Of all God's commandments, which one do you consider to
be the greatest? Jesus Christ taught the
Pharisees about this great commandment by asking them some questions in answer
to one of their questions.
One of the Pharisees, a lawyer tried to trick the
Savior by asking, "Master, which is
the great commandment in the law?
"Jesus
said unto him, 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" (Matthew 22:39).
The two greatest things we can do in time or
eternity are: 1) Love the Lord and 2) Love our
neighbor. Why would the Lord consider these two laws as
the greatest commandments? All the
commandments of God can be summarized into these two commandments! If we love the Lord and love our neighbor, then
every other commandment becomes easier to obey.
Why is it important for us to love our neighbor
in order to truly love the Lord? The
Apostle John answered our question with these words: "If
a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he
hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
"And
this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother
also" (1 John 4:20-21).
In this scripture John explained that in order
to truly love the Father, we must also love His children. I learned this lesson in past years after a
dear friend died, leaving four children.
Her husband eventually married again, but his second marriage ended in
divorce. It seems that his second wife
did not understand: In order to truly love
the father, she must also love his children.
Other spiritual leaders have taught the
importance of loving each other. After
explaining the characteristics of charity, Mormon, an ancient American prophet,
wrote: "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are
nothing, for charity never faileth.
Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all
things must fail -
"But
charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found
possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him" (Book of
Mormon - Another Testament of Jesus Christ, Moroni
According to Mormon, charity is far more than
simply giving handouts to needy people.
It is more than giving used clothing to the Salvation Army. It is more than working in soup
kitchens. Mormon said that "charity
is the pure love of Christ." When
we stand before God to be judged, He will want some evidence that we loved as
He does! The most important task for us
in this life is to develop charity. How
do we complete this task?
There are three answers to this puzzle, and these
answers are found in the scriptures. The
following scriptures teach us that we can develop charity by following the
example of Jesus Christ.
When
Jesus visited the inhabitants of the Americas
"For
I perceive that ye desire that I should show unto you what I have done unto
your brethren at Jerusalem, for I see that your faith is sufficient that I
should heal you.
"And
it came to pass that when he had thus spoken, all the multitude, with one
accord, did go forth with their sick and their afflicted, and their lame, and
with their blind, and with their dumb, and with all them that were afflicted in
any manner; and he did heal them every one as they were brought forth unto
him" (Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi
17:7-9).
When the Savior had finished healing all those
with afflictions, He called for the little children to be brought to Him. The little children were brought forward and
"set down upon the ground round about him." Jesus asked the multitude to kneel and then
prayed to the Father. His prayer was
described as follows: "The eye hath never seen, neither hath the
ear heard, before, so great and marvelous things as we saw and heard Jesus
speak unto the Father;
"And
no tongue can speak, neither can there be written by any man, neither can the
hearts of men conceive so great and marvelous things as we both saw and heard
Jesus speak; and no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the
time we heard him pray for us unto the Father" (3 Nephi 17:16-17).
Joy filled the souls of the people present: "so
great was the joy of the multitude that they were overcome.
"And
it came to pass that Jesus spake unto them, and bade them arise.
"And
they arose from the earth, and he said unto them: Blessed are ye because of your faith. And now behold, my joy is full.
"And
when he had said these words, he wept, and the multitude bear record of it, and
he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto
the Father for them."
After the Savior had ceased praying for the little
children, angels descended from heaven, encircled the little ones, and
ministered to them. Their glory was so
bright that it looked to the people like their little children were
"encircled with fire" (3 Nephi 17:18-24).
The New
Testament also contains accounts of the Savior blessing the people. The Savior sent the Twelve Apostles out to
teach His gospel and to minister to the people.
When the Apostles returned, the Savior wanted them to rest and regain
their strength. "And they departed into a desert place by ship privately" (Mark
6:32). The people followed them, and
Christ "was moved with compassion
toward them" (Mark 6:34).
Christ's disciples wanted Him to send the people away so they could buy some bread, but
the Savior told them to feed the people.
The disciples wondered if they should go into a nearby village and buy
bread for the multitude.
"He
saith unto them, How many loaves have ye?
Go and see. And when they knew,
they say, Five, and two fishes.
"And
he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass.
"And
they sat down in ranks, by hundreds and by fifties.
"And
when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven,
and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before
them; and the two fishes divided he among them all.
"And
they did all eat, and were filled.
"And
they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes.
"And
they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men" (Mark 7:30-44).
Another example in the New Testament of Christ's compassion is found in John
19:25-27: "Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his
mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.
"When
Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he
saith unto his mother, Woman, behold they son!
"Then
saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother!
And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home."
We can follow the example of Jesus Christ and show compassion,
kindness, and mercy to other people. We
may not have the power to work miracles as Jesus did, but we can become
instruments in His hands in order for Him to bless others.
We can develop charity by giving service to
others. When the Savior was teaching the
commandment to love our neighbor, a man asked Him, "Who is my
neighbour?" The Savior answered his
question by telling a parable or a story intended to teach a lesson.
"And
Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and
fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed,
leaving him half dead.
"And
by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the
other side.
"And
likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed
by on the other side.
"But
a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him he had compassion on him,
"And
went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on
his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
"And
on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the
host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more,
when I come again, I will repay thee.
"Which
now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the
thieves?
"And
he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou
likewise" (Luke 10:30-37).
Since all people are our "neighbors",
we should be willing to be merciful, compassionate, and kind to all
people. By following the example of the
Savior in giving service to others, we can develop charity. The following story illustrates how we can
apply the Savior's teachings in our day.
"Snow fell lightly on the cold, bitter
Canadian landscape. Overhead a dome of
gray, lifeless clouds blended with the bare aspens on the ground, painting a
gloomy picture. I gazed listlessly out
the window of our [pickup truck]. The
scene outside matched my own downcast spirits.
