“I Am the Light and the Life of the World”

D. Kelly Ogden, Andrew C. Skinner

“I am the light and the life of the world.” The identification of Jesus as the light of the world is metaphorical but also literal (D&C 88:6–13).

The Savior had just drunk from a very bitter cup. President James E. Faust described how we can follow His example: “Many members, in drinking of the bitter cup that has come to them, wrongfully think that this cup passes by others. In His first words to the people of the Western continent, Jesus of Nazareth poignantly spoke of the bitter cup the Father had given Him (see 3 Ne. 11:11). Every soul has some bitterness to swallow. Parents having a child who loses his way come to know a sorrow that defies description. A woman whose husband is cruel or insensitive can have her heart broken every day. Members who do not marry may suffer sorrow and disappointment. Having drunk the bitter cup, however, there comes a time when one must accept the situation as it is and reach upward and outward.”14

There is nothing any of us will ever suffer that our Savior has not also suffered. He descended not only to our condition but below all things (D&C 88:6; 122:8). When we cry out, “But you don’t understand!” he is the only One who actually does understand—all things, and his understanding is accompanied by compassion. The same applies, of course, to our Father.

Verse by Verse: The Book of Mormon: Vol. 2

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