Hey!
Hello everyone! This week was pretty fun; we had a lot of
success with finding new people this week and we have been studying the
language really hard to try to get better and to show our faith that we are prepared
to find people for the Lord.
Anyway so today I want to talk about the Christlike
attribute of charity. Charity is often described as perfect love or Christlike
love. It is the willingness to sacrifice for others and have a concern for
their eternal well-being. Paul says this about the importance of charity:
"And above all these things put on charity, which is
the bond of perfectness."
Charity is the path to perfection. When we are willing to
sacrifice all to help others and to serve God, not because of fear, but because
of true love for them, we have started the pathway to perfection. In the Sermon
on the Mount, Christ commanded all of his followers to be perfect, even as he
is perfect. In 2 Peter, Peter gives a laundry list of attributes that we must
develop if we are to be fruitful unto God. The last attribute, or the highest,
was the gift of Charity. Charity is the end goal of perfection. John also
writes this of charity:
"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God;
and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not
knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward
us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might
live through him."
God is love. Christ is love. If we desire to seek to be like
them and to follow them, we must develop this attribute. Christ commanded his
disciple in John 13 to love others, he commanded the multitude to love your
enemies (Matt 5:43), and he warned the scribes to remember the two great
commandments of the law; to love god and your neighbor (Matt 22: 37-40). Anyone
who seeks to distort the fundamental necessity of love greatly misunderstands
the commandments of God. Although we are not perfect and we will never be in
this life, we must do our best to love and serve God and those around us.
In the Book of Mormon, a prophet gives a promise to those
who have charity.
If a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the
power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity;
for if he have not charity he is nothing;
wherefore he must needs have charity. And charity suffereth long, and is
kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily
provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the
truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth
all things. 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. 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.
I testify that the quest to develop perfect charity will not
be finished in this life. We will never be perfect at loving those around us or
loving our Father. But it is a commandment and it is our privilege to come unto
Christ and be perfected in him. Through his grace, we can find strength we
could never imagine, and patience that we could never dream of. The quest of
charity is the quest to be as Christ is, and no joy will be greater than the
joy we can have when we see him again, and feel his love again.
I love you all,
Elder Coleman
Side note: the peace sign is used to cover up the fat on
people's face. It’s pretty funny.
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