Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

It's been almost two weeks since I've written and mostly it's been because I've been very busy with work and also a personal project in which I am heavily invested. I haven't had a day off in over two weeks and won't get one for another several days, but I'm doing ok. And even though I've been so so busy on my other endeavors, I have missed being here and studying. Usually my daily study is my main priority after getting all my other work done, but when I haven't had time, I've still felt a little bit of loss in my day, so anyway, I'm glad to be back. The other point that I want to make is that when I ended my last entry, I said that I would try and be more grateful for things and see what kind of difference that made in my life. I really focused on the "I am grateful for…" for the next couple of days, and then it dropped off, but I still managed to have it be a little bit higher on my priority list than usual and my mood was dram...

4:1 - Paul continues the household code, having just given counsel to servants, he now has something to say to those who are in the position of “Master,” saying, “give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.” I wondered why Paul didn’t just say, “free them,” assuming that they were slaves, but first, that might start a whole thing saying that those who had slaves couldn’t become Christians. It would make a requirement for joining the church to be freeing your slaves. Now I personally see slavery as a disgusting, abhorrent thing, freeing slaves wasn’t even a requirement for the modern church in the beginning. A few pioneers emigrated to Utah territory with their slaves in tow, and some even paid their tithing by giving slaves to the church. While Jesus clearly wants all slaves freed, he also chose not to make the abolition of slavery a central focus in the early church, probably because of the precarious state of America at that tim...

3:10-11 - Colossae isn’t like Jerusalem in that there is a huge amount of diversity being converted to the gospel and surely there was some prejudice or racism that seeped into the church. But Paul reminds the saints there that when they strive to become more Christ-like they are “after the image of him that created him: where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.” The IM comments, “Paul taught that Christ’s Atonement made all people equal, including Greeks, Jews, Barbarians, and Scythians. Barbarians, were any group of people whom Romans saw as lacking civility and culture. Scythians were people from the northern coast of the Black Sea (in modern-day Ukraine), whom Greeks viewed as being violent and uneducated.” There’s always going to be a little difficult in unifying when we have a population with mixed ancestry, culture, and beliefs, but that doesn’t mean that we aren’t required to treat a...

3:5-6 - The changes that we make as disciples of Christ usually are going to be incremental, not big obvious displays of transformation. They won't be explosions on the stage of our community, but they will still be incredible. Paul begins to list attributes that "are upon the earth" meaning characteristics that are part of our human nature, mentioning, "fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry." When I first read this, I thought that "idolatry" meant being lazy, and I disagreed because I could absolutely understand being jealous but have not been lazy at any point in my life because I have not been allowed to be. I've had to work hard my whole life because that's what I've had to do. But apparently what Paul actually means is that jealousy is idolatry in the sense that we change our main focus from God and what He grants us to material things and what we DON'T have. I rea...

3:1-4 - It seems that there is a portion of the saints in Colossae that are diverging into extremes of the obedience spectrum and Paul needs to help them understand the happy medium. There are many who are going to the extreme of indulging their physical urges, but there are also those who are focused on completely getting rid of their physical natures. Paul urges both sided to “seek those things which are above… set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” This is a tough concept to get just right because we are physical creatures, we have to eat to live, we have to have shelter, etc. We are naturally drawn to other people, we want to be with a significant other, we are quick to anger, frustration, etc. So we need to learn how to address these natural feelings in a healthy way, but also must avoid becoming so focused on controlling our physical world that we can make room for the spiritual as well. The IM ...

2:18-19 - If the saints in Colossae are not to pay attention to the opinions of people within their own Christian community, then they certainly are to “let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels.” The counsel here is to work out what you should and shouldn’t do with the Spirit and prophetic counsel, and take everything else with a grain of salt, testing it with the Spirit before believing or adopting any of it. That’s good advice for everyone today and one of the reasons why I love this Church, because we are advised to gain our own personal testimony of all counsel and not many other religions do that. About the mention of angels specifically, the IM says, “Although angels hold a position of honor is God’s kingdom, they are not to be worshipped. The worshipping of angels is evidence that some teachings of Gnosticism were making their way into the Church, since Gnostic philosophy held that God communicated with mortals through angels and th...

