On Love & Law

In the gospel of Jesus Christ, we continually reemphasize the importance of charity towards all men. It is the subject of many Sunday school discussions that we be not partial in our administration of it. Notwithstanding, in our pursuit of charity some stumble because of innate tendencies towards judgement, severity, and reprimand. The logical conclusion follows that the cultivation of unconditional love would be naturally exclusive of such traits. Were it not so, we reason that such love would then be stipulated by conditions! 

The apostle Dallin H. Oaks once gave an address on the not only existent compatibility of high standard love and law, but of their divinely moderated necessity. Upon this principle I predicate. We are not in circumstance to append restrictions or impediments to our concept of love. Rather, the very definition must be changed. Let us, therefore, look to the source. Our definitions and emulations of such love are based upon Christ Jesus, who was the living quintessence of love perfected. Under examintation of singualr attributes, our desired love may possibly seem contradictory when coupled with other tenets. For some, it is vexing to justify the love present when Christ threw the money changers out of the temple. Speaking of anger alone, we have constructed additional dimensions to the behavior, one such labeled as 'righteous anger' and thereafter undergo extensive definitions to provide parameters under which it is permissible and especially of whom it is so. I do not believe that in the definition of love we can create such extensions of love, that his behavior in the temple under the specific conditions which when met exempted the act from love's encompassing folds. In fact, there was not a moment when Christ cleansed the temple that he faulted love in any particular, nay not along the duration of his whole life.

Thus narrow and isolated constraints on Christian attributes, specifically charity, are subject to misconstruction. It is beneficial to adopt a holistic perspective. On the whole, Christ loved perfectly, and on the whole he was unerringly just. Accept that though we may, there comes the question of how could mere mortals expect to incorporate such vastness into our person? Normally we accustom our development to the step-wise progression and assimilation of virtues that come through measured goals and achievements. Said love and law supersede written operationalizing. Contesting Shakespeare's query, certainly we have "to be".


We endeavor to become something, not mere possessors. Love so strong and prevalent that it truly engulf and consumes us  marks such a person as one who would love at all times, not by circumstantial dictation, but by nature. Such change in character is a feat only possible through the transforming power of an infinite atonement. A word for the law: to him who the law is a line marked as stark as the dropping precipice, perhaps love is difficult. Likewise, there may be one who loves to what is termed "a fault" because they are hesitant to enact justice for their benefit or even protection. To either, the process is the same: a Masterful hand whose very touch embodies total love and law.