Today many of us are teaching or learning about King Benjamin’s teachings in Mosiah 4. (Book of Mormon). There is a verse in that chapter that I think deserves a closer look – and if you will bear with me and read 7 verses, it will make more sense. Here they are:
Mosiah 4:10 And again, believe that ye must repent of your sins and forsake them, and humble yourselves before God; and ask in sincerity of heart that he would forgive you; and now, if you believe all these things see that ye do them.
11 And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel.
12 And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true.
13 And ye will not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably, and to render to every man according to that which is his due.
14 And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil, who is the master of sin, or who is the evil spirit which hath been spoken of by our fathers, he being an enemy to all righteousness.
15 But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another.
16 And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.
Quick summary: In verses 10-11, Mosiah gives a great explanation of what we need to do to get started on “the path”. (it’s OK if the sacrament prayers come to mind)
Humble
Repent and forsake sins
Remission of Sins
Retain in remembrance
Daily prayer
In verses 12-16, he gives us a list of other things we need to work on.
Retain remission of sins
Grow in knowledge of God and truth
Don’t injure one another
Don’t let children go hungry or naked, or quarrel and be disobedient to commandments
Teach your children
Be charitable towards others
Give of your possessions to the poor
So that is a pretty big list. But are we being told to do those things, or are those things a result of living a clean Spirit filled life? Remember, verses 10-11 are the pattern to become clean and have the Spirit with us. Now read verse 12 again, and look at the word “IF”.
12 And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true.
Can it be that the counsel listed in 12-16 isn’t really counsel at all? Or is it the result of how we are led to behave if the Spirit is directing our lives, and we have received knowledge of what is good and true?
Remember when Enos repented? As soon as he knew he was forgiven, his heart turned to his brethren. Doesn’t it follow that as we live cleanly, the Spirit will guide us to do that “checklist” provided by King Benjamin?
You’ll note that King Benjamin never talks in a “Thou shalt not” in this section he says “you will not”.
Maybe the focus needs to be more on keeping clean, and keeping the Spirit in our lives, and less about the checklist.
Just a thought – comments welcome.
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“Not only is your feeling the influence of the Holy Ghost a sign that the Atonement, the cure for sin, is working in your life, but you will also know that a preventative against sin is working.” – Henry B Eyring
“What the sunshine is to the field and to the flowers the Holy Spirit is to the life of man.” -David O McKay
Love the post- THANKS!
Great post. But you had us read 7 verses…
Duly noted. Thanks for straining at that gnat for me.
Read an excellent article in Meridian Magazine that completely backs up your thought, MMM. The author calls it “spiritual dyslexia,” in that we think we must make sure our kids never fight before we get these awesome blessings – which, as we all know, is a near impossibility in a family of more than one kid! She (the author) clarified that those blessings are given as a result of obeying the aforementioned commandments. Here’s the link if you want to read it – I thought the article was excellent, but that’s not to say that it was in any way superior to the blog entry of my favorite MMM!
http://ldsmag.com/church/article/9733?ac=1
Wow – I read it – she and I were definitely on the same wavelength!
Love this post and line of thoughts. Here is what I think about it:
The entire list in 12-16 can be described in one word: charity.
And our ability to have charity (to bestow on others) is based on having experienced charity from God in the first place (tasting of His love)…
1. When we seek to know God – we believe Him, have faith, and then ask for repentance, we receive it. We covenant with Him, and receive the blessing of His Spirit (which then helps our faith grow in Him, causing us to repent, we renew our covenants, and then continue to Have His spirit with us.
2. as we experience the Spirit in our lives, we feel His love. Over time, I’ve realized that the blessings of the Spirit like peace and comfort, and the love I feel when I have been forgiven are miracles.
3. This love we are filled with is the pure love of Christ. In order to express charity – the pure love of Christ, we first need to obtain it. We obtain charity when we have faith, repent, and covenant with Heavenly Father – when we have experienced His grace (see Ether 12:36.
4. I think of the two commandments – to love God and then love one another. When we express our love to God, we become more cognizant of His love for us. We experience His love. Christ told the apostles, “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” – John 15:12. We hear this a lot. And I’ve always kind of thought that we should love others, like Jesus has loved us. However, when I really start to think about it, I realize that he is teaching that we should love others the same way he has loved us. We should love others purely. We should love others with patience, long-suffering, kindness, without being puffed-up, quick to anger, or seeking our own. We can know how to love others as Jesus loves us when we have experienced His love.
So – i guess I’m saying the same thing over and over…but I totally agree – when we do what it says in Mosiah 4:10-11, then what follows, in vs 12-6 is a result of coming to the Lord, and experiencing His love. I’m so excited about subjects like this. Thanks for posting!
I had an experience in a class where we were trying to figure out what our “message” was. They did a visualization activity to help us out. During that I “saw” my potential and what I could accomplish. After that everything changed because I knew that that person lied within me and I wasn’t even close to being that person at that time. I came home and learned something interesting. When I knew WHO I was, I no longer had the desire to do anything wrong– movies, music, etc were not even a temptation. I’ve come to believe that if we could truly see ourselves how God sees us and comprehend who we are to become, we would have no problem being obedient because we naturally “are” the person we saw. (I hope that made sense.) It has been a powerful lesson to me on exactly what you are talking about. Thanks for the great thoughts!!
