This General Conference Odyssey post is on the Saturday morning session of October 1982.

After reading this week’s session of talks I went to Sacrament meeting and listened to the speaker quote from this very talk. Of all things!! The talk I’d like to focus on today is David B. Haight’s talk, “Love All.”

We hear a lot about “love” in the world today. There are those free spirits who point fingers of intolerance and judgments against others, proclaiming we need to love those who are different. Love has become a confusing subject because people who knew the old definition are being accused of not accepting the new definition.

Elder Haight talks about the original and eternal definition of love. It was given to us when the Savior was asked which was the great commandment of the Law. The Savior’s answer was:

“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 neighbor as thyself.

“On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matt. 22:37-40).

This is the old definition. But the new definition is putting the second above the first and that has become a serious evil in our society today. We cannot possibly know what love is when we refuse to love God first and instead put our neighbors first, and whatever evil they happen to be doing. It breaks the very essence of the law of love.

John the Beloved states clearly,

“Herein is love, not that we love 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 4:10-11).

These words always remind me of an anthem we each can proclaim when we hear the last verse of We’ll Shout and Give Him Glory:

Oh, how I love my Savior!
Oh, how I love my Savior!
Oh, how I love my Savior!
Because He first loved me.
We’ll shout and give Him the glory,
We’ll shout and give Him glory,
We’ll shout and give Him glory,
For glory is His own.

Doesn’t that just spur your heart at the truth of these words? There is an order to things that is not negotiable. We must love God first because He loved us first by sending His Only Begotten Son to save us all. Only after this can we look to our neighbors.

Taking Elder Haight’s lead, I will also quote from An Understandable Religion, by John A. Widtsoe.

Elder Widtsoe says,

“Love is the impelling motive in God’s relationship to man. It is the force or power which gives life to the plan of salvation. ‘God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.’

“Love alone explains the gospel. For love of us, Christ hung upon the cross. Love, with its children, goodwill, kindness, charity, and mercy, make life on earth tolerable, and it will redeem us at last. … Whatever is of God is founded in love. It is this principle that supports every doctrine and activity of the restored gospel.

“Love is always founded in truth. … Lies and deceit, or any other violation of the moral law, are proofs of love’s absence. Love perishes in the midst of untruth.

“True love sacrifices for the loved one. … Christ gave of Himself, gave His life, for us, and thereby proclaimed the reality of his love for his mortal brethren and sisters.”

“Tolerance means that we allow others to believe and act, unhindered, provided they do not interfere with our beliefs and acts (see Article of Faith 11).

“Intolerance is of the devil. Satan has used intolerance in all ages, to achieve his purpose, to shape men into his own evil and truth-denying pattern.

“Sometimes, also, the law of love is so misunderstood as to lead to neutrality, for fear the feeling of others may be hurt. … Such neutrality is akin to crime. There is nothing neutral in the field of truth. There is either truth or error. To remain silent is a concession to error.

“Only by love can intolerance, strife, and jealousies, discord and warfare, be banished from among men.”

Love God first, above all else, and then we will be able to feel love for our fellow men.