Love One Another as He Has Loved Us

Love is a combination of actions as well as deep feelings.

Sending a text message with a funny emoji is good … but many of us should put down our mobile devices and serve with or hands and feet.

Love without service is like faith without works – it’s dead.

The Savior’s disciples were given a new commandment to do something more, something greater, and something more divine. This new commandment and invitation is summarized in the key phrase “as I have loved you.”

“Love is a feeling of deep devotion, concern, and affection. The greatest example of God’s love for His children is found in the infinite Atonement of Jesus Christ.” “For God so loved the world,” John recorded, “that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” “Love for God and fellowmen is a characteristic of disciples of Jesus Christ.”

In today’s world of so much suffering because of different circumstances, sending a text message with a funny emoji or posting a nice picture with the words “I love you” is good and valuable. But what many of us need to do is leave our mobile devices behind and, with our hands and feet, help others in great need. Love without service is like faith without works; it’s dead indeed.

Faith and love are connected in a way comparable to electricity and magnetism – that is why both remain dead without action.

On the way home, my grief-stricken wife and I looked at each other and started talking about the boy who was driving the car. We didn’t know him, even though he lived just one street over and was within our ward boundaries.

That they didn’t know him despite living so close indicates a social brokenness on one or both sides of the relationship.

I know that our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, love us and are willing to help us to act as we love one another as They have loved us. And I know that by serving and forgiving others with real love, we can be healed and receive the strength to overcome our own challenges. And I so declare in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.