Talk Preparation Guide for "Teach Truth with Love"

Elder Clark G. Gilbert teaches that disciples of Jesus Christ stand for truth and extend love together. Drawing on counsel from Church leaders and examples from his own life, he presents five principles that help us communicate gospel convictions with courage, patience, and charity. As you prepare your sacrament meeting talk, consider how these principles invite you and your listeners to become more like the Savior rather than focus on others’ shortcomings. Preview questions to consider before reading: (1) When do I find it difficult to combine conviction with compassion? (2) How does listening help me understand someone whose beliefs differ from mine? (3) How can I show genuine love without setting aside God’s commandments? (4) What does my example communicate about the joy of keeping covenants? (5) Which Christlike attribute do I most need to develop when discussing truth?

Topics

Examine Your Heart as You Unite Truth and Love

Elder Gilbert invites us to apply his message to ourselves rather than identify everyone else who needs it. Teaching truth with love requires both courage and humility, and different disciples may need to strengthen either their conviction or their charity.

It takes courage to stand for truth. It takes even more courage to stand for truth with love.

For disciples of Jesus Christ, truth and love always walk together.

For some this will require greater conviction. For others it will demand greater charity.

Key Points:

Truth and love belong together in Christian discipleship.
Self-examination helps us recognize our own weaknesses instead of concentrating on others’ shortcomings.
Pride and jealousy interfere with peacemaking.
The Lord helps us as we strive to teach truth with love.

Experiences:

Recall a time when a gospel message leads you to examine yourself rather than judge someone else. What changes in your perspective?
Consider a situation in which you need greater courage to express your beliefs. How can charity shape your approach?
Think of someone who combines firm conviction with genuine kindness. What specific behavior can you describe?
Identify an experience that helps you recognize your need for greater humility or charity. What lesson can you share without exposing another person’s private struggles?

Avoid Contention and Recognize Hidden Pain

Elder Gilbert teaches that standing for truth does not require responding to every criticism. Choosing silence or postponing a discussion can preserve peace, while remembering another person’s unseen pain helps us respond with compassion rather than anger.

There are times when being a peacemaker means that we resist the impulse to respond and instead, with dignity, remain quiet.

Sometimes what we perceive as hostility may actually be someone’s hidden pain or regret.

I may have won the debate in the moment, but I lost the Spirit and I failed to help my struggling friend.

That day I stood for truth, but I did it without love and without charity.

Key Points:

Some settings are too contentious for a constructive discussion of truth.
Remaining quiet can express dignity and peacemaking rather than agreement.
Doubts or hostility may reflect struggles we cannot see.
Winning an argument does not necessarily help a person or preserve the Spirit.
Love for friends and family continues even when they step away from the Church.

Experiences:

Recall a tense conversation in which choosing not to respond helps preserve peace. What guides that choice?
Think of a time when learning more about someone’s struggles changes how you interpret their behavior.
Consider an experience in which being right becomes more important to you than being kind. What does it teach you?
Reflect on how you maintain love for someone who questions or leaves the Church. Which actions communicate that love?

Find Common Ground by Listening with Love

Elder Gilbert emphasizes listening before attempting to correct or teach. Patient attention helps us understand people’s struggles and sincere efforts, creating common ground from which we can offer gospel invitations with love.

As I listened to their stories, I was tempted at times to interject, but the Spirit kept prompting me to wait.

Resisting the impulse to initially respond built common ground, which allowed me later to teach from a place of love.

As with the Savior, “we love him, because he [loved us first].”

Key Points:

Listening comes before responding or offering instruction.
The Spirit can prompt us to wait rather than interrupt.
Understanding another person’s concerns helps us recognize sincere striving.
Common ground makes loving teaching and invitations possible.
The Savior’s initiating love provides a pattern for our relationships.

