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Shown rather than defined

The Love of God

Scripture rarely defines God's love and repeatedly demonstrates it. When Nephi asks what the tree of life means, he is shown a descent rather than given a definition — and John says the same thing in a sentence.

18 min2 sections

1

An event, not a sentiment

1 John 4:9–10nt

9In 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.

10Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

John defines love by an event and specifies the direction: not that we loved Him. The same move is made in the Book of Mormon when Nephi's angel answers 'what is the tree?' by showing him a birth, a ministry and a cross, and only afterward naming it the love of God.

  • King James renders it “charity; love”

    The New Testament's word for love that is chosen and enacted rather than felt and received. Moroni 7:47 gives the Book of Mormon's definition — 'the pure love of Christ' — and 1 Corinthians 13 describes it entirely in verbs.

    Full lexicon entry →
2

How far it reaches

Cross-references

  • 2 Nephi 26:24, 33'He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world'; and 'all are alike unto God' — black and white, bond and free, male and female.
  • Romans 8:35–39Paul's list of what cannot separate: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, death, life, angels, principalities, powers, things present, things to come, height, depth. He is trying to be exhaustive.
  • D&C 18:10'The worth of souls is great in the sight of God' — followed immediately by the reason: the Redeemer suffered the pain of all men.
  • Moses 7:28–33Enoch sees God weep over people who have rejected Him, which is a harder kind of love to explain than the other sort.
  • Alma 26:37'He is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in.' Ammon, after fourteen years among people his own nation had written off.

Principle

God's love is described in scripture as unconditional in its offer and specific in its object — extended to everyone, and directed at people one at a time.

It is easy to believe the first half and hard to believe the second. Nephi's vision addresses this quietly by showing a particular town, a particular woman and a particular child rather than humanity in the abstract.

1 Nephi 11:18–21 · 2 Nephi 26:33 · Alma 7:11–12 · D&C 18:10

What this topic holds

  1. Scripture shows God's love as an act rather than defining it as a feeling.

    1 John 4:9–10 · 1 Nephi 11:21–22 · John 3:16

  2. Charity is the pure love of Christ, and it is something bestowed on those who ask rather than manufactured.

    Moroni 7:47–48 · 1 Corinthians 13:4–8

Check your reading

3 questions

  1. 01How does 1 John 4:10 define love?

  2. 02What does Moroni 7:48 say about obtaining charity?

  3. 03What does Nephi's vision show him when he asks about the tree?

Where to go next

Chains

Lessons

Topics

Sources

  1. Gospel Topics, "Love"
  2. 1 Nephi 11; 1 John 4; Moroni 7 — The primary texts.