"As I Have Loved You"

In his General Conference talk, Elder Holland spoke, as President Nelson said he would, of Ministering. He started by explaining a few of the details and telling us where further information could be found. He then reminded us that this new method of Ministering is similar in its simplicity to the "new commandment" Jesus gave His disciples:

As He prepared to leave His still-innocent and somewhat-confused little band of followers, He did not list a dozen administrative steps they had to take or hand them a fistful of reports to be filled out in triplicate. No, He summarized their task in one fundamental commandment: “Love one another; as I have loved you. … By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

There's a phrase (or, technically, a clause) in there that I want to highlight, and since you read the title of this blog post, you already know which. Jesus' command to His disciples to "Love one another; as I have loved you" at once tells us how simple and yet how complex discipleship is or can be. Loving one another is simple enough as a concept, but the concept gets tricky when we think about what it actually means, practically.

Jesus Christ loved people in many ways. He loved them by teaching them, serving them, forgiving them, chastising them, driving them out, and welcoming them in. Everything Christ did was an example of His love for everyone whose lives He touched. Everything Christ did is an example of one of the countless ways to express love. So, how do we Minister? By doing, as directed by the Spirit, just about anything Jesus ever did, or perhaps something else entirely.

Jesus did not have access to the Internet. Through it, we can send people kind thoughts and heartwarming messages.  Basically, we can use the internet to do the sorts of things Jesus might have done with the Internet, if He had had access to it. This can help make our Ministering even easier and more convenient than ever before.

As always, the main root of the matter is love. However we do it, we should show love for those to whom we have been asked to Minister. That love can be shown in any of the many ways Jesus showed love or in any other way we can think of, as prompted by the Spirit.

Unlike Home and Visiting Teaching, Ministering isn't a single, specific type of action. Rather, Ministering can take the form of nearly any action, so long as that action is motivated by love.