New - 2 Corinthians 5:16-17

5:16- - I’m not exactly sure what Paul is trying to say in verse 16 with the “known Christ after the flesh,” but don’t know him anymore. I honestly don’t know what this means, but Paul continues, “therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” We’ve discussed repeatedly about changing who we are to become more spiritually minded, in fact, it doesn’t matter what we’ve done, repentance is possible and with that repentance comes a turning away of our old self and desires and turning towards God. The article on this chapter from gospeldoctrine.com quotes Elder Glenn Pace as noting, “we should all be striving for a disposition to do no evil, but to do good continually. This isn’t a resolve or a discipline; it is a disposition. We do things because we want to, not just because we know we should.” He later acknowledges that this change comes “through grace and by the Spirit of God,” and is not a quick process.

 

While I agree with his sentiment, this begs the question, what exactly is the process of changing who we are? I’m not exactly sure how it works on the spiritual end, meaning that Jesus is the one who changes our hearts and I don’t know how, but I do think that the process of transformation on our side follows the Four Stages of Competence.

 

1.       Unconscious Incompetence – This is the place in your life where you are doing things wrong but you don’t know that they are wrong. I feel like this is the place where a lot of people who don’t have the gospel are, they (and we) don’t know what they don’t know.

2.       Conscious Incompetence – This is when you are still doing the wrong things, but no you know they are wrong. This stage can be either a step forward or a step backwards, depending on which way you are coming from. If you are someone who has a testimony of the gospel and decide to act against the commandments, then you do so knowing that you are wrong. This sounds harsh and there are absolutely different degrees here, I’m only drawing from my own experience where I knew what I was doing was wrong, I just didn’t care and did it anyway. And only God can know the extent of your testimony as well, this is why it’s so important for us to not judge and mind our own business and be kind. It’s also important to note, however, that this is the final stop for those who reject gospel teachings, they can’t go to “unconscious incompetence” or “neutral ground.” The way that this step could be moving forward is when someone is actively learning the gospel and comes to know that certain things are wrong to do, think, or believe. This is a very contemplative state of being, where someone decides what they believe and accept as truth and what they don’t.

3.       Conscious Competence – This is where you are trying to do it right, but you have to mentally think about each and every choice that you want to change. Honestly, most of us are here if we are trying to become Christ-like. This is the stage that takes effort, motivation, and perspective. This is where we do things because we are supposed to, and that’s great because it’s better than doing things wrong. Even though Elder Pace might have made it seem like this is not where we should be, I think endgame, he’s right, but it takes substantial effort in this category for us to be fully transformed.

4.       Unconscious Competence – This is where you do the right thing without even thinking about it. This is after you’ve put the mental energy into actively making correct choices for a significant period of time to the point where it becomes habit. This is the end goal, and very few of us are here, I think, at least I definitely am not.

 

To be completely honest, we are all probably somewhere on all 4 of these stages as we work on our spiritual growth. I’m confident that I’m doing things that we wrong that I don’t even know are holding me back. I know that there are somethings that I’m doing wrong, even though I know it. There are many principles that I am actively having to focus on in order to be in compliance with the commandments. And there are *maybe* a couple of things that I do right without even thinking about them. But it’s a process and I’m confident that if I keep on making effort, one day I will be better at doing things automatically that I used to have to focus on, indicating a change in who I am.

 

The article gives an excellent explanation of what Paul means when he says that we can become a “new creature” in Christ, saying, “In order to be ‘born again,’ the ‘natural man’ must be put off so that we each can become a ‘new creature’ in Christ. This new creature, ‘a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord,’ is spiritual in nature as opposed to carnal or worldly. I essence, the driving or controlling forces within us must be altered from carnal, selfish, natural desires and motives to spiritual driven desires and motives. The scriptures refer to this change in disposition, temperament, or character as a ‘mighty change’ in heart.”

 

Paul uses the word “new” to describe the process of becoming more Christ-like in our natures. This is a really odd concept for us to comprehend because nothing we do can change our bodies back to “new.” For me to understand “new” I just think the opposite of “old.” I’m getting “old” and for me that means tired, worn out, saggy, and experienced. So the opposite of that would be energized, unused in quality, inexperienced. But what does “new” spiritually mean? For me it means optimistic, energized, high quality. It’s interesting because “new” implies a change from “old,” “old” means closer to death, but “new” from “old” is like a fountain of youth type of idea where some magic transforms your decaying cells into healthy, robust ones. I guess that’s the way that I see it, changing dying cells to living ones. And really, that’s what the atonement does, takes spiritually sick, dying beings and changes them into healthy living ones. That’s a good way of thinking of things changing to “new.”