Scriptures
Scriptures, sacred writings of holy men of God, also contain many inspiring messages about love. The truthfulness of these messages was tested throughout the centuries. Thus, the Scriptures can be used as a solid foundation for testing the truthfulness of any other messages. If any message contradicts what is written in the Scriptures, it should be treated with serious caution.
All quotations in this chapter are taken from official canonized scriptures and publications of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
OLD TESTAMENT
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
Exodus 20: 5-6
…thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself…
Leviticus 19:18
But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 19:34
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Deuteronomy 6:5
But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
Deuteronomy 7:8-9
Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.
Deuteronomy 13:3-4
In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
Deuteronomy 30:16
Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.
Psalms 97:10
He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: the Lord is gracious and full of compassion.
Psalms 111:4
I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.
Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.
Psalm 116:1-2
For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.
Proverbs 3:12
I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.
Proverbs 8:17
Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covers all sins.
Proverbs 10:12
Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.
Proverbs 15:17
A friend loves at all times…
Proverbs 17:17
For he said, Surely, they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour. In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.
Isaiah 63:8-9
The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
Jeremiah 31:3
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
Micah 6:8
Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother.
Zechariah 7:9
I have loved you, saith the Lord.
Malachi 1:2
NEW TESTAMENT
But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
Matthew 5:44
For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
Matthew 5:46
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Matthew 6:24
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Matthew 10:37
And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
Matthew 24:12
Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 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 law and the prophets.
Matthew 22:36-40
And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
Luke 10:41-42
But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
Luke 11:42
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.
John 3:16
The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.
John 3:35
For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.
John 5:20
I receive not honour from men.
But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.
John 5:41-42
If God were your Father, ye would love me.
John 8:42.
Therefore, doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
John 10:17
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
John 13:35
If ye love me, keep my commandments.
John 14:15
He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
John 14:21
As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
John 15:9
This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.
John 15:12
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
John 17:23
O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
John 17:25-26
I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Acts 20:35
And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Romans 5:5
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35-39
Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
Romans 13:8
Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Romans 13:10
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
1 Corinthians 2:9
Knowledge puffeth up, but charity deifieth.
1 Corinthians 8:1
But if any man loves God, the same is known of him.
1 Corinthians 8:3
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 envieth 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.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Charity never faileth
1 Corinthians 13:8
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
1 Corinthians 13:13
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15
For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
Galatians 5:6
For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
Galatians 5:13
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love.
Ephesians 3:17
And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Ephesians 3:19
And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
Ephesians 5:2
That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;
Colossians 2:2
We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;
Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;
1 Thessalonians 1:2-3
And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:
1 Thessalonians 3:12
But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
1 Thessalonians 5:8
Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,
Comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.
2 Thessalonians 3:5
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
2 Timothy 4:7-8
For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Hebrews 12:6
Let brotherly love continue.
Hebrews 13:1
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him
James 1:12
Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
1 Peter 1:22
Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
1 Peter 2:17
But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
1 John 2:5
He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.
1 John 2:10
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1 John 2:15
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
1 John 3:1
But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
1 John 3:17
And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
1 John 3:23
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 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.
1 John 4:7-11
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 love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
1 John 4 16-21
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
1 John 5:2-3
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
Revelation 3:19
BOOK OF MORMON
And he said unto me: Knowest thou the condescension of God? And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things.
1 Nephi 11:16-17
And the angel said unto me: Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father! Knowest thou the meaning of the tree which thy father saw? And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things. And he spake unto me, saying: Yea, and the most joyous to the soul.
1 Nephi 11: 21-23
And he loveth those who will have him to be their God.
1 Nephi 17:40
My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep. He hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh.
2 Nephi 4:20-21
Behold, the Lord hath forbidden this thing; wherefore, the Lord God hath given a commandment that all men should have charity, which charity is love. And except they should have charity they were nothing.
2 Nephi 26:30
Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.
2 Nephi 31:20
O all ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads and receive the pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love; for ye may, if your minds are firm, forever.
Jacob 3:2
And also that they might give thanks to the Lord their God, who had brought them out of the land of Jerusalem, and who had delivered them out of the hands of their enemies, and had appointed just men to be their teachers, and also a just man to be their king, who had established peace in the land of Zarahemla, and who had taught them to keep the commandments of God, that they might rejoice and be filled with love towards God and all men.
Mosiah 2:4
For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.
Mosiah 3:19
But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another.
Mosiah 4:15
Thus did Alma teach his people, that every man should love his neighbor as himself, that there should be no contention among them.
Mosiah 23:15
And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?
Alma 5:26
Believest thou that there is no God? I say unto you, Nay, thou knowest that there is a God, but thou lovest that lucre more than him.
Alma 11:24
But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering;
Alma 13:28
Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou doest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.
