Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

3:1-7 - I’m not going to lie, chapter 3 had me going through a roller coaster emotionally, First because I knew that part of this chapter was the catalyst for the receiving of D&C 138. Second because when I started reading it was all about women’s roles, and I’ll give you one guess as to how it sounds coming from an ultra-conservative ancient man. So needless to say, I’ve been processing a lot with this chapter. Chapter 2 ended with Peter encouraging the saints to endure unfair treatment by remembering that Christ also endured all the unfair treatment ever perpetrated. Then he goes into how “wives, be in subjection to your own husbands” and uses words like “obey” and “chaste conduct,” being “the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit.” He even calls back to how “Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well.” Peter spends 6 verses instructing women how to act, then almost as an afterthought makes 1 verse saying “likewise, ye husbands… giving ho...

2:1-3 - Because “the word of the Lord endureth forever,” Peter speaks in specifics about how we should live in order to qualify for “the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” Peter makes an interesting analogy about the process of building a testimony, likening us to “newborn babes” who “desire the sincere mild of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” This is not the first time we have seen the “milk” and “babes” reference before, in fact this verse is cross-referenced with 1 Corinthians 3:2-3 and Hebrews 5:13-14 which are interestingly Paul’s writings so this begs the question, had Peter read Paul’s epistles and continued on with the idea or is it just a universal concept that everyone is familiar with? In line with the “milk” and “babies” the article on this chapter from gospeldoctrine.com points out that a baby grows on nothing but milk because it is incapable of consuming anything else. The article continues, “The ...

1:1-5 - One of the things that is both fascinating and frustrating is the differences in writing styles between the different authors. I struggled with Paul for 2 years, then I got through James no problem, and here we are with Peter and it’s just really difficult for me to follow this guy. It’s just his personal writing style that is difficult for me. So I may not be as in depth on this one, perhaps just going over the concepts that he brings up. But the interesting thing here is that Peter discusses some pretty unique and interesting topics in his letters, so we’ll just see how it goes. Peter introduces himself and addresses his letter to “the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,” which the IM tells us is modern day Turkey. He acknowledges that the saints in this area are “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,” and who have been sanctified by the Spirit by obedience and the atonement of Jesus Christ. He thanks God for his...

5:1-6 - It seems like many in James’ audience are men of means, or of riches, and it’s kind of an interesting cycle because when we are righteous one of the blessings God can give us is physical wealth, especially when it comes to paying tithing. But then that wealth can create different spiritual problems for us if we don’t see it for what it is, a gift from God given to us as stewards to care for others. There is also another concept I was talking to my brother about concerning wealth and righteousness. He has left the church and something he said to me makes a lot of sense and that is that in the Church there’s a culture where wealth has been linked to someone’s righteousness. Meaning that people look at the wealthy and think, “that person must be very righteous for God to bless them with so much money, so we should listen to what they have to say.” That gives added influence to those who want to use their wealth to only benefit themselves and gives a free pass to the charlatans. ...

4:6-8 - Even though it is human nature to envy and anger and lust, but we can “draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you,” because “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” It can start with just a desire to change the way we live, then that desire grows into very small changes, and that builds until we are transformed from our old ways into Disciples of Christ. Our efforts can be small but they are critical to the transformation process because that’s how we show that we want to keep the commandments. The other, and most important, aspect of our transformation is the healing and building that comes from Christ to us. That’s what James means when he promises that our efforts will be met by God “draw(ing) nigh unto (us).” We come a small way and Jesus comes a long way, that’s the process described and promised to us. We are not only promised spiritual progress if we try, but James also makes an interesting promise saying, “Resist the devil, and he will flee fro...

4:1-5 - We know that when James originally wrote this epistle 2,000 years ago, he didn’t divide it into chapter and verse, it was one single document, as far as I know. The end of chapter 3 promises that “the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” So if peace is the result of righteousness the James asks “from whence come wars and fightings among you?” If righteousness equals peace, then if the people are fighting, what does that indicate about their spiritual status? They fight each other and “lust” and “kill” and “desire to have… yet ye have not, because ye ask not.” My guess as to what this verse is saying is that we do all these things to try to get what we want, we will even act against the commandments, but ultimately we don’t get what we are looking for because we don’t ask God if that is what we are supposed to have or do. I think about people who do “get what they want” by committing immoral acts, but ultimately what are they looking for? Feelings of...

3:1-13 - Continuing in the “faith without works is dead” vein, James continues by addressing a topic that is a struggle for all of us, which is the words that we say. He gives an analogy of a horse with a “bit” in it’s mouth. Horses are huge, strong, powerful creatures but “they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body” with just a small piece of metal. If you compare the size of the two, a horse and a bit, it almost seems unimaginable that the smallest little piece of equipment could completely control a massive beast such as a horse. Likewise, “even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things.” Again, I’ve spent a lot of time and energy trying to shape what I say to people, and I’m certainly not perfect at it, far from it, but I am putting forth some effort to do my best. I am fortunate to have the Spirit tell me things like “you don’t need to say that,” or “what’s the purpose of telling someone that,” or “is this about making this person feel good about them...

