Let thy bowels...be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God. |
We live in the age of the great divide – an ever broadening gap between the values that the Lord has declared as the foundation of His Church and kingdom and the values of society as a whole. ...in [all things\ the spirit of anti-Christ pervades ever more brazenly. Wood, Robert S., The Complete Christian (Deseret Book: Salt Lake City, Utah, 2007), p. 15 |
We need only look around us to see what is taking place in our communities to realize that personal traits of virtue are in a steep decline. H. David Burton, "Let Virtue Garnity Your Thoughts," October 2009 General Conference [Link] |
[But\ we need not be a part of the virtue malaise that is penetrating and infecting society. ...We need to stand tall and be firmly fixed in perpetuating Christlike virtues...in our everyday lives. |
It is true that we need only look around us to see that our society is in a degraded phase where principal virtues which once were honoured are now often scorned and ignored.
Although certain basic values are still more or less, or more likely than not, considered “good things” - such as honesty, forgiveness and generosity – other values seem to have gradually, over the past century or so, dropped off the map.
Chastity, modesty and fidelity in particular have suffered in the onslaught of so-called liberating philosophies that have sought to undermine the sanctity and purity of the family and marriage relationships.
Latter-day Saints and other Christians and spiritually minded people are amongst the very last strong defenders of such values. But we also live in the real world and are subject to all its temptation, distractions and deceits. For our part, we must not be deceived.
Avoiding the deception of Satan and society is not always easy. Harder still is to avoid the deceptions that are built into our own characters and traditions.
When my son was given his name and a blessing, I found myself promising him that he would not be deceived by the false traditions of his parents. Oh, how I have come to rue that blessing...but in fact what a wonderful gift it is to him:
Each of us is encumbered with
ideas, practices, habits and traditions
that are wrong;
they come to us from our cultures, our parents, and through our own experiences and perceptions, which are not always reliable or accurate transmitters of the truth.
This is nothing to feel condemned about; this is simply part of the human condition. It is part of what we are born into life to experience and to work out, and to work ourselves out of.
How do we do this? How do we work our way out of error, and instead work ourselves into that condition in which we might instead be filled with charity and let virtue garnish our every thought?
When considering these questions I remembered the story of Jesus following His baptism when He went into the wilderness for 40 days to prepare Himself for His mission to come.
While he was there,
Satan came to Him,
tempting Him.
First, because Jesus had been fasting, Satan tempted Him with food. “If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.” Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone but by the word of God.”
Then the devil took Jesus up into a high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and said, “All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them...If thou...wilt worship me.” Jesus responded, “Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”
Finally, Satan took Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem and said, “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence, For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee.” And Jesus answered, “It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God,”
and the devil, defeated, departed.
(For the foregoing scriptural story and quotations, see Matthew 4:1-11.)
Whether or not there was really the possibility or likelihood that Jesus could have been deceived by Satan, what is important for us is to understand why He was not. The clues are in His answers.
First, because Jesus is weak from hunger because of his fast, Satan tempts Him with the desire for food. Likewise, we are often tempted to seek satisfaction regarding those physical or material things we might think we lack.
Often, these temptations arise in relation to those things that are forbidden to us; they seem to because almost more desirable simply because we have been told we cannot or should not have them. These might include temptations to indulge in unlawful or unfair ways of making money when we believe we are poor; or to smoke, drink alcohol or gamble, or in other ways participate in the entertainment and activities of the world; and I likely need not tell any adult how anger toward or feeling neglected by a spouse can tempt a person to have unworthy thoughts and desires.
Of course, we are also tempted because of genuine needs and legitimate wants that are combined with an incorrect sense or idea of priorities.
These include the temptation of a student to cheat at school, when he thinks that getting a good mark is more important than doing his honest best; and the temptation of the lonely to seek out relationships that are either unhealthy or unrighteous because it seems at the time this will feel better than the longing, though in the end it is significantly more likely to produce something worse.
