Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

The spiritual gift of charity is to be sought after by us, meaning that we are to practice it’s principles until the love of God is so deeply ingrained in us that we actually do love God and everyone else the way that Christ does. While it is the “better way”, there are many other spiritual gifts, and the one that gets the most attention in chapter 14, and honestly probably the most high-profile spiritual gift known in Christianity is the gift of tongues. It’s interesting because I’ve seen tv shows that depict congregations “speaking in tongues” and it honestly looks crazy, like they are possessed of the devil. I think about who I know the Savior to be and at no point does it come across as him being flashy or look like he might possible be demented. It’s like the aspect of charity that “doth not behave itself unseemly”? if anything ever appeared to be unseemly, it would be standing up in the middle of a congregation and making sounds that no one else could understand. If I had to p...

Looking at chapter 13 with a Christ centered view takes charity from "what we do to others" to "what Christ does for us." Starting out, Paul points out that no other spiritual gifts of actions matter if they aren't motivated by God's love. If we think about the Savior, he isn't called the Savior because he restored mortal life to a handful of people, started a church based on love and kindness, or healed some sick people. While these are all well and good, his actions here benefited a small group of people for a very short period of time (their mortal lifetimes.) No, Christ is called the Savior because he literally saved us from eternal pain and torment. One perspective shift in my understanding of the atonement was then I thought about all the pain and suffering that I've endured in my life, and all that is coming. All the depressed spiritual feelings, all the desperation and despair, and I thought about the teaching that Jesus has felt every s...

One thing that I find really interesting is the concept of seeing your reflection. I heard something recently about kids in third world countries being given hygiene kits or something and it had mirrors in it. The very interesting part of this is that the kids were all shocked to see their own reflection, and it makes sense. We don’t really understand because we have reflective surfaces everywhere, but for people who don’t, seeing what they look like is pretty mind bending for them. I know that even sometimes when I look in the mirror, I am surprised because I am very different from how I think that I look. The IM has a picture of an ancient mirror used by Roman Celtics, and it just looks like a dull piece of decoration, it’s not reflective at all, but apparently that’s what ancient peoples would use for a mirror.   Paul expands on the concept of having limited understanding in this life that grows over time saying, “for now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face:...

Verse 8 makes some statements that at first seem counter-intuitive but if we think about it deeper than it makes sense. Verse 8 says, "charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, there shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease: whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away." This is difficult to understand because we've always been told that prophecies will not be fail, miracles will never cease, and the glory of God is intelligence. So how can all of these things "fail"? The answer might come as Paul continues, "for we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away." The IM explains, "One way of understanding Paul's statement that 'charity never faileth' is that charity never ends; thus, it stands in contrast to even the wonderful gifts of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge, which Paul said would end." The IM continues by ...

Yesterday I ended with the question, “would Jesus attend a gay wedding if he were here today?” It’s interesting because this never would have even been a question for me before 2008 when Prop 8 became such a big thing. I feel like sometimes I’m caught between what I should do to stay right with Jesus and what that actually means. I spent the whole afternoon yesterday thinking about this so I asked two of my friends who are active members of the Church and who are quite a bit more conservative than I am if they thought that Jesus would attend a gay wedding and they both immediately answered, “yes,” like it wasn’t even a question in their mind. It was really amazing to talk to them about it afterward and some of the ideas that came up were attending a gay wedding would only demonstrate that we love the person who invited us and we want to show them support for a happy life. We have to respect the beliefs of others and if someone is getting married to a person of the same gender than cle...

Charity: Rejoiceth not in iniquity  – There isn’t a lot of commentary on verse 6 so I have to think of it all myself. This statement seems pretty obvious, but when I think about the inverse of it, which is “charity rejoiceth in iniquity” there is a little bit of clarity there. I’m trying to think about a time when one person would “rejoice” in the sins of another and there are some that come to mind. First would be when we view someone as being “better” than us or render a judgment against them that they are petty or stuck up or holier than thou or something like that. When we think about someone in this way, when they do something wrong or are affected by the wrongdoing of someone else, a person who is in a negative state of mind might inwardly be a little bit happy that the other person isn’t as “perfect” as we thought they were. Of course, the other person never was perfect, but our perception was warped in a way that we might think that they “deserve” something bad happening...

Paul continues expounding on the characteristics of charity: Doth not behave itself unseemly  - This is a pretty weirdly worded phrase because of the use of a double negative in there. It could just as easily have said, "doth behave itself in a seemly manner." I read an article about this phrase that the way this phrase was written in Greek, using a double negative, is meant to portray an added emphasis on the importance of this attribute. Meaning that unseemly behavior is very important to avoid. What does it mean to behave unseemly? My best guess would be acting in a way that would put off the average person or leave a bad impression on them about the Church. One way that I could liken this to is when working for a prestigious company, or really, any company, in orientation they almost always have a "social media" training section where they talk about what you can and cannot post on social media because as of that moment you are representing that company and...