savior. When we partake of the sacramental emblems,
we are reminded of the greatest example of love in all the world’s history.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.”21
The Savior’s love for us was so great that it caused “even
God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every
pore.”22
Because the Savior laid down His life for us,23 we have a
brightness of hope, a confidence and security that when we pass from this
worldly existence, we will live again with Him. Through the Atonement of Jesus
Christ, we can be cleansed of sin and stand as partakers of the gift of our
Almighty Father. Then we will know the glory that God “hath prepared for them
that love him.”24
This is the transforming power of charity.
When Jesus gave His disciples a new commandment to “love one
another; as I have loved you,”25 He gave to them the grand key to happiness in
this life and glory in the next.
Love is the greatest of all the commandments—all others hang
upon it. It is our focus as followers of the living Christ. It is the one trait
that, if developed, will most improve our lives.
I bear testimony that God lives. His love is infinite and
eternal. It extends to all of His children. Because He loves us, He has
provided prophets and apostles to guide us in our time. He has given us the
Holy Ghost, who teaches, comforts, and inspires.
He has given us His scriptures. And I am grateful beyond
description that He has given to each of us a heart capable of experiencing the
pure love of Christ.
I pray that our hearts may be filled with that love and that
we may reach out to our Heavenly Father and to others with new vision and new
faith. I testify that as we do so, we will discover a greater richness in life.
In the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.
1. 1 Corinthians 12:31.
2. 1 Corinthians 13:1.
3. See 1 Corinthians 13:1–2.
4. Moroni 7:47.
5. Matthew 22:36.
6. See Frederic W. Farrar, The Life of Christ (Salt Lake
City: Bookcraft, 1994), 528–29.
7. Matthew 22:37–40.
8. 1 Corinthians 8:3.
9. History of the Church, 4:227.
10. Galatians 5:14.
11. See Galatians 6:2.
12. History of the Church, 5:498.
13. Mark L. McConkie, Remembering Joseph: Personal
Recollections of Those Who Knew the Prophet Joseph Smith (2003), 57.
14. “Selflessness,” Sept. 23, 2007, broadcast of Music and
the Spoken Word; available at www.musicandthespokenword.com/messages.
15. Oedipus at Colonus, in The Oedipus Cycle, trans. Dudley
Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald (New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1949),
161–62.
16. 1 John 5:3.
17. Mosiah 5:2.
18. See John 13:35.
19. See Matthew 25:31–40.
20. See Matthew 25:40.
21. John 3:16.
22. D&C 19:18.
23. See John 15:13.
24. 1 Corinthians 2:9; see also Isaiah 64:4.
25. John 13:34.
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