He Loved Them Unto the End

In the most recent general conference, Elder Bednar taught about enduring in a gospel context. The scriptures speak often about “enduring to the end,” such as in this teaching of the Savior: “Behold, I am the law, and the light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life” (3 Nephi 15:9). Nephi similarly used the phrase as he spoke of obtaining eternal life: “Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life” (2 Nephi 31:20). He also made this statement in another passage: “Wherefore, if ye shall be obedient to the commandments, and endure to the end, ye shall be saved at the last day” (1 Nephi 22:31). These three passages all affirm that to endure to the end is part of what we must do to receive eternal life and be saved. The Savior reaffirmed this principle in our day when He made this statement: “And, if you keep my commandments and endure to the end you shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 14:7). We must endure to the end to obtain eternal life. We often we think of this idea in a negative way like a runner that has to push through the pain to make it to the end of a race. As Elder Bednar described using this analogy, “In relation to physical exercise, the word endure suggests maintaining intense physical and mental effort over an extended period of time. Many of us also may associate the word endure with the unpleasant drudgery of routine work and responsibilities.” But one of the major points of his talk was that enduring in a gospel context is not the same. He taught, “Enduring to the end is not merely a relentless determination to grit our teeth, hold on to the limits of our physical strength and mental capacity, and push through the challenges and adversities of mortal life; it is so much more than that. Enduring to the end is the joyous quest of a lifetime—a pressing forward with faith in Jesus Christ in a gradual process of trusting in and receiving help from our Savior to become more like Him.”   

               Elder Bednar also taught that there is a link between enduring to the end and developing charity. He said, “Significantly, the word endure is used in the scriptures to define and describe charity. For example, ‘charity … endureth forever,’ ‘suffereth long, … seeketh not her own, … beareth all things, … endureth all things.’ And, as you sisters know well, ‘charity never faileth.’” He suggested that to endure to the end is connected with possessing the pure love of Christ: “I am now going to read three scriptures that contain the phrase ‘endure to the end.’ I will insert the phrase ‘is possessed of the pure love of Christ’ in each verse so we can learn a vital and eternal lesson. The Savior taught His ancient Apostles: ‘He that endureth to the end [or is possessed of the pure love of Christ] shall be saved.’ Nephi testified: ‘I heard a voice from the Father, saying: Yea, the words of my Beloved are true and faithful. He that endureth to the end [or is possessed of the pure love of Christ], the same shall be saved.’ Alma declared: ‘He that findeth mercy and endureth to the end [or is possessed of the pure love of Christ] the same shall be saved.’ Enduring to the end is linked inextricably to the spiritual gift of charity.” I don’t know that I had ever thought that to endure to the end is to develop the pure love of Christ. But Mormon connected them when he taught that the “Comforter filleth with hope and perfect love, which love endureth by diligence unto prayer, until the end shall come, when all the saints shall dwell with God” (Moroni 8:26). It is love that endures through our diligence, and so we might say that the purpose of enduring is the develop and maintain and sustain the love of Christ in our hearts. It is interesting that these two ideas were also connected in describing the Savior at the end of His mortal life: “Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end” (John 13:1). He stayed faithful to the end in that He continued to love His disciples—and all of us—perfectly through the end. It was that love that enabled Him to endure Gethsemane and the cross for each of us. He showed that the pure love of Christ indeed endureth forever. So as we think about the idea of enduring in the gospel, we need not grit our teeth and prepare suffer through a difficult life but rather focus on continuing to love as He did to the end.