“The First and Great Commandment”

Elder Robert F. Orton of the Seventy

October 2001 General Conference

“I thought for many years that love was an attribute. But it is more. It is a commandment. In His dialogue with the lawyer, a Pharisee, Jesus said:

“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” (Matt. 22:37–40; see also Gal. 5:14).

President Hinckley has said that “love is like the Polar Star. In a changing world, it is a constant. It is the very essence of the gospel.”