Videos

November 2, 2014 - #4442 "Love Never Counts"

Music & the Spoken Word broadcast with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square. November 2, 2014 Broadcast Number 4442. 

Music

“Rejoice, the Lord Is King”1 
Composer: Malcolm Archer
Lyrics: Charles Wesley

“Sheep May Safely Graze”2
Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach
Lyrics: Katherine K. Davis

“All Things Bright and Beautiful” (Organ Solo)
English folk tune
Arrangement: Dale Wood

“Who Will Buy?” 3 from Oliver
Composer: Lionel Bart
Lyrics: Lionel Bart
Arrangement: Michael Davis

“Love One Another”4
Composer: Luacine Clark Fox
Lyrics: Luacine Clark Fox
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg

“Psalm 148”5
Composer: Gustav Holst
Lyrics from Scripture

  1. On the CD Consider the Lilies and in the CD set Encore Collection.
  2. On the CD Heavensong and in the CD set Bravo! The #1 Albums.
  3. On the CD Showtime! and in the CD set Encore Collection.
  4. On the CD Teach Me To Walk In The Light and in the CD set The Missionary Collection. 
  5. On the CD Glory! Music of Rejoicing

Spoken Word

“Love Never Counts”

Love has no end and no limits. It remains when all else fails; it grows as hearts are knit together in the bonds of kindness, selflessness, and compassion; it simply endures. And just as true love never quits, it also never counts or itemizes-it flows freely from an abundant heart.

As American pastor Charles Edward Jefferson observed: “When did a mother ever count the number of times she kissed her baby, and when did a friend ever catalogue the number of favors toward his friend, or when did a parent ever make a list of all the good things he gave his children? Love never counts. It is the nature of love to give, and to keep on giving, and then to devise new ways of larger giving, and to imagine still additional needs which may be supplied.”1

Truly, love is giving. And the irony is that the more we give, the more our love expands, and our desire and capacity to give also increase. The virtues and qualities and habits of a loving heart grow within us.

In the same way, love doesn’t keep a list of wrongs or offences. The Apostle Peter once asked, “How [often] shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?” Jesus’s answer, “Until seventy times seven,” was less about specificnumbers and more an invitation to stop counting.2 Love, after all, never counts.

We witness this truth every time we watch a worried parent patiently nursing a sick child back to health. Then, decades later, that same son or daughter gives similar loving care to the elderly parent-not out of a sense of indebtedness; simply out of love. The years may come and go, but the words and deeds of love are forever engraved in our hearts. Who can ever forget an act of love freely given?

As we strive to show and grow our love, let us remember that our expressions of love are echoes of the continuous and unlimited love of God. For as we truly love, we come to know His perfect love.3

1. The Character of Jesus (1908), 210. 
2. See Matthew 18:21-35.
3. See 1 John 4:7-12.