He Loved Unto the End

As he described the last week of the Savior's life, John told us that Christ "loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end" (John 13:1).  We typically don't think about love in the context of perseverance or enduring.  The world would portray love as a feeling that comes and goes without great effort on our part.  Christ showed it was an action that needed to be continually performed until the very end.  Surely His life portrayed this, particularly in the great love manifested towards His mother while in agonizing pain on the cross. Just moments before His own death He acted on the love He had for His mother to ensure she would be cared for.  John must have been thinking of this moment when he wrote that Christ loved unto the end.  Mormon likewise taught the principle that love needs perseverance as he spoke of "perfect love, which love endureth by diligence unto prayer" (Mormon 8:26).  If there is a prophet that persevered in love, surely it was Mormon.  He lived among the most wicked generation of Nephites, those who did "curse God, and wish to die," and yet he described his life this way, "I had loved them, according to the love of God which was in me, with all my heart" (Mormon 2:14, 3:12).  Despite living in a time of unparalleled hatred among his people, he left us one of the greatest sermons on love, testifying that "charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever" (Moroni 7:47).  He could not be stripped of his love and belief in its power despite the great control of evil he saw around him.  The bitter world could not make him bitter, and he left as his last testimony a heartfelt plea in love to the descendants of the Lamanites who were trying to kill him, hoping that "God may give unto them my words" (Mormon 7:1).  John's description of the Savior would certainly fit Mormon as well: "He loved them unto the end."