Oct 5th- Love one another

John 13:34-35

" A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
By this shall men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."


To end this week with the study of charity, I chose this scripture. Ask yourself:
How has Christ loved me?

"Go thou and do likewise" is what I would imagine he would say. :)

Men will know that you are a follower, a disciple if Christ, if you have love for one another.

Let us all do better at keeping this commandment. For charity never faileth.

Oct 4th- Love your Enemies

Matthew 5:43-44

"Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.
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;"


How often do we pray for our enemies? Let alone love them! Think on who you consider your "enemy". Do you pray for them? Love them? Bless them?


Matthew 5:45

"That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.


Don't worry about justice. God will take care of it. Focus rather on charity.


Matthew 5:46-47

"For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

It's easy to love those that love you. It's easy to love those who share your same values and opinions. But what "reward" do you receive? Even the publicans do the same! Publicans were not seen very kindly by the Jews. Christ uses this example to rebuke those he is teaching. Are you any better then your "enemy", who love their own kind as well? What makes you any better than they? Because you are the "chosen" people?
Being a member of the church does not make you any better than the rest of the world. "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 5:48

"*Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

*JST:"Ye are therefore commanded to be perfect..."

Oct. 3rd- Charity is the bond of Perfectness

Colossians 3: 14

"And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness."

In the verses before, it talks about how we are to live our lives: setting your affection on things above, lie not to one another, kindness, humbleness, meekness, longsuffering, forgiving one another...etc.
And then it says that ABOVE ALL THESE THINGS, put on charity.

Charity is the bond of perfectness. What does that mean? A bond is a firm assurance; something that holds together... and my favorite, a covenant.

Charity is the covenant of perfectness.

In the bible dictionary under "Covenant" it says in the second paragraph: "The gospel is so arranged that principles and ordinances are received by covenant placing the recipient under strong obligation and responsibility to honor the commitment."
Charity is a principle of the gospel. Charity is received by covenant... placing us under responsibility to honor the commitment.

How do we receive charity?

Moroni 7:48
"Wherefore my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love (charity), which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ..."

As it continues it explains God's part on this covenant, the blessing we receive by having charity...
"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."

Charity is the covenant of perfectness.

So what are we obligated to do? What are we covenanting to do?

President Thomas S. Monson in General Conference of OCT 2010, said:

"There is a serious need for the charity that gives attention to those who are unnoticed, hope to those who are discouraged, aid to those who are afflicted. True charity is love in action. The need for charity is everywhere.

Needed is the charity which refuses to find satisfaction in hearing or in repeating the reports of misfortunes that come to others, unless by so doing, the unfortunate one may be benefited. The American educator and politician Horace Mann once said, “To pity distress is but human; to relieve it is godlike.” 11

Charity is having patience with someone who has let us down. It is resisting the impulse to become offended easily. It is accepting weaknesses and shortcomings. It is accepting people as they truly are. It is looking beyond physical appearances to attributes that will not dim through time. It is resisting the impulse to categorize others."

This is what we covenant to do.

Oct 2nd- Charity is a Feeling

2 Nephi 26:30

"...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..."

Charity is a feeling not an action. It is an integral part of your spiritual being. Charity is love. To have this is a commandment.


Moroni 7:45

"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."

Let's ponder on this one today and then follow up in tomorrow's study. :)

Oct 1st- Charity

Bible Dictionary

Charity: The highest, noblest, strongest kind of love, not merely affection; the pure love of Christ. It is never used to denote alms or deeds or benevolence, although it may be a prompting motive.


I forgot to post this study yesterday, but I have been thinking alot about charity lately. So, I am devoting this whole week's study to it.

From the Bible dictionary we can see that there are different kinds of love, and charity is the greatest.

I always find this interesting... when you ask in a Sunday school class what charity is, you get many remarks of "actions": serving your neighbor, giving substance to the poor, not fighting with your siblings... etc etc.
However, it says that charity "is never used to denote alms or deeds or benevolence". To denote something is to serve as an indication of, or to represent something. So, charity does not represent alms or deeds or an act of kindness or goodwill.
Charity stands on it's own... "although it may be a prompting motive" to be kind, or to give.

This week I will be studying more on what true charity is.

Sept 30th - Scriptures fill us with the Spirit

1 Nephi 1:12

"And it came to pass that as he read, he was filled with the Spirit of the Lord."

This is a passage from Lehi's dream. An angel stands before him and gives him a book and bids him to read it. As he does, he is filled with the Spirit.

As we read from the scriptures, we will be filled with the Spirit.

Sept 29th- Plow and Thresh in Hope

1 Corinthians 9:10

"...For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope."


Let's look at two words: plow and thresheth.

Plow: to turn up the soil; move, cleave, or push through
Plowing is an important process to farming or growing a garden. Proper preparation of the soil is the key to well-formed vegetables and a bountiful harvest.
Plowing enables gardeners to evenly rake or shape the soil; it also makes the planting process easier. When you plow length-wise and width-wise over the area it evenly distributes the nutrients.

Thresh: an ancient process to separate grain from straw
After being harvested, the sheaves of wheat with the chaff, were brought to the threshing floor, loosened and arranged in a circle on it. Oxen would then be driven repeatedly in a circle over the sheaves of wheat to trample out the kernals of wheat. After the threshing was completed, the threshed grain was thrown into the air to enable the wind to blow away the chaff and allow the valuable grain to fall seperately to the threshing floor.

This scripture is talking not literally about us going out and plowing and threshing, but spiritually in our own lives. I won't get too deep in the symbolism, but I would like to say that threshing in our lives in necessary for us to draw closer to God and to spiritually mature.
Chaff is not good. It takes heavy oxen to be able to separate the wheat from it. So too is it sometimes painful to have the chaff separted from us.
If we decide to plow (it is a choice!) we should plow in hope.
If we thresh in hope, we are promised to be a partaker of his hope.

James E. Faust said that "hope is a trust in God's promises; faith that if we act now, the desired blessing will be fullfilled in the future..."