What is My Duty?

A single line in the Book of Mormon stood out to me this morning; it was as if the prophet Alma wanted to "awaken [me] to a sense of [my] duty" (Alma 7:22). The natural question that followed was "what is my duty?"

I read in the Bible that the "conclusion of the whole matter" was that we must "Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man" (Eccl. 12:13). This scripture reminded me of Christ's words when he 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" (Matthew 22:37-38).

My duty is to love God. If I love Him, I will keep His commandments (John 14:15), but the first thing He asks me to do is love. As John says, "We love him, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). What an amazing gift it is to know that THE CENTER OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST IS LOVE. President Merrill J. Bateman sums up this principle in these words:

"The greatest act of love in the history of the world is the atoning sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father. The Atonement reveals the intense feelings of both the Father and the Son for all mankind" (Because He First Loved Us).

I am so grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ and for the love of God. My duty—and my greatest privilege—is to to love in return.