At a time of contempt and hostility affecting many different relationships in society, President Dallin H. Oaks of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints echoed Jesus Christ’s revolutionary teaching: “Love even your enemies.”
President Oaks, 18th President of the Church, taught Latter-day Saints worldwide during April 2026 general conference on Easter Sunday of the Savior’s great commandments to love God and neighbor.
Quoting Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount, President Oaks said: “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:43-44).
President Oaks explained that the sources from which King James’ translators chose the word “enemies” included military foes and any who actively oppose one another.
“Today we might say that we are commanded to love our adversaries,” he said. “All mortals are beloved children of God.”
He spoke about Latter-day Saints’ belief in the literal Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the universal resurrection for all who live on earth.
“I wonder if we fully appreciate the enormous significance of this belief in a literal, universal resurrection,” he said. “The conviction that death is not the conclusion of our identity changes the whole perspective of our mortal life. … It helps us live together in love in this life in anticipation of joyful reunions and associations in the next.”
Loving an adversary
President Oaks shared a story in which he witnessed the “uncommon loving of an adversary.”
At a stake conference several years ago, President Oaks felt impressed to call on a particular woman to give a short talk. This woman spoke of her experience as a nurse caring for a patient whom she described as “the most repulsive man” she had ever met, who did everything he could to make life miserable for the nurses.
One evening, after hearing a loud crash from this man’s room, she was shocked to find that he had fallen out of bed and was “thrashing about in a pool of broken glass, liquid and blood.”
“In that moment, a profound change came over her,” President Oaks recalled. “She felt an almost electric current of love from our Heavenly Father to this man. She saw him as a child of God. … She testified that being brought to see a despised enemy like this as a child of God was one of the great spiritual experiences of her life.”
President Oaks said this was a lesson he needed to learn about God’s love for all His children.
‘Seek to live peaceably’
Following the Savior’s teachings about how to relate to one another does not mean surrendering one’s values, President Oaks noted.
“The covenants we have made inevitably position us as devoted participants in the eternal contest between truth and error. We balance our various responsibilities,” he said, acknowledging that this balancing is not easy.
“When we seek to keep all the commandments in our personal lives, we are sometimes accused of having no love for those who don’t. When we show personal love and support loving causes, we are sometimes misunderstood as implying support for results that contradict our other religious duties.
“But as followers of Christ, we should seek to live peaceably and lovingly with other children of God who do not share our values and do not have the covenant obligations we have assumed,” President Oaks said.
He encouraged all to choose to love others — even if they show little or no love toward them — and quoted the Savior’s words: “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9).
President Russell M. Nelson, the late 17th President of the Church, invited all “to choose to be a peacemaker, now and always.”
President Oaks asked how someone can be a peacemaker. He listed several examples, including a bishop who seeks to heal a troubled marriage, young men and young women who involve themselves in service projects, people who seek to reduce human suffering, parents who lovingly care for their children and missionaries who invite others to come unto Christ.
“My brothers and sisters, as followers of Christ, let us follow Him by forgoing contention and by using the language and methods of peacemakers,” President Oaks declared. “In our families and other personal relationships, let us avoid what is harsh and hateful.”
