Brigham Young - Journal of Discourses

This quote came from a discourse regarding the frequent attacks by various Indian tribes on the saints in Utah:

"Do you suppose you will ever see the time you would . . . live at peace with each other, and have the Spirit of the Lord enough to look each other in the face, and say, with a heart full of kindness, 'Good morning Mary,' or 'How do you do Maria?' You will be whipped until you have the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ sufficiently to love your brethren and sisters freely, men, women and children; until you can live at peace with yourselves, and with every family around you; until you can treat every child as though it were the tender offspring of your own body, every man as your brother, and every woman as your sister; and until the young persons treat the old with that respect due to parents, and all learn to shake hands, with a warm heart, and a friendly grip, and say, 'God bless you,' from morning till evening; until each person can say, 'I love you all, I have no evil in my heart to any individual, I can send my children to school with yours, and can correct your children when they do wrong, as though they were my own, and I am willing you should correct mine, and let us live together until we are a holy and sanctified society.'

There will always be Indians or somebody else to chastise you, until you come to that spot; so amen to the present Indian trouble, for it is all right. I am just as willing the rebellious of this people should be kicked, and cuffed, and mobbed, and hunted by the Indians, as not, for I have preached to them until I am tired."

Thoughts on Love (Charity)

In Matthew 22: 36, a lawyer asks the Savior "which is the great commandment," to which Christ responds in verses 37-38, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart . . . This is the first and great commandment." That simple answer would probably have been enough to silence the man and to have made a strong spiritual point. So why did Jesus continue in verse 39 with "And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself?"

Christ clearly indicates in his answer that loving one's neighbor is "second" in order of importance, yet He also clearly states that it is "like unto" the first. In other words, loving one's neighbor is the second commandment, but it is just as important as the first commandment to love God.

A similar teaching is found in Luke, chapter 10. Only in this account the lawyer continues with an additional question in verse 29: "Who is my neighbor?" To this question the Lord gives the parable of the good Samaritan, which teaches that even our enemies are (or should be) our "neighbors."

I don't think this is stretching because in the Sermon on the Mount we are plainly commanded: "Love your enemies." We are instructed to "bless them," "do good to them," and "pray for them." We are told to forgive them, or we won't be forgiven.

If "life eternal" is "that [we] might know . . . the only true God (John 17:3)," and "god is love (1 John 4:8)," then it only seems logical that "whosoever is [even] angry with his brother shall be in danger of his judgment (3 Nephi 12:22)."

I know it's not easy to love like Heavenly Father and Christ, but I know that I need to be trying harder.