The Pure Love of Christ

© 1993 Laurie Ashton

I know a girl who suffered from severe depression off and on for many years. One very late night, she had been driving around, thinking about killing herself. She didn't feel she had any worth as a person, and she had a difficult time understanding that her Father in Heaven loved her. She was not happy and did not see that her life could improve. In the middle of all these dark and cloudy thoughts, a car with four teenage boys drove up beside her, and, with whistling and hooting and hollering, managed to get this girl's attention. They managed to convey, in the way teenage boys can, without audible words, that they found her attractive and interesting. She laughed. Not at the absurdity of what the boys were trying to tell her, but at the coincidence of these boys lifting her spirits in a very unusual way, when she needed it most.

When I think of the Pure Love of Christ, the first picture that usually comes to my mind is of Jesus saying to the crowd of people around the adulteress,

"He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." And, after her accusers left, he said unto her,

"Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord, And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more." (St John:7:10-11)

Or I think of Jesus healing the man who had been blind from birth using spittle and dirt, and telling him to wash at a pool of water. (St. John 9:11)

Jesus was helping these people, giving them something they could not give to themselves.

What is the Pure Love of Christ?

For starters, I can tell you what it isn't. It isn't discrimination, making fun of people, gossiping, being unkind, or being selfish and unhelpful. It isn't labelling others, which makes it hard for us to see the whole person. It isn't abusing or belittling others, or shaming them. It isn't anything that in any way encourages someone to feel less than he or she is, which is a very precious and special and loved child of God.

Charity is commonly thought of as giving service to others. So, if I'm charitable towards Debbie and I'm her friend, does that mean I'm doing service to her in being her friend? Well, wording it that way probably won't help me to see her worth any better, nor will it help me to understand charity better. Charity is not simply serving other people, although that can be an important part of it. In Mormon Doctrine, Bruce R. McConkie tells us that:

"Charity is everlasting love, perfect love. It is love so centred on righteousness that the possessor has no aim or desire except for the eternal welfare of his own soul and the souls of those around him."

Stephen R. Covey says, in The Spiritual Roots of Human Relations, that "If you can love deeply, richly in affirming another person, you will help him to change, to develop, to grow." Isn't that wonderful? If I love someone that deeply, with a pure heart, I can help someone else grow.

In Moroni 7, we are told that "Charity is the pure love of Christ" (Moroni 7:7). Moroni 10:21 then tells us that, "except ye have charity ye can in nowise be saved in the kingdom of God." Yes, we know that Charity is important. We know we should be nice to our neighbours and be kind to people and all those other generically nice things. But, what does it mean specifically to you or me? And what is the extent of what the Pure Love of Christ means to us?

Matthew 22:35-40 reads:

"Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all they heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the laws and the Prophets."

As Christ shows His love to us, we are to show our love to others. Christ's love for us is not just healing us when we're sick or forgiving us of our sins. It is much, much more. His love consists of the comfort he gives us, his kindness, compassion, generosity, mercy, and acceptance of us in our imperfectness. It includes spiritual, emotional, and physical nourishment. It is the strongest and highest kind of love there is. The Pure Love of Christ means loving people unconditionally, even if Sue has a weird way of dressing that you wouldn't want to be caught dead with, even if Jim has a way of always saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, or if Heather is a little brash and on edge, or if I just don't see eye to eye with anything Joanne says. It means I accept other people for who they are without trying to change them, or without telling them how they can improve their own life. It means I help someone when I can, and when I need to help myself, I help myself. It means that, if there is something Sharon can teach that I need to hear, I need to listen. It means being in tune with the spirit so I can know what needs to said, or not said. It means I need to be patient with people and let them do their own thing their own way without interfering. It means that we remember that other people are important, and not just to make our programs successful, but because the programs were created for the people.

Having the Pure Love of Christ in my life helps me to not be judgemental and jump to conclusions about what awful things someone might have done or been. If I have the Pure love of Christ in my heart, I will be able to do the Lord's work and be a good and faithful servant, doing his will.

Stephen R. Covey puts it into words I really like. Loving someone unconditionally means something like this:

"I affirm you and your right to be. I acknowledge you with great reverence and respect your existence, that you are a person of worth, that you have a divine Father, that you in your very humanity are worth loving. This is apart from your performance or your behaviour. I may not like your behaviour. I am upset with it, but I affirm you, I respect you. I honour you as a person, I listen to you, I try to understand."

Moroni 7:44-488 reads as follows:

“For none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart, and if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity, for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity. And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh not 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; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen."

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Last Updated: 2005-07-06 8:21 s l cc gk fh