The following is excerpted from the Church News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland has often thought of the concern Jesus must have felt as He knew His mortal ministry was coming to an end and that the daily, ongoing operation of His Church would fall on the shoulders of a dozen very ordinary men.
“Did they know enough? Had they understood any part of what He had tried so hard to teach them? Could they carry off this tremendous responsibility successfully?” asked Elder Holland.
During an address that was broadcast June 26 as part of the 2020 Mission Leadership Seminar, Elder Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles addressed “The Two Great Commandments.”
Turning his thoughts to the Savior’s final hours, Elder Holland questioned: What final lesson could the Savior teach in those final hours that would carry His Apostles through His physical absence?
“With a plea, indeed a commandment, that should pierce us today as much as it did them, the living Son of God summarized His entire ministry and their ultimate, ongoing responsibility in one concept, one grand, eternal principle. ‘A new commandment I give unto you,’ He said quietly, ‘[t]hat ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another’ ” (John 13:34–35).
Elder Holland offered two thoughts about the “new commandment.”
First, he said, this key to gospel success is surprisingly simple.
Jesus consciously chose “one principle, one measuring rod for success that is very easily grasped if not necessarily so easily lived. He says to them in effect, ‘If you will remember this one commandment, you will have understood me and understood my gospel.’ ”
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