Alma 37:36
Use boldness, but not overbearance; and also see that ye bridle all your passions, that ye may be filled with love; see that ye refrain from idleness.
Alma 38:12
Therefore, whoso repenteth and cometh unto me as a little child, him will I receive, for of such is the kingdom of God.
3 Nephi 9:22
And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people.
4 Nephi 1:15
And again, I remember that thou hast said that thou hast loved the world, even unto the laying down of thy life for the world, that thou mightest take it again to prepare a place for the children of men.
And now I know that this love which thou hast had for the children of men is charity; wherefore, except men shall have charity they cannot inherit that place which thou hast prepared in the mansions of thy Father.
Ether 12:33-34
But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do agood continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God.
Moroni 7:13
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.
Moroni 7: 47-48
I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear.
Moroni 8:16
And I am filled with charity, which is everlasting love; wherefore, all children are alike unto me; wherefore, I love little children with a perfect love; and they are all alike and partakers of salvation
Moroni 8:17
And the remission of sins bringeth meekness, and lowliness of heart; and because of meekness and lowliness of heart cometh the visitation of the Holy Ghost, which Comforter filleth with hope and perfect love, which love endureth by diligence unto prayer, until the end shall come, when all the saints shall dwell with God.
Moroni 8:26
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.
Moroni 10:32
DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS
And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work.
D&C 4:5
And no one can assist in this work except he shall be humble and full of love, having faith, hope and charity, being temperate in all things, whatsoever shall be entrusted to his care.
D&C 12:8
And if you have not faith, hope, and charity, you can do nothing.
D&C 18:19
And we know also that sanctification through the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is just and true, to all those who love and serve God with all their mights, minds, and strength.
D&C 20:31
Who so loved the world that he gave his own life, that as many as would believe might become the sons of God.
D&C 34:3
If thou lovest me thou shalt serve me and keep all my commandments.
D&C 42:29
Thou shalt live together in love, insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die, and more especially for those that have not hope of a glorious resurrection.
D&C 42:45
And this we saw also, and bear record, that an angel of God who was in authority in the presence of God, who rebelled against the Only Begotten Son whom the Father loved and who was in the bosom of the Father, was thrust down from the presence of God and the Son
D&C 76:25
And above all things, clothe yourselves with the bond of charity, as with a mantle, which is the bond of perfectness and peace.
D&C 88:125
If you keep not my commandments, the love of the Father shall not continue with you, therefore you shall walk in darkness.
D&C 95:12
I know thy heart and have heard thy prayers concerning thy brethren. Be not partial towards them in love above many others, but let thy love be for them as for thyself; and let thy love abound unto all men, and unto all who love my name.
D&C 112:11
Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved…
D&C 121:43
Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God…
D&C 121:45
And the great and wonderful love made manifest by the Father and the Son in the coming of the Redeemer into the world.
D&C 138:3
MODERN PROPHETS
In today’s world trembling with terror and hatred, our knowledge of divine love is of utmost importance.
Russel M. Nelson
Jesus asked us to love one another as He has loved us. Is that possible? Can our love for others really approach divine love? Yes, it can!
Russel M. Nelson
Compliance with divine law requires faith—the pivotal point of mortality’s testing and trials. At the same time, faith proves our love for God. The more committed we become to patterning our lives after His, the purer and more divine our love becomes.
Russel M. Nelson
God’s love is there for you whether or not you feel you deserve love. It is simply always there.
Thomas S. Monson
We cannot truly love God if we do not love our fellow travelers on this mortal journey. Likewise, we cannot fully love our fellowmen if we do not love God, the Father of us all.
Thomas S. Monson
Actually, love is the very essence of the gospel, and Jesus Christ is our Exemplar. His life was a legacy of love.
Tomas S. Monson
Love is the very essence of life. It is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Yet it is not found only at the end of the rainbow. Love is at the beginning also, and from it springs the beauty that arched across the sky on a stormy day. Love is the security for which children weep, the yearning of youth, the adhesive that binds marriage, and the lubricant that prevents devastating friction in the home; it is the peace of old age, the sunlight of hope shining through death. How rich are those who enjoy it in their associations with family, friends, and neighbors! Love, like faith, is a gift of God. It is also the most enduring and most powerful virtue.
Gordon B. Hinckley
True love is not so much a matter of romance as it is a matter of anxious concern for the well-being of one's companion.
Gordon B. Hinckley
If the world is to be improved, the process of love must make a change in the hearts of men. It can do so when we look beyond self to give our love to God and others, and do so with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind.
Gordon B. Hinckley
Those who are filled with the love of Christ do not seek to force others to do better; they inspire others to do better.
