What it means
Love is a fundamental quality of God, and those who aspire to be Godlike must live it out at the largest possible scale. Personal or family devotion isn't enough—genuine divine love drives a person outward, compelling them to actively seek the good of every human being on earth. It frames love not as a passive feeling but as a restless, expansive mission to benefit all of humanity without limit.
Relevance to Joseph Smith
Smith launched an ambitious worldwide missionary program, sending apostles to England in 1837 and organizing large-scale proselytizing across the U.S. His theology rejected Calvinist limited salvation in favor of broad, inclusive redemption—he taught God's primary work is the immortality and eternal life of all people. This quote reflects his lifelong conviction that the restored gospel was a gift meant for every person on earth, not just a chosen community.
The era
Smith lived during the Second Great Awakening, a wave of Protestant revivalism reshaping American religious life in the 1820s–1840s. Competing denominations debated salvation and divine nature while missionary societies expanded globally. Calvinist predestination—limiting God's grace to a chosen elect—was being challenged by more universal visions of salvation. Smith's teaching that divine love extends to all humanity countered exclusivist theology and resonated with the era's broader democratic and egalitarian impulses.
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