ROK SOLID

God Is Love

In his first epistle fourth chapter the apostle known as John the beloved wrote the following:

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. . .

And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

There is no fear in love; but perfect clove casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

We love him, because he first loved us.

And in John’s gospel we see an oft quoted scripture, John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

A companion verse that is found in the Doctrine and Covenants, a book of scripture that is a part of the Standard Works of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is the words of the Savior Himself, says:

I, the Lord God, shall say unto you, even Jesus Christ your Redeemer;

The light and the life of the world, a light which shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not;

Who so loved the world that he gave his own life, that as many as would believe might become the sons of God. (Doctrine and Covenants 34:1-2)

It has been a fascination to me how these verses all tie themselves together and help us to understand better the character of God. What does the phrase God is love really mean. We live in a world that at times seems bereft of love.

We see nation fighting against nation for power, possession, contempt and hate. We see families broken because of infidelity, betrayal and sometimes just the loss of love. We hear of those who end the life of an unborn living fetus for what seems to be selfish reasons. We see various factions of our society attacking one another in word, in deeds, in unjustified brutality and in mindless contempt. We see the abandonment of the commandments given us of God because “they are no longer necessary or relevant in this world.” We see children abandon their parents and parents abandon their children for inexplicable reasons. We see abuse of those who should be loved and cared for at all costs. It is as though we live in time when many are past feeling, they feel no love or compassion and their very natures portray the antithesis of love which comes in the cloak of selfishness, contempt, pride, lust and many other destructive behavioral garments of this time in which we live.

As we consider the phrase “God is love” it seems the word most critical in that phrase appears to be “is.” The word “is” appropriately has been defined as “to be” or what someone does or says by their very nature, that which requires no reasoning but happens by natural response. As we apply this definition to the Savior it may help us better understand His atonement which was performed on every living soul's behalf and as we strive to apply those character traits to ourselves it may be instructive in helping us make needful changes in our own lives.

The question I have asked many times has come after considering His treatment by the Roman soldiers. After His night in Gethsemane, being shuffled through the city of Jerusalem which comprised walking several miles, these soldiers mocked Him, scourged Him to a point that a lesser man would have perished, pressed the crown of thorns on His head causing even more bleeding as if the scourging wasn’t enough. They then made Him carry His own cross up the hill to Golgotha. He arrived at His place of crucifixion and the soldiers pounded nails in His hands and also into His wrist because the weight of His body would rip the flesh of His hands. After being raised up to cross which would have brought more agonizing pain to His already ravaged body they pounded the large nails into His feet. And after all that His first utterance from the cross was to the Roman soldiers saying; “Father forgive; for they know not what they do.”

How could He do that for those who had just so brutally tortured Him if it was not His very nature to love them and see them not as torturers but as men who knew not who they were putting to death and were no part of the devilish conspiracy to kill the Son of God. How could He have endured the agonies of Gethsemane even for those who would bear responsibility for His torture and crucifixion? His love was given to all regardless of their station or condition in this life, there were no souls left out of His infinite and eternal atonement, even those who would completely reject Him and deny Him would fall under the power of His love. Every living soul who comes to this earth will receive the ultimate blessing of His atonement through His resurrection they too one day will be resurrected unto immortality.

An apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, Russell M. Nelson said this about the atonement of the Savior:

In preparatory times of the Old Testament, the practice of atonement was finite—meaning it had an end. It was a symbolic forecast of the definitive Atonement of Jesus the Christ. His Atonement is infinite—without an end.  It was also infinite in that all humankind would be saved from never-ending death. It was infinite in terms of His immense suffering. It was infinite in time, putting an end to the preceding prototype of animal sacrifice. It was infinite in scope—it was to be done once for all.  And the mercy of the Atonement extends not only to an infinite number of people, but also to an infinite number of worlds created by Him.  It was infinite beyond any human scale of measurement or mortal comprehension.

Jesus was the only one who could offer such an infinite atonement, since He was born of a mortal mother and an immortal Father. Because of that unique birthright, Jesus was an infinite Being. . . . He took upon Himself the weight of the sins of all mankind, bearing its massive load that caused Him to bleed from every pore. (see: NT: And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Luke 22:44

BOM: And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.

 And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary. Mosiah 3:7-8

Doctrine and Covenants: For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;

But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;

Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—

Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men. D&C 19:16-19

It has been, to me, an astounding part of the Savior’s character that He could do all that He did do, not for Himself, but for all creation. How He could be spit upon, slapped in the face, subjected to the most humiliating circumstances and being God with Godly powers allowed those things to happen, He allowed it or in other words He suffered it to be so. A verse of scripture from the Book of Mormon expresses this very well:

And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men. (1 Nephi 19:9)

God brought the flood in Noah’s time, in part, because the world was filled with corruption and violence.

 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. (Genesis 6:11-13, KJV).

The time in which we live is certainly a time with its fair share of both of those things. We see acts of violence in many forms and in variety of circumstances. We see corruption at all levels of our world society, those who strive to follow the teaching of our Savior receive at times various forms of persecution which may come in form of violence. And there are acts of violence perpetrated upon some who live or believe differently from others.

This seems to be a time, that as citizens of the planet earth, we would do well to hearken unto the words of an ancient prophet who left the following admonition not long before his mortal ministry came to an end.

 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.

 And now I bid unto all, farewell. I soon go to rest in the paradise of God, until my spirit and body shall again reunite, and I am brought forth triumphant through the air, to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge of both quick and dead. Amen. (Moroni 10:32-34; BOM)

So we have come full circle, He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

It was the Savior’s very nature to love, it was what He did automatically without even thinking about it, He did it naturally. Never did He think “Why me?” It was a foreign thought to Him because of who He was. For He was perfectly and wholly selfless, whatever He said, whatever he did was motivated by love. The definitions given of charity in the New Testament and the Book of Mormon may well provide a blueprint of those character traits we would need to acquire in order to become more like Him, within the capacity we personally have to do so.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity denvieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. (1 Corinthian 13:1-8)

And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—

 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen. (Moroni 7:45-48)