![]() Why is murder deemed such an especially heinous sin? Because killing a fellow human being is the ultimate desecration of God’s image (Genesis 9:6). God’s image in every person is the moral and ethical foundation for every commandment that governs how we ought to treat our fellow humans. Loving one’s neighbor is simply the natural and necessary extension of true, wholehearted love for God, because your neighbor is made in the image of God. Both commandments make that point.īut there’s another sense in which the second great commandment is just like the first. “Love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10). Jesus said all the law and the prophets hang on those two commandments, so the whole law is summed up in the principle of love. The second calls for charitable love toward one’s neighbor-a humble, sacrificial, serving love. The first calls for wholehearted love toward God-a love that consumes every human faculty. What did He mean when He said the two commandments are alike? Well, obviously, they both deal with love. “And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:38-39). “This is the first and great commandment,” He told them. All of us are imperfect, yet we all desire to be treated kindly despite our shortcomings.When some Pharisees put Jesus to the test concerning the greatest of all God’s commandments, He answered with a quotation from Deuteronomy 6:5: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” The Savior’s teaching called the Golden Rule can guide our actions: “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” ( Matthew 7:12). Life is the perfect laboratory to develop charity. It is the “more excellent way” ( 1 Corinthians 12:31) spoken of by the Apostle Paul and includes being kind, patient, humble, meek, hopeful, and generous (see 1 Corinthians 13). ![]() Charity is a spiritual gift that we can pray for and live for it is “bestowed upon all who are true followers of … Jesus Christ” ( Moroni 7:48). As we keep this truth in mind, loving all of God’s children will become easier” (“Love-the Essence of the Gospel,” Ensign, May 2014, 91).ĭeveloping charity-Christlike love for others-will improve our relationships, help us serve willingly, and fit us for eternal life (see Moroni 10:21). … We are all spirit children of our Heavenly Father and, as such, are brothers and sisters. Likewise, we cannot fully love our fellowmen if we do not love God, the Father of us all. Monson taught last general conference, keeping one commandment helps us keep the other: “We cannot truly love God if we do not love our fellow travelers on this mortal journey. “And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” ( Matthew 22:37–39).Īs President Thomas S. “This is the first and great commandment. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. ![]() Instead, He summarized all of the commandments in these two: When a lawyer asked Jesus which of the commandments was the greatest, He could have chosen any of the many commandments from the Old Testament, from the law of Moses, or from the Ten Commandments. From “Love-the Essence of the Gospel,” Ensign, May 2014, 91–94.
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