Mormon Insights Without Perfect Love/page 1

[Title] Without Perfect Love

[Kicker] While searching for acceptance, I made a startling revelation about how Christ lived
perfectly in the absence of love.
[Article]
Nobodys perfect.
Except Jesus Christ! you hear your inner primary child pipe up. In Christ, we can indeed see
perfection. We see it in his perfect faith, his perfect obedience, his perfect love for everyone
around him, saint or sinner.
It was this perfection that I clung to as I studied the scriptures throughout my high school years. I
wanted to know every detail of Christs life, to unravel how this being embodied something that
so often seems so unattainable. I thought that just maybeif I truly understood and mirrored
every facet of the Saviors perfectionI could gain the acceptance, admiration, and love that I
craved from all those around me.
In studying Christs life, I learned about his birth, growth, teachings, and crucifixion. And as I
was studying these fragments of Christs life and death, this simple but clear thought came to
me: Christ was perfect. But he was not loved by all.
In fact, Christ was far from receiving universal love. The Living Christ
[https://www.lds.org/manual/doctrine-and-covenants-and-church-history-student-studyguide/the-worldwide-church/the-living-christ-the-testimony-of-the-apostles?lang=eng] proclaims
how the Savior went about doing good (Acts 10:38), yet was despised for it.
[https://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/acts/10.38?lang=eng] He was spit upon, mocked, beaten, and
eventually crucified.
These are all facts I had known about Christ for as long as I could remember, and yet suddenly,
the stories revealed something new to me: Christ was perfect without being perfectly loved.
This new perspective on the Savior suddenly freed me from so much of my inner torment about
acceptance. Because if Christ didnt need to be loved by everyone, I didnt either. Of course
Christ loved others with completeness, a heavenly goal we should strive for each day, but I
realized that the return of that love is not a prerequisite for perfection.
This realization means that I dont need to let others opinions of me be the determining factor in
how I live; it means the fear of rejection shouldnt stop me from sharing the gospel; it means that
even without every human beings approval, I can still grow closer to becoming like Christ. I
will never stop trying to follow in Christs footsteps of service, friendship, care, and selfless
love. But I do not need to think that I am any less if that love is unreciprocated.
In his address None Were with Him, [https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/04/nonewere-with-him?lang=eng] Elder Jeffrey R. Holland counsels, May we stand by Jesus Christ at

Mormon Insights Without Perfect Love/page 2

all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in, even until death, for surely that
is how He stood by us when it was unto death and when He had to stand entirely and utterly
alone. Christ showed perfection, even when he was completely alone. I can stand by his side
fully, even without receiving perfect love.
(Word Count: 458)
[Link to the source article]
Read Elder Hollands full testimony of Christs perfection despite persecution in his talk None
Were with Him. [https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/04/none-were-withhim?lang=eng]
Source: lds.org [https://www.lds.org/?lang=eng]
Sophia Szilagyi, Kirkland, WA
Find more insights
Read The Living Christ [https://www.lds.org/manual/doctrine-and-covenants-and-churchhistory-student-study-guide/the-worldwide-church/the-living-christ-the-testimony-of-theapostles?lang=eng] for a moving reflection on the Saviors life on earth.
Learn about perfection through Elder Russell M. Nelsons general conference address
Perfection Pending. [https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1995/10/perfectionpending?lang=eng&_r=1]
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