Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

8:15-24 - Crucial to the concept of consecration is that it be administered by just and compassionate people. Paul furthers this point when he tells the Corinthian people that he’s grateful “to God, which put the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you.” Titus took Paul’s rebuking message to them, and then received their donations for the poor in Jerusalem. It was because of the integrity of Titus that the people were able to trust him with their donations. And because he loved the people so much, he took their offerings and held them to be sacred, meaning that he and his companions, were “providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.” It was important to them to not only fulfill their duty to God, but also to fulfill their duty to their fellow men as well.   Titus was not just Paul’s friend of traveling companion, he “was also chose of the churches to travel with us with this grace, which is administered by us to the ...

8:10- - While the giving is important, the actual money amount doesn’t matter as much as the motivation behind it does. Paul uses the words “willing mind” to indicate the proper purposes motivating charitable giving. Like we talked about yesterday, Jesus is fully capable of funding his own church and blessing his own people, he doesn’t need us to provide for these things because he is physically able to command all the elements to accomplish his purposes. However, he gives us the opportunity to do portions of his work so that we can be blessed and to maintain a certain amount of agency for the people. A “willing mind” is someone who is giving because they want to ease the burdens of others. A “willing mind” is pretty much anything that is not the opposite of it, which is someone who was guilted into giving, or someone who is doing it so that other people can see it. Really, giving for any other purpose than these is a “willing mind” and Paul says that this giving “is accepted.” ...

8:9 - To further illustrate the connection between spirituality and physical possessions, Paul notes that “our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” Now what exactly is Paul talking about here? Jesus was not rich, he lived a very modest life doing physically demanding, manual labor for his support. The article on this chapter from gospeldoctrine.com says, “In terms of riches, the Great Jehovah, the Creator of innumerable worlds, the law Giver, and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had all that the Father had. Prior to his mortal advent, he was richer than any mortal. As Craig J. Ostler noted, ‘If the glory of the premortal Messiah is likened unto riches, then he was truly the richest of all.’”   To understand what Paul is talking about here, we have to remember that Jesus is God of the universe, and that his actions and being predates his birth and continues after his death through the re...

I was thinking more about why faith is so strongly linked to generous charitable giving, and I had a couple of thoughts. First is that if we believe that we are children of God, then we would also believe that everyone else are children of God. If we love God and truly understand his love for us, then we would also see that he loves everyone else the same amount. We would want everyone else to be just as happy as we are so we would do what we could to help them, even if it came at a cost to ourselves. I fully realize that learning to love God and other people is not an overnight transition, but during the process, our hearts can be softened not only towards God but towards other people as well. So, first, we begin to care about the welfare of others and that includes their physical wellbeing.   Second, giving to others even when you have to sacrifice to do so is an abundance mentality. This means that you can recognize that everything you have is a gift from God and that you ...

8:1-8 - After singing Titus' praises to the Corinthian people, Paul tells them about "the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia." Basically, even though the saints in Macedonia were really struggling, they gave a lot more than expected to help the saints in Jerusalem. I had thought that being the center of Christianity, Jerusalem's saints would have been quite well to do, but the Jews in Jerusalem had cast the saints out and they were very ostracized from the community so they were vey poor. The people in the outlying areas, however, were doing a bit better, so Paul included in his ministry, a collection of money to relive the suffering of the people in Jerusalem. Not only did the Macedonians give generously but they were adamant that they give more than was reasonable. They weren't rich people, but much like the widow's mite, they gave of their want.  Paul says that their motivation for giving so generously was because they "first gave their...

7:12 - After listing all the character improvements that came to the Corinthians after they had repented, Paul again explained his motives for writing the harsh letter in the first place. I’m not exactly sure what he’s trying to say here, but I’m going to do my best to think it through. Paul says that he didn’t write the letter “for his cause that had done the wrong,” which to me might indicate that he didn’t do it to call out specific people for specific sins. This is especially important because Paul himself wasn’t there to deal with the situations and had to rely on outside information relayed to him. This could definitely lead to a situation where rumors or lies could become a determining factor in someone’s worthiness because there is only second and third hand knowledge of events. Maybe Paul is saying “hey, I didn’t want to get caught up in rumors, so let’s all take a step back and refocus.”   He also points out that he didn’t write the letter “for his cause that suffer...

7:8-10 - When Titus gave Paul the good news that the Corinthian saints had accepted his counsel to repent seriously and were not angry, for the most part, Paul was very relieved. He loved the Corinthians and probably knew many of them personally because he had spent so much time there on his first mission. When you love someone but are in a place of authority over them, it can be easy to reward and encourage them, but it is very difficult to rebuke or chasten them. We don’t want to treat those we love harshly, we don’t want them to get defensive or to strain our relationship with them. That’s what’s hard about loving those you are in charge of, correction must come sometimes and many times it’s not taken well and the relationship may suffer.   Paul acknowledges that sending a harsh rebuking letter to the Corinthians was hard to do, but he had to do it. He points out to the people the contradiction that he love them but also sent them a letter that “made you sorry… now I rejoi...

