The Pure Love of Christ

Something that I have wondered throughout my life is what the so common yet so important word "love" means and is. Constantly there are an interesting group of adjectives attributed to it, ranging from true and pure to dirty and sensual. With all the different connotations I wondered which one is that love spoken of that is so powerful that miricales happen by it. What love is that love illustrated in novels that will always triumph, that is the ultimate power.

With this question constantly in my mind, I learned something in Hebrew that added greatly to my understanding. In Hebrew two nouns can be connected through different construct forms (ex. the fire of heaven, house of gold). Interestingly, these construct forms leave an ambiguity. So looking at a text whose original language was greatly influenced by biblical Hebrew, Moroni 7:47 says "charity is the pure love of Christ." I always thought that this scripture meant charity is Christ's pure love. But the same sentence structure could mean that charity is pure love for Christ. That if we have charity, we purely love our Lord and Savior.

I loved this new way of thinking. It made everything simpler and explained many questions I had. I had always wondered how to correctly understand the scripture "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13) While I do not want to say that it isn't an amazing act for someone to give their life for another, there are many times that I just couldn't believe that someone had the truest love for someone, even though they would give their life for them. There are tragically spouses who while they would give their life wouldn't support their spouse in pursuing their God and religion, which in my opinion cannot be the truest love. Yet this scripture said there is no greater love than that of being willing to give your life.

This new understanding of the scripture in Moroni clears it up beautifully. The greatest kind of love may be you willing to give your own life, but the purest love is the love for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So if we are to have the purest and greatest love, we must be willing to lay down our own lives and all we have for our Savior. This is what enables us to do everything, even for someone on this earth that we love.

I have sadly learned from my past experience, that "loving" someone so much that we begin to ignore God's council will only cause pain and agony in both lives. We might be willing to give even our lives for that person, but without doing things as God wants, everything can go wrong. Love can fail. But if we have charity, the pure love for our Savior, we will do everything as He desires. And everything ends up perfectly, for charity never faileth.

I know that God never fails us, and that if we have faith, hope, and charity in Him everything will always turn out all right. And that we will truly learn how to love and to be happy. That all powerful love spoken of by so many is, in its truest form, simply a true love of God. And through that, all things are possible.