When tempted in this way, Jesus responded: “man shall not live by bread along, but by every word of God.”
One way that we avoid deception and falling prey to the
temptations of Satan, of society, or of our own selves, is by
embracing the word of God and relying on it.
In a 2009 testimony of The Book of Mormon, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Council of the Twelve Apostles quoted the Saviour who said, “Whoso treasureth up my word, shall not be deceived.” (JST-Matthew 1:37.)
The word of God, contained in The Holy Bible, The Book of Mormon, The Doctrine and Covenants, The Pearl of Great Price, and also in the talks of General Conference and in the words of those hymns that have been selected for the Hymn book of the Church, will keep you safe.
As you read regularly and strive to fix those words in your minds, they will change your life. And as you pray in faith for the Spirit to give you understanding, you will find those words become written on your hearts. As Mormon records in Alma, Chapter 31, in The Book of Mormon,
And now...the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to that which was just – yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else... Alma 31:5 |
So, Satan tried something different.
Satan saw that Jesus trusted God's word, so Satan needed to switch Jesus' loyalties. “Worship me,” he demanded, showing Jesus all the rewards of power and prestige he could give him.
Likewise, just like in the dream vision that Lehi and Nephi shared, where those who held the iron rod, and even some who had tasted of the fruit of the tree of life, became ashamed when they were mocked by those who inhabited the great and spacious building, even after we lay hold on the word of God we can be deceived if we are more inclined to give in to the desire for worldly recognition and power.
Preferring popularity can lead us into all kinds of error.
I know of youth who refuse to tell their friends that they are Mormons, and do not invite them to activities, because they are afraid it will not be cool. Some even use swearing and indecent expressions at school or on Facebook and in other ways, in order not to seem different, or to get a laugh, or to be noticed.
Preferring power is a similar danger.
It leads youth to become bullies, and it leads adults to use devious or deceptive tricks to get ahead in their jobs, to get ahead of “the other guy”. It leads people to care more about competition than compassion; about image than integrity; about being acknowledged and accepted, than being generous and grateful.
Again, Jesus' response to Satan's temptation relies upon the scriptures, “for it is written,”
and also on His understanding of who it is who stands behind them:
“worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.”
Serving God is a key and important way to help ensure
we are not deceived by Satan and that
virtue may be the garnish to our every thought.
In an LDS Church pamphlet titled, Let Virtue Garnish Your Thoughts, it says,
As you fill your life with goodness, there will be no room for...spiritual darkness. "Let Virtue Garnish Thy Thoughts," (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2006) p. 2 |
May we dedicate our lives to serving God... that through the spreading of righteousness, the evil hands of the destroyer might...not be permitted to curse [the world\. Faust, James E., "Serving the Lord and Resisting the Devil," Ensign, September 1995 |
you transform your reading of the word of God
to living by His word.
In this condition, it is difficult for Satan to deceive you, because
you will be exercising and developing your virtue,
you will be more entitled to experience the Gift of the Holy Ghost
and the many gifts of the Spirit that come with it,
and you will have greater charity, which is the greatest gift and power of all.
Finally, exacerbated by Jesus' responses, Satan has one last temptation to try: go ahead and jump. You think God will save you, Jesus? Then, jump.
We too, even after we have begun to live according to the word of God, may be tempted at times with our own self-destruction. This can arise in two ways: either because we think we are too good, or because we think we are too bad.
When we think we are too bad, we are tempted to give up on ourselves. We might think that the arms of the Lord are too short to reach us where we are standing, and prefer to sink into self-pity and oblivion.
When we think we are too good, we are tempted to assume no sin can ever trouble us, and we allow ourselves to be put in circumstances of real danger for our souls: going to improper places; looking at improper books, movies or internet sites; keeping amongst our close friends those who deny and oppose the word and wisdom of our Heavenly Father.
Jesus said, “Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God.”
