The Mandate to Love

This evening we watched T.C. Christensen’s movie The Fighting Preacher, the true story about Willard and Rebecca Bean and his wife.  The main message of the film is that love, more than anything else, is the best way to fight back against prejudice and hate, that service and kindness will soften hearts more than toughness and strength.  In my mind that is one of the great messages of the Restoration, that we are to love one another as brothers and sisters and children of God, even if they hate and persecute us. Though as members of the Church we certainly have and will fall short of the ideal of loving like the Savior did, I am grateful that a message of love has always been emphasized and preached.  Joseph Smith taught, “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.”  He taught this not just by word but by deed in countless ways, most importantly in giving up his life out of love for his people.  And even in those final hours in Carthage, he spent his time preaching the word of God and bearing witness of the Book of Mormon to the guard there.  It was that love anxious to bless all of God’s children that motivated him: “It is a duty which every Saint ought to render to his brethren freely—to always love them, and ever succor them. To be justified before God we must love one another: we must overcome evil; we must visit the fatherless and the widow in their affliction, and we must keep ourselves unspotted from the world; for such virtues flow from the great fountain of pure religion.”

               All the scriptures of the Restoration clearly teach the central place of love in the gospel.  In the Book of Mormon, the prophet Mormon described the characteristics of charity and boldly declared, “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth.”  Without love we are nothing and we must “pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ” (Moroni 7:46-48).   In the Doctrine and Covenants we are invited: “See that ye love one another; cease to be covetous; learn to impart one to another as the gospel requires.”  Another revelation exhorts us, “Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men.”  Love, according to the revelations of Joseph Smith, is a critical requirement for participating in the work of the Lord: “And no one can assist in this work except he shall be humble and full of love, having faith, hope, and charity.”  The Lord invited us, “Above all things, clothe yourselves with the bond of charity, as with a mantle, which is the bond of perfectness and peace” (Doctrine and Covenants 12:8, 88:123-125, 121:45).  In the Pearl of Great Price we see that the Lord wept because of the lack of love among His children, saying, “And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood” (Moses 7:33).  From the very beginning, the Lord’s command to his children was to love one another, and He weeps when we disobey that. 

               In our day the emphasis on love in the gospel is the same.  The prophet in the most recent general conference gave a talk on the second great commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves.  He described, “Latter-day Saints, as with other followers of Jesus Christ, are always looking for ways to help, to lift, and to love others. They who are willing to be called the Lord’s people ‘are willing to bear one another’s burdens, … to mourn with those that mourn; … and [to] comfort those that stand in need of comfort.’”  To love our neighbors, to serve and help and bless, to be filled with the pure of Christ, that is the mandate for all of us who seek to follow the light of the Restoration.