Monthly Messages, May 2023
The most important gift? What a value judgment. But let us see if there are reasons it is so.
The most important gift of God to man mentioned in the Book of Mormon I believe to be the gift of charity. Another way to name that gift is to say it is the gift of a pure heart, for only a pure heart can love fully and purely, which is charity, which is the pure love that Christ has for all others. Quoting Moroni 7:43–48: “And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart. If so, his faith and hope is vain, 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 no 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 is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.”
There is an important reason why charity, pure love, is the greatest gift of God to man:
Any human being can be saved from the penalty due for his having sinned only through his having faith in Jesus Christ. That penalty due includes suffering for those sins the same amount of suffering the person caused in others through that person’s sinning. And He must also make restitution for having wounded or deprived those whom he has sinned against.
The person cannot be forgiven of having sinned until the suffering caused by the sinning has been met by an equal amount of suffering and until the person(s) he has sinned against are fully recompensed for the damage done to them by those sins and he or she remains as if he or she had never been sinned against. A person who has sinned must do all he or she can to repair the damage done to others through his or her sinning, but no one except Christ can fully make those sinned against whole, as if they had never been sinned against. And they must suffer an equal amount to the suffering they have caused others through sinning unless they come unto Christ and keep covenant with him. Then the suffering of the Savior in the Atonement answers the law of justice by his suffering, and the Savior forgives the one who has come unto him in covenant keeping faith.
The great thing about the gift of charity, which is the pure love of Christ, is that the person who receives this gift no longer sins. This person who has charity has become like the Savior. The greatest thing we know about the Savior is that because he does his Father’s will in all things, he never sins. The work of Christ is to help us to become as he is and sin no longer, and also to help us make payment for sins we have committed. Only after those two things are accomplished can anyone be exalted. And for both we must come unto Jesus Christ and become his little 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)
So, to gain this gift is to become everything, and not to attain it still to be nothing. Our Father and Savior do not want us to remain as nothing, but are trying to share with us the most important thing they have, charity, which is a pure heart.
And you wondered why faith in Christ is not the greatest gift? Charity is the fullness of faith. So faith is not a wrong answer. It is just that a little faith does not do the job. Only faith that serves God and neighbor with all one’s heart, might, mind and strength can be the greatest gift. And the name for that fullness of faith in Christ is charity, the pure love of Christ from Christ.