Love is a Law, Not a Reward - Adam Miller at Restore

[@xhuxhmaxhuxh]

This is incredible. I love it.

[@lornaphillips7888]

One of the BEST talks of the Conference! It’s simple and deep. I will never look at love the same way again. Thank you, Adam Miller!

[@nicoleowens2318]

I am floored by the profundity of this speech. His humility is inspiring, a perfect representation of Yeshua's teachings. I hope he never stops speaking his truth in such a humble fashion. I enjoyed this so much, and it also helped me understand some things. Amazing speech. Kudos!

[@teresalinton5994]

I love this and loved when he said the same things with Hank & John (Follow Him podcast) in one of their episodes this year. Love is a gift of the heart; I hear what you are saying. But I like the idea of Law because it lays down the idea of principles and ordinances of the gospel. Love is a law in terms of how we are to live in this life, a principle of truth. Paul tells us to repent of “dead works” which to me says, like Adam here, that we might be getting something backwards in our choices that are dead or not fruitful in the gospel paradigm, not fruitful in building a real relationship with Christ, even if the checklist has all the “Sunday school answers”. Choices bring light and life or they are dead works (if we polarize things for the sake of articulating principles) in their ability to bring us to the truth in Christ. Love as a law is a matter of being, a matter of how we see ourselves in relation to Christ and others. It takes the competition away that tells my heart Christ loves others more than me for whatever reason I come up with in my insecurities. It allows us to forget ourselves and then we find ourselves as we engage in Christ’s work helping and loving others. When I operate in this paradigm, my heart is no longer engaged in worrying (the guilt and shame) about my standing with Christ. It is so liberating to “settle it in my heart” and just take Christ’s love for me as a foundational truth. Much easier said than done. It is a struggle for me to maintain this confidence of Christ’s love for me, but talks like this one that articulate the philosophy that I’m mistakenly looking for love as a reward is a great help to shift my misguided mindset and trust in Christ. The law of gravity produces certain results. The law of love likewise produces certain spiritual results. I feel the difference. Thanks for this great talk Adam!

[@wre089]

Thank you. I had never heard love described this way, and it has changed how I try to live. When I love others and am sad for not being loved as much as I hoped, I remember the law to love.

[@terrigeorge4279]

Wow!!! I feel like these concepts are crystal clear, so why have I missed them so much of my life? I am going to listen to this over and over. So Much simple truth here. So Much simplicity in the Gospel of Jesus Christ - it's all about LOVE! And not to seek the reward. Thank you so much for brightening my day and lifting my mind! ❤

[@9vickiSue9]

I see that we can view the transcript so we can also print it and have it to savor often. Adam Miller has been a gift I need and appreciate.

[@Anonymous_Monkey]

Wonderful! Paradigm-changing. Thank you! 🎉

[@SynThenergy]

Fantastic! Love is the law not the reward

[@bethsyoung641]

This was just shared via email to our RS. Kudos to our ward RS presidency!

[@marlenedaltonadams3278]

Thank you Adam, thank you for this message from your heart.

[@ericaakwetey3807]

Thank you brother Adam for your interpretation of divine love as the divine law. God bless you all # faith matters

[@ardencompton]

Excellent insights. I really appreciate this message so much. In might just be a matter of semantics, but for me it seems to fit better to say that love is a gift, rather than a law. We are commanded to share that gift gift of love unconditionally. Thanks again for the wonderful insights in this message, tying together the frog and the toad with the prodigal son. I have heard the prodigal son story my whole life, I have studied it and learned so much from it, and yet this talk provided new insights I had never considered. Thank you.

[@xrpreacher6000]

If it fits for you, great! Law fits way better for me to help my mind be drawn into the bigger picture of what the effects of fulfilling the law are, who the effects can and do impact, and how the effects of the law are being brought to pass. A gift just conjures up pictures of birthday parties and kids with toys next to a tree. To each their own though in how the bigger picture gets elucidated. Much love!

[@tsmithson1]

What are the effects of fulfilling the law from your perspective?@@xrpreacher6000

[@craftsmancoatingsinc4354]

I just read original grace. One of the best reads of my life. It puts much of what I’ve learned into a well written book. Thank you

[@brandonfabrizio]

I have been praying for a way to see all God's children the same way that God sees them. These profound words opened up my mind! Thank you for sharing this!!!

[@JamesEnkey]

I just watched this and bawled the whole time! lol I love this message.

[@9vickiSue9]

Thank you again for giving me a perspective and warm light to shine on my understanding of The Gospel of Jesus Christ.

[@Muzzy2024]

and thought provoking book. Highly recommend!