Experiences:

Recall a time when someone listens carefully to you. How does that attention affect your willingness to receive counsel?
Think of a conversation in which listening reveals common ground you do not initially recognize.
Consider a moment when you feel prompted to wait before speaking. What becomes clearer as you listen?
Reflect on a ministering experience in which understanding someone’s concerns helps you offer a more meaningful invitation.

Shine Your Light by Keeping Your Covenants

Elder Gilbert teaches that faithful, joyful discipleship can influence others more effectively than pointed arguments. Keeping our own covenants and showing our love for the Lord opens opportunities to help others.

Let your skeptical friends see how much you love the Lord and His gospel. Surprise their doubting hearts with your believing heart!

The best way to help someone else keep their covenants is to keep your covenants.

Being a light opens more doors than any pointed argument ever will.

Key Points:

Our example communicates the strength and joy of our faith.
We help others keep covenants by faithfully keeping our own.
Remaining rooted in the gospel allows us to continue inviting those we love.
A peaceful response can preserve opportunities for future conversations.
Being a light offers an alternative to trying to persuade through argument.

Experiences:

Think of someone whose joyful covenant keeping strengthens your desire to follow Jesus Christ.
Recall an opportunity to discuss faith that grows naturally from your example rather than a debate.
Consider how your daily choices show family members or friends that the gospel brings you joy.
Reflect on a relationship in which patience and consistent kindness keep the door open for future spiritual conversations.

Love Others Without Surrendering God’s Truth

Elder Gilbert teaches that loving outreach does not require abandoning gospel standards. Loving God first strengthens our ability to love His children, and the Savior models compassion while continuing to call people to obey His commandments.

The covenants we have made inevitably position us as devoted participants in the eternal contest between truth and error.

As near as I can tell, Christ never once withheld His love from anyone, but He also never once said to anyone, ‘Because I love you, you are exempt from keeping my commandments.’

Putting the first commandment first does not diminish or limit our ability to keep the second commandment. To the contrary, it amplifies and strengthens it.

When we try to love others by minimizing God’s laws, we separate ourselves from the one person who loves them the very most.

go, and sin no more.

Key Points:

Showing love does not mean surrendering gospel values.
Forgiving sin differs from condoning it.
The Savior offers love while upholding His commandments.
Loving God first elevates our ability to care for His children.
Compassion and invitations to repent can coexist.

Experiences:

Recall a time when someone expresses love for you while encouraging you to live a gospel standard.
Think of a relationship in which you seek to remain warm and supportive while maintaining your convictions. What helps?
Consider how putting your love for God first improves the way you care for another person.
Reflect on an experience in which repentance helps you feel the Savior’s love rather than rejection.
Identify a simple example of communicating a boundary or belief respectfully without condemning another person.

Anchor Your Words and Actions in Jesus Christ

Elder Gilbert identifies Jesus Christ as the anchor for teaching truth with love. He invites us to evaluate our responses through the qualities of charity, including patience, kindness, humility, and rejoicing in truth.

The fifth principle then is to stay anchored in Jesus Christ.

Ask yourself if you carry these Christlike attributes when you are striving to stand for truth with love:

And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in … truth.

I believe teaching truth with love will be the hallmark of Christ’s disciples in the last days.

Key Points:

Jesus Christ provides the model for combining truth and love.
Heavenly Father’s communication contrasts with the adversary’s loud, boastful messages.
Charity gives us a practical measure for evaluating our words and motives.
Patience, kindness, humility, and restraint support faithful teaching.
Charity rejoices in truth rather than in iniquity.

Experiences:

Recall a moment when focusing on Jesus Christ helps you respond more patiently to disagreement.
Consider which quality in Moroni 7:45 challenges you most. What everyday experience illustrates your effort to develop it?
Think of a time when a quiet, clear spiritual prompting helps you choose your words.
Reflect on an experience in which prayer or scripture study helps replace irritation with compassion.
Identify a recent interaction that you can evaluate through the Savior’s example. What would you repeat, and what would you change?