“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.” (Moroni 7:47). Possession is nine tenths of the law, or so the saying goes. That percentage might even be a little bit low when we consider how much of the Laws of God are dependent on whether or not we are possessed of charity. “Jesus said unto him, 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 neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22: 37-40). We often talk about commandments and covenants as things that we must keep or hold onto or even possess. Since every commandment and covenant is rooted in the two main aspects of charity - to love God and to love our neighbor - then that means as long as we possess and hold onto and take ownership over our charity, then by extension, we keep all of the commandments and laws and covenants which are merely appendages of that pure love of Christ. By being possessed of charity, we have secured at least nine tenths of the Law and commandments of God. Christ said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15). This is not merely an invitation, but also a promise. If we love Christ, we will keep His commandments, because all of the commandments depend on our love for Him. Whatever commandments we may be struggling with, I know that if we will just focus on laying hold on the gift of charity, we will be blessed with the capacity to not only possess and keep charity, but also to keep the commandments with which we have been struggling.