My companion, Elder Hancock, was humming `Joy to the World' to himself,
half smiling and lightly tapping his fingers on the rim of the steering
wheel. Christmas, my first one away from
home, was in three days. I'd always
enjoyed the same sort of traditional Christmas each year at home. But that was behind me now and far away like
my family. I wanted this Christmas to be
the same but knew inside that it wouldn't be….
"… Our apartment was bare of any sign of
Christmas. We didn't even have time to
put up a tree. At first we had agreed to
spend the entire Christmas day in active missionary work, but Elder Hancock
soon sensed my lack of enthusiasm and arranged for us to have dinner with some
members that night.
"`Elder,' he said as we drove into town,
`what you need more than a turkey dinner is a little TPLOC in your life.' He grinned to himself as if he'd just made a
very witty remark. I stared out the
window, pretending to ignore him. I
always wondered how he stayed so cheerful.
Trying to teach me the discussions, along with keeping track of the area
we'd opened up, must have been hard on him; yet I never heard him complain or
get despondent. Oh well, I did enough of
that for both of us. I wondered what he
meant by TPLOC. Probably some new
missionary term no one had bothered to tell me about."
"We pulled off onto a wide street in the
older part of town, parked our truck, and began tracting. The boardwalks raised above the frozen earth
snapped in protest as we stepped on them.
Houses on this street were rundown, unpainted, and inanimate. … Several houses were empty. At the first corner we encountered a small
shack that, in comparison, made the other houses on the street look good.
"The house hid all signs of ever having been
painted. There were no power outlets
attached; here we would find no electricity.
My companion knocked on the door…..
Small timid footsteps started at the back of the house and worked
forward toward the door. It creaked
open, and I beheld a living museum piece.
"The woman stood four-and-a-half feet
tall. Her face was full of wrinkles, so
much so that it was only with effort I could make out two piercing, coal-black
eyes peeking out of the crevasses. She
invited us in. As I suspected, her home
was also threadbare on the inside, yet it was spotless.
"Her name was Mrs. Ivar, and she was a
98-year-old immigrant from Poland
"The next day we finished our preparations
for Christmas. We had asked the Relief
Society to bake us some cakes to take out to investigators. They responded in numbers, and soon our small
apartment was lined with assorted cakes.
One sister brought us three. She
said she wanted to bake one for us, but reasoned that if she baked two we'd
give them both away, so she had baked three.
I smiled at that but couldn't help thinking how bare our place looked
without a tree.
"Christmas came swiftly, on a bright clear
day. My stomach tied itself in knots at
the thought of barging into investigators' homes on Christmas day. If Elder Hancock was nervous, he hid it
well. It took us most of the day to
deliver our cakes. People were glad to
see us, all of them, even one man who had thrown us out earlier. By dusk we had only one cake left, the cake
that was ours, and our dinner was in half an hour. As we climbed in the truck I had visions of
hot turkey and stuffing drenched in cranberries. Elder Hancock paused to look at something as
he slid in. I looked and saw nothing -
except that old row of houses we had tracted out earlier. They were leaning at crazy angles, Mrs.
Ivar's being the worst.
"`That's whose house he's looking at,' I
thought to myself. I knew my companion
too well. `He wants us to miss our
dinner appointment and give our last cake to that old lady.' He turned and saw me eyeing the house,
too. His eyes met mine, and he waited;
he knew me pretty well also. This would
be my decision.
"I thought of the member's home where we
were expected - warm, inviting, full of life.
It wasn't our fault that none of the old woman's kids could make it back
home. She wasn't even good for a
discussion, so why bother?
"I shifted my weight and thought of
home. My sister would be back from
school, and my brother would be there with his family. But what if, for some reason, none of us could
make it? What if that were my mother all
alone on Christmas? A lump as large as a
grapefruit grew in my throat.
"I glanced at Elder Hancock and said, `I
never did go for cake much.'
"He grinned.
We stopped to phone our excuses to the member family and then sped over
to spend the rest of the day in the company of a great lady. She told us stories of her homeland and her
Christmases as a girl…. Before we left,
Mrs. Ivar had a new pile of wood for her stove and a half-eaten cake for her
pantry.
"On the way back to our apartment I tried to
tell Elder Hancock how I felt, but the words just wouldn't come. The phone was ringing as we stepped in, Elder
Hancock answered it while I put on some hot chocolate.
"`Guess what?' he announced, after a brief
discussion. `I've been transferred.'
"I didn't know what to say, there was so
much. Finally I blurted, `Well, before
you go there's one thing I want to know.
What does TPLOC stand for?'
"`It stands for what you caught a feeling of
today, Elder Johnson. TPLOC stands for
"The Pure Love of Christ." And
it tastes much better than a turkey dinner.'
With that he began to pack." (See Kelly Johnson, "The Secret
of TPLOC," New Era, Aug. 1979,
40-42.)
Elder Johnson learned a very important lesson, a
lesson that applies to all of us. This
lesson is: As we help other people, our
love for them grows. We develop charity
or the true love of Christ by serving others.
The prophet Mormon wrote about another way to
develop charity. He wrote, "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, 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; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we
may be purified even as he is pure.
Amen" (Book of Mormon,
Moroni
Prayer is important to our efforts to develop
charity because we need Heavenly Father's help in order to have this kind of
love. If we sincerely ask for His blessing
and try hard to follow the example of the Savior, the Father will fill us with
charity.
I am grateful to know of the love that Heavenly
Father and Jesus Christ have for me and for all mankind. I know that we can feel true joy when we have
charity for others. I know that we can develop
love for our neighbors by following Jesus Christ's example, giving service, and
praying to be filled with "the pure love of Christ" (Moroni