[@Muzzy2024]

Original Grace is an intensely spiritual

[@Muzzy2024]

Love is to be magnified and multiplied, it is God’s Law by which He Himself lives and loves💞

[@colleenmoorefield2034]

Profoundly insightful….Thank you!

[@svetavasilieva7841]

Wow, that was so life changing. I always considered myself as a second son, who was always obedient with exactness. You could write 10 commandments just from looking at me ( just kidding). But really I always gave 200%. And nevertheless I felt like God forgot about me and how He blesses the first son with what is mine (again not literally). But you are so right. I got it all wrong. I knew I was wrong but I didn’t know how. Thank you , thank you, thank you!!!

[@charlesfinn-z4d]

Wonderful, love is a commandment. President Holland said recently , paraphrasing :a great truth is God loves us with his whole heart, might, mind and strength. God’s love is unconditional. I will focus on loving myself and others, that will bring joy, for me and them.

[@NoCarnations]

An amazing and perfect message- but it’s not perfectionistic!😉❤️ So beautiful!

[@Skian-ci9xs]

Awesome lecture, Millers stuff is amazing. Also brother got drip, are those the cactus jack mochas or are they custom?

[@davidfrey5654]

Although love is a law and God loves us no matter our actions, those that obey his commandment are favored by him. "1 Nephi 17:35-“Behold, the Lord esteemeth all flesh in one; he that is righteous is favored of God”

[@cinnimini404]

Sounds like God’s love isn’t that helpful unless you get his “favor”. The “favor” is the real love, love with utility. The ability to become God’s favor-ite among others. Not this universal concept. What use does love have to us if not to place ourselves in a hierarchy of favor-tism? By the scripture reference, sounds like the elder son had it right. Foolish father, blessings are for those who earn God’s love. Now give him his rightful kid and kick the prodigal to the curb like he really deserves.

[@tsmithson1]

The key to understanding or misunderstanding the verse you referenced is a more accurate understanding of the word "righteous". Generally, our modern use suggests that righteousness is a measure of personal behaviors, set against some set of ideals, which determine how i am seen by God. This, however, is not righteousness at all, it is a "me" project, focused on self, preoccupied with making myself acceptable to God. The word righteous is most accurately translated as "justice", which is at outward looking idea. Mentioned three times in the opening twenty verses of what is often called Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-20), it soon becomes clear that “righteousness”, and how we practice it, is an undercurrent to God’s Kingdom project. The implication is clear: the religious establishment had obscured the meaning of righteousness and Jesus intended a new kind of believer, captured in the Beatitudes and the subsequent verses (vv. 1-19), to restore it. So, how did the religious establishment view righteousness? The Pharisees primarily equated “righteousness” with “piety”, one’s personal, moral, right-standing before God. And they taught that only a scrupulous adherence to personal holiness would beget God’s blessings. Sound familiar? A little too close to how a lot of Christendom views it today? Moreover, the Pharisees turned righteousness into a self-serving measure of personal piety, a yardstick with which to beat others. So, for example, when Jesus taught, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matthew 5:6), it’s easy to assume He’s urging us to strive to become more upright, moral, virtuous. And when Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake” (Matthew 5:10), it’s easy to take this to mean that He’s encouraging us to stand firm when we are ridiculed for being upright, pure, pious. However, equating “righteousness” with personal piety alone cuts the meaning in half and empties it of its heart. The word “righteousness” (Greek: dikaiosune) is intrinsically associated with the concept of justice. It stems from the Greek word dikaios meaning “equity of character and action” where the stress on equity (impartiality, fairness) and action implies the concept of justice. It is also associated with the noun dikastes, the word meaning “a judge, arbitrator, umpire”. In other words, the Biblical equation for righteousness is: Righteousness = Character (Piety) + Action (Justice) However, the Pharisees cut off the second part of the equation and turned piety inwards: Righteousness = Piety And without the justice element of the word, we lose the heart of our faith, as the Pharisees before us. Focusing solely on rightness before God, it’s too easy to assume that we’re absolved from our duty to others. Compassion becomes an optional extra because all that principally matters is personal piety. Nothing irked Jesus more than this mutilation job the Pharisees pulled off. His confrontations with them were frequent. Later, in Matthew’s account, Jesus accused them of “neglecting the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith” (Matthew 23:23, italics added). In other words, Jesus was not merely referring to one’s private and personal piety when He spoke of righteousness, but also to one’s public and societal responsibility to seek and stand for justice; that is, the wellbeing and good of others, especially the disenfranchised. And justice, of course, deals with the use or abuse of privilege and power (a core issue in Jesus’ teachings)