2:15-18 - If we believe that Jesus Christ is our Savior but don’t care for “a brother or sister (who is) naked, and destitute of daily food,” James asks “what doth it profit? I’ve always wondered how faith is related to good works? These two concepts just seem so independent of each other logically, so how do I reconcile them? I understand that Jesus taught good works and having faith in Him means doing them, but how do we exercise faith in Jesus Christ by serving others? I guess one explanation might be that it’s not necessarily just that we are commanded to serve others, the commandment could be anything, bark like a dog on Thursdays or wear pink on Wednesdays, and then we demonstrate our faith by doing those arbitrary actions. With helping other people, that is at least meaningful, so really God could command us anything and we would do it if we had faith. But is it simply a matter of just blind obedience? Let’s face is, we don’t always want to go out of our way to help people, it...

2:1-9 - The ultimate expression of “pure religion” is to “visit the fatherless and widows in their afflictions.” This begs the question, why did Jesus have to command people to take care of these vulnerable members of society, why wasn’t/isn’t it just a natural instinct. Addressing the judgment and aversion to the poor, James explains to the reader that “ye cannot have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, and yet have respect to persons.” This doesn’t mean you can’t respect people, it means that we can’t treat people differently because of their race, gender, social status, wealth, etc. This is a concept that has never really made sense to me because I’ve never seen the rich or wealthy or beautiful as better than me or anyone else. I guess this might be a defense mechanism from growing up how I did, I adopted very much an attitude of “you’re not better than me” to anyone who I thought might think that they were better than me. This, of course, was my own issue bec...

1:21 - The guide to behavior of a true disciple of Christ continues with James asks the saints to “lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness.” Now this is a pretty amusing statement to me because the word “naughty” has a few different connotation in our society but they are mostly benign such as kids disobeying small rules or someone doing something minor that is technically wrong. Interestingly though, this phrase of James’ is cross-referenced to mean “overabundance of malice, trouble, evil.” I don’t really use the word “malice” much so I don’t really have a strong grasp on what it means in this instance, but it would seem that perhaps one way to think about it would be negativity. When I googled it, some synonyms are “animosity, antagonism, bitterness, grudge, hostility.” That’s a pretty comprehensive list and what’s ironic is that my natural state of being is every single one of those descriptions. In contrast to be “naughty” James urges us to “receive with meekness ...

1:19-20 - James now goes into his principles for righteous living beginning with “let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” The listening and speaking is an interesting concept because I don’t really think it’s addressed too much in the scriptures but it’s an excellent principle for a number of ways. The phrase “swift” implies an earnest desire to fulfill a need, it implies speed and commitment to the cause, and it’s an active word. But the word “hear” is a passive word, and it can mean anything from being physically present when the sound is created to giving strict attention to every noise made and everything in between. Even though the two words seem contradictory, we might conclude that the counsel to “be swift to hear” means that we are to be eager to listen to the opinions and thoughts of others. Then again, when most people listen, they don’t actually hear what their companion is saying, but only wa...

1:8-11 - James’ comment that “a double minded man is unstable in all his ways” made me think about people I know and if this has applied in real life. The term “double minded” is cross-referenced with “integrity” and I think that’s an important defining factor where. If someone can’t make up their mind about what to have for lunch or what to study in school or which car to buy, that doesn’t make that person shady. But when the indecisiveness is rooted in morality, then it’s easy to see that same moral failing branch off in to different parts of life. I don’t think James meant this to say “if you’re not perfect in all things then you’re bad,” but I think the overall point he’s trying to make is that it’s important to choose and commit to one lifestyle or God because otherwise you’re likely to be led to a place you don’t want to go. The main motivating factor behind most human endeavors is money, power, and sex. Someone to feels they are not where they should be wealth wise can be comf...

This book of James is home to so many of the oft quoted scriptures in Christendom and he’s very clear, which was not necessarily what I got from Paul. This Epistle of James is written by James the brother of Jesus. We know from our study of the gospels that Jesus’ brothers didn’t initially regard Jesus as the Messiah until after His resurrection when they then converted and became active in the success of the church. The IM comments, “As a leader in the Church, (James) played a prominent role in the council held in Jerusalem. His influence in the Church was no doubt strengthened by his kinship to Jesus, yet he showed humility in introducing himself not as the brother of Jesus but as a servant of the Lord.” I thought the last bit was pretty telling because I hadn’t even considered that perspective. Imagine if James had introduced himself as Jesus’ brother. The amount of power that could have given him would have eclipsed anything Paul or Peter could have claimed. But because he didn’t...