Howard W. Hunter
We need to be kinder with one another, more gentle and forgiving. We need to be slower to anger and more prompt to help. We need to extend the hand of friendship and resist the hand of retribution. In short, we need to love one another with the pure love of Christ, with genuine charity and compassion and, if necessary, shared suffering, for that is the way God loves us.
Howard W. Hunter
The world in which we live would benefit greatly if men and women everywhere would exercise the pure love of Christ, which is kind, meek, and lowly. It is without envy or pride. It is selfless because it seeks nothing in return. It does not countenance evil or ill will, nor rejoice in iniquity; it has no place for bigotry, hatred, or violence. It refuses to condone ridicule, vulgarity, abuse, or ostracism. It encourages diverse people to live together in Christian love regardless of religious belief, race, nationality, financial standing, education, or culture.
Howard W. Hunter
To love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength is all-consuming and all-encompassing. It is no lukewarm endeavor. It is total commitment of our very being—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually—to a love of the Lord. The breadth, depth, and height of this love of God extend into every facet of one’s life. Our desires, be they spiritual or temporal, should be rooted in a love of the Lord. Our thoughts and affections should be centered on the Lord.
Ezra T. Benson
When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives. Our love of the Lord will govern the claims for our affection, the demands on our time, the interests we pursue, and the order of our priorities.
Ezra T. Benson
If we would truly seek to be more like our Savior and Master, learning to love as He loves should be our highest goal.
Ezra T. Benson
If one really loves another, one would rather die for that person than to injure him.
Spencer W. Kimball
At the hour of sin, pure love is pushed out of one door while lust sneaks in the other. Affection has then been replaced with desire of the flesh and uncontrolled passion. Accepted has been the doctrine which the devil is so eager to establish, that illicit sex relations are justified.
Spencer W. Kimball
If two people love the Lord more than their own lives and then love each other more than their own lives, working together in total harmony with the gospel program as their basic structure, they are sure to have this great happiness.
Spencer W. Kimball
I shall never forget my feelings of loneliness the Saturday night after I was told by the President of the Church that I was to be sustained the next day as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve apostles. And before I was to be accepted the next day, I knew that I must stand before the Lord and witness before him that I would love and forgive every soul that walked the earth and in return I would ask him to forgive me that I might be worthy of that position.
Harold B. Lee
The absence of love at home causes ripples of reaction that roll across all of us; mankind pays an awful price for this kind of failure. What could be more relevant to the needs of the human family than for us to be chaste, to develop love at home—in fact, to keep every commandment?
Harold B. Lee
And so as it is my privilege to do, I give you faithful members of the Church everywhere my blessing. Take to your people out in the far reaches the feeling of love that we have for all of them.
Harold B. Lee
Because God is our Father, we have a natural desire to love and serve him and to be worthy members of his family…And because all men are our brothers, we have a desire to love and bless and fellowship them—and this too we accept as an essential part of true worship…Thus, everything we do in the Church centers around the divine law that we are to love and worship God and serve our fellowmen.
Joseph Fielding Smith
We are commanded to love one another. “A new commandment,” the Lord has said, and yet like many other commandments it is as old as eternity. There never was a time when that commandment did not exist and was not essential to salvation, and yet it is always new. It never grows old, because it is true.
Joseph Fielding Smith
If we love the Lord with all the heart, with all the soul, and with all the mind, and our neighbors as ourselves, then there is nothing more to be desired. Then we will be in harmony with the total of sacred law. If we were willing to live in harmony with these two great commandments—and we must do so eventually if we are worthy to live in the presence of God—then wickedness, jealousy, ambition, covetousness, bloodshed, and all sin of every nature would be banished from the earth.
Joseph Fielding Smith
If you want to love God, you have to learn to love and serve the people. That is the way you show your love for God.
David O. McKay
Since love is as eternal as life, the message of the resurrection is the most comforting, the most glorious ever given to man; for when death takes a loved one from us, we can look into the open grave and say, He is not here; he is alive.
David O. McKay
Love is the most divine attribute of the human soul, and if you accept the immortality of the soul, that is, if you believe that personality persists after death, then, you must believe that love also lives.
David O. McKay
Our ministry is one of love. Our service is one which enriches our lives. … If we are living as God intends that we should live, if we are ministering as he desires that we should minister, every day of our lives is enriched by the influence of his Spirit, our love of our fellowmen increases and our souls are enlarged until we feel that we could take into our arms all of God’s children, with a desire to bless them and bring them to an understanding of the truth.
George Albert Smith
The measurement of the result of what love and charity may bring into the world is impossible.
George Albert Smith
You cannot drive people to do things which are right, but you can love them into doing them, if your example is of such a character that they can see you mean what you say.
George Albert Smith
Our love for the Lord should translate into Christlike service.
