Benjamin David Nelson: April 2012

Charity and love.

How important are these attributes of Christ? Well, we always hear our leaders and teachers tell us that obedience is the first and great commandment. And I've always believed that, of course. But I will admit that I was a little confused a few months back when I read in Matthew 22:37-38, which says:

37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment.

Now--I wasn't confused to the point where I threw up my hands and said, "The Gospel isn't true!!" No, not that kind of confusion. But I was confused as in I absolutely did NOT understand this simple concept. Being the prideful missionary that I often was, I thought, "Oh. So obedience really isn't the first and great commandment. It's charity and love for God."

Luckily enough, Los Vilos--my last area--didn't have a Gospel Principles teacher, and so I had the chance to teach a lot of classes. Which also meant that I learned a lot as I prepared those classes. And on one Sunday I was asked to teach a class on obedience. And while preparing for that lesson, I came across another scripture that we have all read over and over again. That scripture is John 14:15, which says:

15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

It finally hit me. The first and great commandment is to love God and Christ, but Christ taught that if we did indeed love him, we would keep (or obey) His commandments. And so I finally realized that this first and great commandment of loving God could also be read as, "Thou shalt be obedient and keep My commandments with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment."

Now, what is the second great commandment? After explaining that obedience is the first and great commandment in Matthew 22, Christ goes on to teach us:

39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

The second great commandment is to love the rest of God's children. Simple enough, right? Well...not exactly. It's definitely a lengthy process. And perhaps even a process that reminds me of the pride cycle a little bit. I'll do my best to explain:

As a young missionary, I remember having this great excitement for the work. I loved every single person that I crossed paths with. This was especially easy as a young, new missionary because I had no idea what people were telling us because my Spanish was FAR from great. And so I would just look and people, and I would think, "Man...I don't know this person, but I love them so much."

I was a bit surprised, though, as time went on. I could finally understand Spanish. I felt like I was a better missionary now because the language was no longer an issue. But I felt so weird and empty. I noticed it many times during my mission, but I would just kind of ignore it. And it wasn't until I was in the last few weeks of my mission when it finally hit me: I just didn't have that love and charity for the people like I did at the beginning of my mission. Mostly because I had been rejected so many times that--over time--I just stopped looking at people and thinking, "I love this person." I am grateful, though, that I repented and prayed to have that charity and love for those people. And I am happy it lasted the rest of my mission.

Now, being home, it's been the same story. I remember coming home and just loving everyone--my family, my friends, complete strangers, etc. But I stopped praying and developing that charity and love over time, and once again--like the pride cycle--I lost it. I felt weird and empty again. And then a few weeks ago...It hit me again! I was being prideful and selfish. I wasn't developing charity and love. But once again...I have been trying my best to improve that in my life, and it has worked wonders. :)