There is no point in putting yourself at risk of harm based on your belief in your own righteousness. When we do this, we are tempting God in the sense of testing God to determine how much we really need Him.
We really need Him.
Indeed, we need to acknowledge Him, He says in section 59 of the Doctrine and Covenants, in all things (see D&C 59:7 and 21). This includes
acknowledging Him in our righteousness,
and, indeed, as the very source of it.
Even Jesus said there is none good but God, (see Matt. 19:17 and Luke 18:19) and proclaimed that He did nothing of Himself (see John 8:28).
Likewise, the Epistle of Jude tells us that the Archangel Michael, “when contending with the devil...durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.” (Jude 1:9.)
Who then are we to presume that we have power greater than Michael or, indeed, the Lord?
The Lord has promised us His strength to overcome temptation and error if we will rely on Him. “Through humility,” writes psychologist and author Wendy Ulrich, "we access God's grace, His enabling power to do what we cannot do on our own. When we are humble, God can use our weaknesses to strengthen us." (Ulrich, Wendy, Weakness is Not Sin, (Deseret Book, 2009) p. 7.)
Humility, not self-assurance to any degree in our own righteousness and ability, is the key to accessing God's empowering grace. Without it, if we were taken to the pinnacle of the temple by the deceiving Satan, we would leap and we would fall and no angel would prevent it.
By the same token, we must not be deceived by one of Satan's most powerful lies, that when we have sinned we cannot be saved.
We tempt God by professing that our sins are so deep, our characters are so battered and scarred, that He cannot reach out to save us, that in Him there is no healing balm. These are Satan's most terrible deceptions, the ones by which he seeks to have us leap away from the temple of God's love for us.
These false ideas exist in our society and in our psychology. There is a tendency to believe that many of our attitudes and ideas are unchangeable characteristics that we should simply accept, and that by accepting ourselves as we are, without any sense of the need for change or improvement, we will be happy. This is an anti-Christian idea.
God, on the other hand, through his apostles and prophets, has proclaimed that He loves to forgive sin, and that as we accept His love toward us and turn our hearts and minds to obey Him, we can change, that we can grow, that we can improve, and that the light within us can grow brighter and brighter until the perfect day.
Therefore, we need never feel that we are outside of the reach of God and Jesus Christ, that the Holy Ghost cannot touch our hearts and enlighten our minds.
In the first scripture I quoted is a "magic" word. That scripture, from the Doctrine and Covenants section 121, was this:
Let thy bowels...be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God. |
God does not say, be charitable.
He does not say, learn virtue.
He says, let... as in, let them in.
Satan would have us believe that because of weaknesses in our characters, because of faults we are prone to and because of temptations that so easily beset us, we are unworthy of God's love and God's grace. However, we are not.
By actual sin, we do separate ourselves from God. But by love He calls us back, and by grace He both heals us and helps us to overcome those weaknesses which have so easily led us astray.
Our job is simply to turn to Him, to trust in Him, to do what He says we should do, and allow His grace to enfold us.
Let your bowels be filled with charity.
Charity will fill you. You only need to let it do so which, Mormon tells us, comes by fervent prayer and through the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Let virtue garnish your thoughts.
By focussing upon the scriptures and the life of service God calls us to live, by seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness, by living by His every word, as Jesus said, we are defended from the temptations of Satan which would cause us to betray the Light of Christ that is within us, within every one.
Even if you have sinned – and, of course, you have, because you are human, like every other one of us – you need only remember and live according to these basic principles of truth:
- You are a child of God.
- Your Heavenly Father knows you.
- He and your redeemer, Jesus Christ, love you.
- They have the power to help you.
- You can draw upon the atonement of Jesus Christ, to find strength, peace and hope in His enabling grace.
I believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true; that the atonement of Jesus Christ is real; and that the love of Jesus Christ has all power to overcome all things. It is my hope and prayer that each person may come to know this too.