Heber J. Grant
The gospel of Christ is a gospel of love and peace, of patience and long suffering, of forbearance and forgiveness, of kindness and good deeds, of charity and brotherly love. Greed, avarice, base ambition, thirst for power, and unrighteous dominion over our fellow men, can have no place in the hearts of Latter-day Saints nor of God-fearing men everywhere.
Heber J. Grant
It is a God-given law that in proportion to the service we give, in proportion to what we do in this Church and out of it—what we are willing to sacrifice for the Church and for those to whom we owe our loyalty outside of Church activity—we shall grow in the grace of God and in the love of God, and we shall grow in accomplishing the purposes of our being placed here on the earth.
Heber J. Grant
If you can only convince your children that you love them, that your soul goes out to them for their good, that you are their truest friend, they, in turn, will place confidence in you and will love you and seek to do your bidding and to carry out your wishes with your love.
Joseph F. Smith
Great and important duty devolving upon this people is to teach their children, from their cradle until they become men and women, every principle of the gospel, and endeavor, as far as it lies in the power of the parents, to instill into their hearts a love for God, the truth, virtue, honesty, honor and integrity to everything that is good.
Joseph F. Smith
Let love, and peace, and the Spirit of the Lord, kindness, charity, sacrifice for others, abound in your families.
Joseph F. Smith
We have also got to reach another standard, a higher plane: we have got to love God more than we love the world, more than we love gold or silver, and love our neighbor as ourselves.
Lorenzo Snow
The prospects that God has opened up to our view are wonderful and grand; the imagination cannot conceive of them. Come into the Temples and we will show you. Many of you, I presume, have been there, and have heard the marvelous things that God has prepared for those that love Him and continue faithful to the end.
Lorenzo Snow
The voice of the Almighty called us out from the midst of confusion, which is Babylon, to form a union and a lovely brotherhood, in which we should love one another as we love ourselves.
Lorenzo Snow
It is not too much to presume that everyone knows what his duty is to God and to his fellow man. None is so forgetful as to have lost sight of the admonition that we must be filled with love for and charity toward our brethren.
Wilford Woodruff
In the striving after compliance with the apparently weightier matters of the law, there is a possibility that the importance of this spirit of love and kindness and charity may be underestimated.
Wilford Woodruff
Let it unite young and old, male and female, flock and shepherd, people and Priesthood in the bonds of gratitude and forgiveness and love, so that [we] may feel approved of the Lord, and that we may all come before Him with a conscience void of offense before all men.
Wilford Woodruff
Do not forget to call upon the Lord in your family circles, dedicating yourselves and all you have to God every day of your lives; and seek to do right, and cultivate the spirit of union and love, and the peace and blessing of the Living God will be with us, and He will lead us in the paths of life; and we shall be sustained and upheld by all the holy angels and the ancient patriarchs and men of God, and the veil will become thinner between us and our God, and we will approach nearer to him, and our souls will magnify the Lord of hosts.
John Taylor
God is our Father, we His children, and we all ought to be brethren; we ought to feel and act like brethren, and while we are striving to serve the Lord our God with all our hearts, minds, souls and strength, we ought, at the same time, to seek to love our neighbor as ourselves; we ought to feel interested in his welfare, happiness and prosperity, and in anything and everything that will tend to promote his temporal and eternal good.
John Taylor
I wish that we could feel that brotherly love continued, and that it was spreading and increasing, flowing, from the fountain of life—from God, from heart to heart as oil is poured from vessel to vessel, that harmony, sympathy, kindness and love might be universal among us.
John Taylor
It is folly in the extreme for persons to say that they love God; when they do not love their brethren.
Brigham Young
It should be satisfactory evidence that you are in the path of life, if you love God and your brethren with all your hearts.
Brigham Young
We should commence our labors of love and kindness with the family to which we belong; and then extend them to others.
Brigham Young
Love is one of the chief characteristics of Deity, and ought to be manifested by those who aspire to be the sons of God. A man filled with the love of God, is not content with blessing his family alone, but ranges through the whole world, anxious to bless the whole human race.
Joseph Smith
There is too little religious devotion, love and fear of God, in the home; too much worldliness, selfishness, indifference and lack of reverence in the family, or these never would exist so abundantly on the outside. Then, the home is what needs reforming. … Let love, and peace, and the Spirit of the Lord, kindness, charity, sacrifice for others, abound in your families.
Joseph Smith
It is a duty which every Saint ought to render to his brethren freely—to always love them, and ever succor them. To be justified before God we must love one another: we must overcome evil; we must visit the fatherless and the widow in their affliction, and we must keep ourselves unspotted from the world; for such virtues flow from the great fountain of pure religion.
Joseph Smith