You know, I love reading your Sunday Thoughts. I’ve attended Primary for the past 6 years–I had a year and a half break to attend Nursery. (I think my bishop thinks that I’m never going to graduate. Or that I’m 11.) I love that the lessons I teach are all about keeping the commandments, or how to let the Holy Ghost guide you. The more I’m in Primary, the more I realize that it’s not more complex. It’s all there; these little kids get the whole gospel and not some watered down version. Thanks for backing me up on Sunday.
🙂 Still waiting for an opportunity to serve in the Primary.
It’s the best place. We get to sing, we get to wiggle, we get to color, and we get to laugh–no one speculates, and it’s all great!
I have long held the belief (and have taught my children) that people who are being led by the Spirit have no need to be reminded of commandments. There is no need to remind us to do our home teaching, or do missionary work, read our scriptures, say our prayers, hold Family Home Evening, or attend the temple, etc. because we are already doing all those things. When we are led by the Spirit, we don’t require long lists of things we “can do/can’t do” on the Sabbath, we don’t make excuses or exceptions for ourselves regarding the Word of Wisdom, nor do we require specific lists of what is included/excluded – we already know. It begins with faith in God, which leads to humility, which leads to gratitude and a repentant heart, which leads us to submit to God’s will and receive the necessary ordinances and to keep all His commandments and even the slightest counsel from His living prophet and anyone he has called and on whom he has conferred keys. Keeping the covenants we have made entitles us to the constant companionship of the Spirit, which leads us to do what’s good and right in all things. We’ll still have our “moments” of weakness from time to time, but we will immediately feel the need to repent and put things right. The longer we continue on this path, the fewer deviations we will make and we will find that we are becoming like our Savior and our Father, with no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually. When we have thoroughly and completely subordinated our natural tendencies to the spiritual, then we are well on the path to Eternal Life. God’s life.
Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Great comment Del. (is this the Del I think it is?)
You guessed it.
I figured – it had “General Authority” written all over it.
Nursery Leader. That’s my dream calling (although I’ve only been allowed to serve there once). Is it bad that I aspire to that calling again?
My favorite quote from my Stake conference today:
““When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power.” (Pres. Benson)
Maybe part of the power we receive is enhanced ability to be the kind of person described in Mosiah 4.
Great post.
That is a delicious quote. Thank you!
I hadn’t thought of it as a delicious quote, but I have had it on my fridge for years. How apropos.
Our family has been reading the Gospel of John in our family scripture study, and we had a discussion about this in relation to John 13:17: “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” We often will have discussions with our children in our hopes of some sort of course-correction in their lives. Sometimes they respond with, “I know, I know.” We discuss the difference between wisdom and knowledge. Knowledge does you no good if you do not apply it, and wisdom is the careful application of the knowledge.
Sister Beck said several times, “The ability to qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life.” Living to be worthy of the Spirit will allow us to receive instruction as to what we need to do, and it will refine our desires until we desire only what is right.
Awesome lesson today, not because of the teacher in the front of the room, but because of the Teacher who reminded me of a truth.
Elder Maxwell visited our ward several years ago and I was reminded of something he counseled us:
“Sometimes we spend so much time in Gospel discussion and less time in the doing”
His reference was Mosiah 4:10. It’s all great to generate discussion and share testimony and truth. Even in lesson preparation, talks in church, reading scriptures and conference talks…… but the real test is in the DOING.
Next chapter (Mosiah 5:2)
“And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.”
If the spirit is strong enough in your life then the spirit brings about a might change, we overcome the natural man and have “no more disposition to do evil” I would say if we make it that far we certainly won’t need a list !
RJRdaydreamer
It’s amazing how when people have the Spirit with them, they don’t need to be told how to live their lives. At that point, it’s just intuitive. The following scripture comes to mind:
2 Nephi 32:5
For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do.
It’s also interesting that in Brigham Young’s vision of Joseph Smith, when Brigham asked for advice for the Saints, Joseph said, “Tell the people to be humble and faithful and sure to keep the Spirit of the Lord and it will lead them right. Be careful and not turn away the small still voice; it will teach [them what] to do and where to go; it will yield the fruits of the kingdom.” Of all the advice Joseph could have given them, he told them to keep the Spirit. It’s as simple and hard as that.
Good Sabbath. This post makes me regret that I haven’t been able to go to Gospel Doctrine this year hardly at all, maybe twice.
Comment about the Sacrament Prayer:
The prayer over the bread lists 3 important covenants: Keep the commandments, Take upon us the Name of Christ, Always remember Him. To these 3 the prayer uses the word “willing”.
The prayer over the water only lists Always remember Him, but it uses the word “do”.
It reminds me of “always retain in remembrance…,” from your verses here in Mosiah, and then everything little thing will be alright.