Dad's talk on Charity at Stake Conference 2012

Stake conference Fall 2012 Sunday General Session (Pres Wall). 

Topic:  Charity

Brothers and Sisters what is the greatest thing in the world?  What is the noblest object of desire, the supreme gift to covet.  You have life before you.  You can live it only once. What a pity it would be if you were to spend your entire life’s energy and resource in pursuit of an inferior prize.   

We can find the answer to this important question in the 13^th chapter of the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthian saints.  There we read:

The greatest thing in the world is Love.

Does this make sense?   Really, the greatest thing in the world, Love? 

Paul defends his thesis by contrasting Love directly with some other well known things that we know to be great.

-    The faith sufficient to move mountains

-    The giving of ones goods to the poor and the needy

-    The possessing all knowledge 

All great things, but if we have these things and have not Love, Paul instructs, we are nothing.  If we have these things and have not Love, it profiteth us nothing.  

Yes, the greatest thing in the world is love.   God is love.  And whoso is found possessed of it at the last day it shall be well with him.

We learn from Christ that the greatest commandments are to Love God and to Love Man.  On these two commandments, he teaches, hang all the law and the prophets.   Why……..?  Because if we truly love then our outward actions will reflect that inner love.  We will of a natural consequence obey all God’s other commandments.

And by this, the Savior affirms, and not by any other attribute, shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.  

Paul teaches that Love, or Charity the Pure love of Christ, is actually a compound thing, it is made up of various parts or elements.  

In describing these elements I have borrowed several thoughts and ideas from a well known Evangelist of the 19^th century named Henry Drummond.  

When you pass a beam of white light through a crystal prism you get a spectrum of light, all the component colors of the rainbow, red, blue, yellow, violet, and orange.   By analogy you can pass Love through a prism of Paul’s teachings and extract the spectrum of Love.  

Within this spectrum we can observe what its elements are.  They have common names, virtues which we hear about every day.

The Spectrum of Love has nine ingredients:

Patience . . . . . . “Love suffereth long.”

Kindness . . . . . . “And is kind.”

Generosity . . . . “Love envieth not.”

Humility . . . . . . “Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up.”

Courtesy . . . . . . “Doth not behave itself unseemly.”

Unselfishness . . “Seeketh not her own.”

Good Temper . . “Is not easily provoked.”

Guilelessness . . “Thinketh no evil.”

Sincerity . . . . . . “Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.”

Patience; kindness; generosity; humility; courtesy; unselfishness; good temper; guilelessness; sincerity:   Do these virtues not sound familiar?  Each one with its particular intrinsic Divine nature.   This is the spectrum of Love, together all these make up the supreme gift, the pure love of Christ.

Briefly let’s take a tiny look at each one.   Just to see how we’re doing.

Love is Patience. This is the normal attitude of Love; Love passive, Love

waiting to begin; not in a hurry; calm; ready to do its work when the summons comes, but meantime wearing a meek and quiet spirit. Love suffers long; beareth all things; For Love understands, and therefore waits.

Love is Kindness.  Unlike Patience, this is Love active. Have you ever noticed how much of Christ’s life was spent in doing kind things—in merely doing kind things?  He spent a great proportion of His time simply in making people happy.   Therefore we also, as His disciples have the call to do likewise.  To be kind and loving, without distinction, to everyone we meet.  “I shall pass through this world but once. Any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

Love is Generosity. “Love envieth not” This is Love in competition with others. Whenever you attempt a good work you will find others doing the same kind of work, and probably doing it better. Envy them not. Envy is a feeling of ill-will to those who are in the same line as yourself, a spirit of covetousness. Even Christian work, our home teaching and visiting teaching, paying our tithes, doing our callings, and helping the poor, even this is not a protection against un-Christian feeling.  Do your work without envy.  

Love is Humility. “Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up”.  Put a seal upon your lips and forget what you have done.  After Love has gone forth, from your hand, into the world and done its beautiful work, let it go back into the shade again and say nothing about it. Love hides even from itself. Love waives even self-satisfaction. Love vaunteth not itself is not puffed up.

