Now, if I could leave one small message with you today, it would be this: the Lord has said, “Love one another; as I have loved you.”What kind of love is that? How much is it? Is it even possible for one human being to love another that much or in that way? I suppose it must be, since we've been commanded to do it, but we've also been commanded to be perfect, and I don't see that happening any time soon. Maybe we can learn to love people in the same way and to the same extent that Jesus loves us, but I doubt it for two reasons: first, I'm not fully sure humans can produce love of that kind or quality, and second, I have no idea what kind or quality of love that must be.
Tomorrow, I'd like to look into the love of Christ, to try to find out how and how much He loves us. I'm pretty sure His love for us is infinite, but what does that mean exactly? How is His love defined and expressed? Once I find out the answers to those questions, I'll be in a better position to answer the question of whether or not it's possible for us to love others that much or in that way.
In the meantime, The purpose of my message right now is to remind us all that we should probably love our neighbors more than we do, or at least more purely than we do. Elder Rasband went on to say that nothing we do can affect the Lord's love for us. That may be a good place to start. Learning how to love others, even if you don't love their behavior, will help us develop a kind of love that's more like the kind of love Jesus has for us. Hopefully, tomorrow, I'll be able to figure out something about exactly what kind of love that is.
1 comment:
As Christ loves us perfectly, it does seem like a pretty tall order to love one another as he does, that is perfectly. But we can start with just learning to love everyone, even though it is imperfectly. Christ suffered horribly to save us. I hope that I would have the courage to sacrifice myself and suffer to save my children. To be willing to suffer for strangers or people I personally don't like would be noble, but I am not sure that I am that noble. However we can learn to be more compassionate. When someone does things that we don't like, we can remember that they are children of God, have their own struggles, and we don't know their heart and mind. We can, at least, learn not to be hateful, resentful, or vengeful. Sometimes that is struggle enough, but I think it's a step.
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