2:11 - Maybe it’s because the concept of circumcision was such a prominent topic back in Paul’s day that he brings it up over and over again. Maybe by always bringing it up and then attaching circumcision to another non-physical concept, he can either help the gentile converts understand why they don’t have to do it, or head it off for when the Jewish Christian converts come up from Jerusalem and try to sew discord among the newly converted gentiles. Referring to “Christ… which is the head of all principality and power,” Paul tells his newly converted audience that they are “circumcised with the circumcision made without hands.” This is pretty clear in stating that Christ doesn’t want them to be subject to the physical law of circumcision, but spiritually “in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.” The article on this chapter from gospeldoctrine.com quotes Bruce R. McConkie as stating, “(Here Paul refers to a) spiritual circumcision, which consis...

2:6-8 - Paul is rejoicing that "ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." Paul implies that living the principles of faith and gratitude is how to avoid being "spoil(ed)… through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." The philosophy trap could be described as something interesting. When someone is a thinker, and most people are, they like to have stimulating ideas to think and talk about. The gospel is simple for follow and the understanding comes later, but I think that the "philosophy" concept here is referencing information that comes easily and without effort or that doesn't come from the Spirit. The learn the "mysteries" of the gospel, we have to be obedient to what we already know, we have to make an effort to learn mo...

2:1 – At the end of chapter 1, Paul talks about what he wanted the Colossians to know about the “riches of the glory” and the “mystery” that comes with accepting the gospel. He wants them to know that he works for them to be able to know and understand these concepts, and as we get into chapter 2, that he also has “great conflict” for them. The word “conflict” is cross referenced with the word “anguish” which makes better sense in this context. He worries about them, he prays for them, he desperately wants them to be righteous, and this begs the question as to why, why does he want them to be faithful to the gospel? As he writes this letter to them, he is sitting in a Roman prison and had been for 2 years. He clearly doesn’t have enough money or power to bribe his way out of it, and if he goal was to extort wealth and prominence out of the people then his letters and personal situation would have been very different. This indicates that he clearly believed in what he taught and that he...

1:18-22 - Not only was Christ the first born spiritually, but he was also “the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.” That kind of reads like the beginning of a zombie thriller, but we read repeatedly in the scriptures that Jesus was the “first fruits of them that slept” or in other words, he was the first person who was resurrected. In that sense, he led the way for all of us to both be born spiritually and be raised from the dead to immortal, perfect bodies. It’s also important to note that Christ’s resurrection gave him “preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell.” As far as I know, before His resurrection, Jesus did all things under the guidance of the Father, but after His resurrection, Heavenly Father gave all power to Jesus, and I’m sure that they consult together on stuff, but all power is in the Son’s hands. Paul continues that “through the blood of his cross,” he made peace… to reconcile all things unto h...

1:14-15 - Even though the atonement might be a complicated concept to understand, how we can participate in it is easy to both understand and apply. Paul reminds his audience that God’s “dear Son: in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” We don’t have to know HOW Christ paid for our sins with his blood to accept the fact that he did it and because of that we can repent. We can repent and use the atonement even if it is a concept so advanced for our mortal minds that we don’t know how it works. Kind of like I don’t know how cars work, but I can still drive to work in the mornings. And the more we repent and try to become Christlike, the more the Spirit reveals to us when we are ready. The IM also notes that Paul begins his description of the Savior like this “to support the superiority of Jesus Christ over all other things the Colossian Saints might be tempted to worship.” Paul describes the Son as being “the image of the invisible God, the first bo...

Colossae, the place where the saints lived who were considered Colossians is located in "a site in modern-day Turkey." The epistle from Paul to the saints at Colossae was probably scribed by Timothy during the time that Paul was imprisoned in Rome. Unlike his letter to the Philippians, Paul's letter to the Colossians was not an unprompted "Thank you for the support." Paul had this letter written by the "saints and faithful brethren" in Colossae because, as the IM tells us, "false teachings and practices in Colossae were influencing the Saints there and threatening their faith… IN the region of Colossae, heretical beliefs and worship practices had developed, blending Christian, Jewish, and pagan ideas. These heresies minimized or denied the divine role of Jesus Christ. Such false ideas threatened the Church but had no yet won over the many Colossian Saints who remained 'faithful brethren in Christ.' In writing the epistle, Paul hoped to com...