Love is Courtesy.   “Love does not behave itself unseemly”.  This is Love in society, Love in relation to etiquette and politeness.   You can put the most untutored person into the highest society, and if they have a reservoir of love in their heart, they will not behave themselves unseemly. They simply cannot do it. You know the meaning of the word “gentleman.” It means a gentle man—a man who does things gently, with love. And that is the whole art and mystery of it. The gentleman cannot in the nature of things do an ungentle, or an ungentlemanly thing.  Brethren and Sisters let us be Gentle men and Gentle women as me move in our societies because we know that  “Love doth not behave itself unseemly.” 

Love is Unselfishness. “Love seeketh not her own.”  It is one thing, after we have sought things, bought them, won them, earned them, deserved them, to unselfishly give up what is our own, but consider more closely Paul’s pure definition of unselfishness, Love seeketh not her own.  Love does not even seek them in the first place.   Love strikes much deeper. Love would have us not seek them at all, ignore them, eliminate the personal element altogether from our calculations.  Truly, it is more blessed to give than to receive.  Love seeketh not her own.  

Love is Good Temper. “Love is not easily provoked.”  This is a test for Love.  Good temper is a pure test for the possession of Love within.   Bad temper, by contrast, is a revelation of an unloving nature hidden deep within; the occasional bubble escaping to the surface, when off one’s guard, which betrays some rottenness underneath.   Not passing the test of Love, shows a want of patience. Not passing the test of Love shows a want of kindness, of generosity, of courtesy, of unselfishness, all are instantaneously symbolized in one flash of Temper.  If we are having trouble with bad temper, then we need to look to the source of the problem, some aspect of Love that we need to correct deep inside.  Let’s not cover it up.  Remember, we have been taught in the Book of Mormon that the inner vessel shall be cleans first and then shall the outer vessel be cleans also. There is really no place in Heaven for a man or woman with a bad temper.  A man with such a mood could only make Heaven miserable for all the people in it.  To enter Heaven a man must take it with him.

Love is Guilelessness.  “thinketh no evil”.   It is a wonderful thing that here and there in this hard, uncharitable world there should still be left a few rare souls who think no evil. This is the great unworldliness. Love “thinketh no evil,” imputes no motive, sees the bright side, puts the best construction on every action. What a delightful state of mind to live in! What a stimulus and benediction even to meet with it for a single day!

Love is Sincerity.  “Love rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.”  He who loves will love Truth.  He will rejoice in the Truth.  He will accept only what is real; he will strive to get at facts; he will search for Truth with a humble and unbiased mind, and cherish whatever he finds at any sacrifice.  The apostle Paul teaches quench not the spirit, despise not Prophesyings, prove all things, hold fast that which is good.

There you have it, the spectrum of Love.   Patience; kindness; generosity; humility; courtesy; unselfishness; good temper; guilelessness; sincerity. 

Now the business of our lives is to have these things fitted into our characters. That is the supreme work to which we need to address ourselves in this world, to learn Love. Is life not full of opportunities for learning Love? Every man and woman every day has a thousand of them.

Brothers and Sisters, I think at the judgment day, when we stand before the Lord, the test of a man then is not, "How have I believed?" but rather "How have I loved?"   

And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:  And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.  Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:  For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:  Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.  Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?  When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?   Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?  And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, and I take the liberty to change this a bit for our discussion today, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have loved one of these ye have loved me.

For the withholding of love is the negation of the spirit of Christ, the proof that we never knew Him, that for us He lived and died in vain.   Let this not be the case with us.  

Love is the weightier matter.   To pay our tithes and offerings is good, but to love is weightier.   Attending sacrament meeting is good, but to love is weightier.   Helping out at church is good, but to love is weightier.  In the words of Christ from the book of Matthew, these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.   For if you do all these things and have not love, it profiteth you nothing.  

Love is the greatest thing in the world, the noblest object of desire, the supreme gift to covet.   May we take advantage of our opportunities now to grow this love within us, to learn Love, that when he comes, we may be like him, I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.