7:1-3 - Chapter 6 ends with Paul reminding the Corinthians of God’s promise of love and support if they will “touch not the unclean thing,” which I take to mean keeping the commandments and living according to the Spirit. Chapter 7 begins with Paul pleading with the people “having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” Because Paul hasn’t visited the Corinthians since his last rebuking letter, it seems like he is trying to prepare them for when he does show up, probably hoping to avoid violence, but mostly hoping for their acceptance of the message of repentance. Even though they had already received the rebuke well, the time needed to transport letters and people could have been many months to years and their opinions might have shifted during that time.   He asks them to “receive us” and reminds them that they have “wronged no man… corrupted no man… defrauded no...

6:15- - Continuing with the theme of not being “yoked together with unbelievers,” Paul continues asking, “what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” The article on this chapter from gospeldoctrine.com quotes Bruce R. McConkie as teaching, “Belial is one of the names of Satan and has particular reference to the fact that he is the personification of evil and lawlessness. The literal meaning of the term is worthlessness with an especial connotation of recklessness and lawlessness.”   There is a very fine line when incorporating this teaching into our lives while also remembering Paul previous counsel to be everything to all men. I think it really comes down to just how involved you become in someone’s life or movement. I went to a protest yesterday that was “Pride for Black Lives Matter,” which can be a controversial topic for a lot of people. My sign said, “FREE white Mormon mom HUGS.” I did this because I wanted to show people ...

6:11-13 - If Paul and the missionaries aren’t being enriched physically by their efforts, then it speaks volumes to the power and value of their message of the gospel. Paul points out that they love the Corinthians “our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.” This love is not reciprocated all the time however, “ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels.” The IM reminds us that the use of the word “bowels” often references emotions such as “pity, love, and kindness, because when we feel love or compassion we often experience strong internal feelings.” He’s telling them that he and his companions love them, “despite the fact that some of the Saints were apparently withholding their love from him.”   It’s easy to love people who love you, but it is very difficult to love people who don’t love you or who are actively working against you. This strengthens his argument that his motivation for preaching the gospel isn’t about money of fame, but ab...

6:8-9 - After giving lists of opposing characteristics of him and his missionary companions, Paul expands on the contradictions that exist in their situation, such as “honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true.” Other contradictions include: known and unknown, dying but alive, chastened but not killed. The article written on this chapter from gospeldoctrine.com paraphrases Paul’s statement saying, “when we preach the gospel, we are honored by the believers and dishonored by the unbelievers. Both good and evil reports are circulated about us as if we’re deceivers, but we are not. Rumors circulate that we are unknown and preach our own doctrine, but we are well known to you. You may hear that we are dying, yet we are alive; you may hear that we are chastened, yet we have not been killed.”   At first, I didn’t think that this really made sense, but reading it over again I had the idea that it was really about recognizing that this work is G...

6:1-2 - After explaining the mechanics of how we are reconciled to God at the end of chapter 5, Paul implores the people to “receive not the grace of God in vain… behold, now is the day of salvation.” The IM notes, “the Book of Mormon contains similar teachings about the importance of repenting and remaining true to gospel covenants in this life (see 2 Nephi 22:21; Alma 34:31-33; 42:4). Individuals who do not honor their gospel covenants in this life should not assume that they will have a second chance in the life to come.” This is an interesting concept for me because I know that everyone will have an equal chance to accept the gospel at some point in their existence, in this life or the next. I have to wonder though, just how much do we have to know in this life to be considered fully aware of our choices to the point that we will not have the opportunity again to repent?   I would imagine that it is pretty unlikely that 99.9% of us who live this life on this earth will ha...

It’s been a very long last couple of weeks. First with the holiday, then I went out of town for several days and work has been so so so busy with everything starting to open back up, it’s been pretty crazy as far as being able, and honestly motivated, to write. But that’s only the more benign part of why I haven’t been around writing, the rest of it and honestly the biggest part is because I’ve been in so much personal turmoil over what has been going on with George Floyd. Last Monday was Memorial Day so I was chillin, then on Tuesday before I could really get into anything else, I watched the video of George Floyd being murdered and I basically just shut down. I was not only so angry that it happened, but so angry that nothing would probably happen to the officer who did it. I wrestled with the sheer injustice of it all, and because I felt just so helpless to do anything that mattered.   I spiraled down this mental rabbit hole until I was basically catatonic, as much as I ca...