After Love, Then Service

Tomorrow, I will share a brief message about love. Specifically, I'm going to share President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's message After Love, Then What? As I read over his message, a handful of topically-appropriate quotes came to mind, including "They do not love that do not show their love" (William Shakespeare), and this passage from Elder David A. Bednar's talk, More Diligent and Concerned at Home:

We should remember that saying “I love you” is only a beginning. We need to say it, we need to mean it, and most importantly we need consistently to show it. We need to both express and demonstrate love.

I can't speak for Shakespeare, but both Uchtdorf and Bednar focussed their messages on the importance of showing love and acting as motivated by love, not just feeling love or talking about love. Like faith, love is a principle of action. Just as sufficient faith can and should influence our actions, sufficient love should do so as well. If we truly, deeply love God and our fellow man, in accordance to the first and second great commandments, that love will be reflected in our actions, which will involve keeping the rest of the commandments.

We are to "love the Lord [our] God with all [our] heart[s], and with all [our] soul[s], and with all [our] mind[s]" (Matthew 22:37), and the only way we can really show that level of love is to keep the commandments. Similarly, we are to "love [our] neighbor[s] as [ourselves] (Matthew 22:39). And the only real way to do that is to show our love through our actions, mostly be serving our fellow men.

Kind feelings are a great start and should be a large part of our motivations, but true love takes more than feelings. True love takes action. President Uchtdorf illustrated that point in a parable about sons who were commanded to do something. The first refused, and then obeyed, while the other said he would do it, but then he didn't. Christ used this parable to teach that those who were righteous are the ones who actually do God's will, not those who profess love for God but then don't try to keep the commandments.

President Monson taught that love is the essence of the gospel, but merely feeling and declaring love for God and our fellow man is not enough. We must also show our love through compassionate service. If our love for God and others is sincere, it will lead us to want to serve them and to find other ways to express our love rather than merely saying that we love them. As Elder Bednar said, we do need to say that we love others, but more importantly, we must also show that we do.