For me, the application of the first great commandment can sometimes feel abstract, even daunting

 The first, to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind.

In this answer, Jesus Christ condenses the essence of the law embodied in the sacred teachings of the Old Testament. To love the Lord centers first on your heart—your very nature. The Lord asks that you love with all your soul—your entire consecrated being—and finally, to love with all your mind—your intelligence and intellect. Love for God is not limited or finite. It is infinite and eternal.

For me, the application of the first great commandment can sometimes feel abstract, even daunting. Gratefully, as I consider further words of Jesus, this commandment becomes much more graspable: “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” This I can do. I can love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, which then leads to prayer, scripture study, and temple worship. We love the Father and the Son through the payment of tithes, keeping the Sabbath day holy, living a virtuous and chaste life, and being obedient.

Loving the Lord is often measured in small daily deeds, footsteps on the covenant path: for young people, using social media to build up rather than tear down; leaving the party, movie, or activity where standards might be challenged; showing reverence for things sacred.

Bridging the Two Great Commandments

April 2024

General Conference

Gary E. Stevenson

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2024/04/53stevenson?lang=eng&verse=

Integrity flows from the first great commandment to love God.

 Integrity flows from the first great commandment to love God. Because you love God, you are true to Him at all times. You understand that there is right and wrong and there is absolute truth—God’s truth. Integrity means we do not lower our standards or behavior to impress or to be accepted by others. You “do what is right” and “let the consequence follow.”

Integrity: A Christlike Attribute

April 2024

General Conference

Jack N. Gerard

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2024/04/17gerard?lang=eng&verse=#p

The First Great Commandment - Do You Love the Lord?

Do you love the Lord?

Spend time with Him. Meditate on His words. Take His yoke upon you. Seek to understand and obey, because “this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.” When we love the Lord, obedience ceases to be a burden. Obedience becomes a delight. When we love the Lord, we seek less for things that benefit us and turn our hearts toward things that will bless and uplift others.

The Great Commandment

October 2007

2000–2009

Joseph B. Wirthlin

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2007/10/the-great-commandment?lang=eng&verse=#p

As a larger society, we routinely dismiss the other six commandments

 In my judgment, four of the Ten Commandments are taken as seriously today as ever. As a culture, we disdain and condemn murder, stealing, and lying, and we still believe in the responsibility of children to their parents.

But as a larger society, we routinely dismiss the other six commandments:

If worldly priorities are any indication, we certainly have “other gods” we put before the true God.

We make idols of celebrities, of lifestyles, of wealth, and yes, sometimes of graven images or objects.

We use the name of God in all kinds of profane ways, including our exclamations and our swearing.

We use the Sabbath day for our biggest games, our most serious recreation, our heaviest shopping, and virtually everything else but worship.

We treat sexual relations outside marriage as recreation and entertainment.

And coveting has become a far too common way of life. (See Exodus 20:3–17.)

Obedience to Law Is Liberty

April 2013

2010–2019

L. Tom Perry

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2013/04/obedience-to-law-is-liberty?lang=eng&verse=#p

Remember the first commandment before you exercise the second.

My first point is this: Remember the first commandment before you exercise the second.

One came to the Savior and asked Him:

Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

Jesus said unto him, 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.

And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Your ability to bring a holier approach to loving your neighbor, to caring for and ministering to others, will rest upon how strongly you keep the first commandment.

A Holier Approach to Ministering
NEIL L. ANDERSEN
of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
April 10, 2018 • Devotional

Upholding the Law of Chasitiy & Political Correctness

What other priorities are being “served” ahead of God by persons—even religious persons—in our day? Consider these possibilities, all common in our world:

• • 
  Cultural and family traditions
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  Political correctness
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  Career aspirations
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  Material possessions
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  Recreational pursuits
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  Power, prominence, and prestige

If none of these examples seems to apply to any one of us, we can probably suggest others that do. The principle is more important than individual examples. The principle is not whether we have other priorities. The question posed by the second commandment is “What is our ultimate priority?” Are we serving priorities or gods ahead of the God we profess to worship? Have we forgotten to follow the Savior who taught that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments? (see John 14:15). If so, our priorities have been turned upside down by the spiritual apathy and undisciplined appetites so common in our day.

....

The importance we attach to the law of chastity explains our commitment to the pattern of marriage that originated with Adam and Eve and has continued through the ages as God’s pattern for the procreative relationship between His sons and daughters and for the nurturing of His children.

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Our understanding of God’s plan and His doctrine gives us an eternal perspective that does not allow us to condone such behaviors or to find justification in the laws that permit them. And, unlike other organizations that can change their policies and even their doctrines, our policies are determined by the truths God has identified as unchangeable.

Our twelfth article of faith states our belief in being subject to civil authority and “in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.” But man’s laws cannot make moral what God has declared immoral. Commitment to our highest priority—to love and serve God—requires that we look to His law for our standard of behavior. For example, we remain under divine command not to commit adultery or fornication even when those acts are no longer crimes under the laws of the states or countries where we reside. Similarly, laws legalizing so-called “same-sex marriage” do not change God’s law of marriage or His commandments and our standards concerning it. We remain under covenant to love God and keep His commandments and to refrain from serving other gods and priorities—even those becoming popular in our particular time and place.

In this determination we may be misunderstood, and we may incur accusations of bigotry, suffer discrimination, or have to withstand invasions of our free exercise of religion. If so, I think we should remember our first priority—to serve God—and, like our pioneer predecessors, push our personal handcarts forward with the same fortitude they exhibited.

A teaching of President Thomas S. Monson applies to this circumstance. At this conference 27 years ago, he boldly declared: “Let us have the courage to defy the consensus, the courage to stand for principle. Courage, not compromise, brings the smile of God’s approval. Courage becomes a living and an attractive virtue when it is regarded not only as a willingness to die manfully, but as the determination to live decently. A moral coward is one who is afraid to do what he thinks is right because others will disapprove or laugh. Remember that all men have their fears, but those who face their fears with dignity have courage as well.”¹¹

I pray that we will not let the temporary challenges of mortality cause us to forget the great commandments and priorities we have been given by our Creator and our Savior. We must not set our hearts so much on the things of the world and aspire to the honors of men (see D&C 121:35) that we stop trying to achieve our eternal destiny. We who know God’s plan for His children—we who have made covenants to participate in it—have a clear responsibility. 

 October 2013 General Conference - No Other Gods - Dallin H. Oaks