Why are we obedient? We've all been mocked by friends we know you say we are missing out of the fun things in life because we are obedient to the word of God. We even know people who have become disillusioned with the church and decide that it is indeed more pleasureable to do what we want and ignore the laws of God. Satan's gamble that we would rather please ourselves than follow God's will appears to be paying off with some people. So if God loves us, and it's so much more fun to be disobedient to the "stringent" laws and commandments, why did he give us the laws? He made us the human beings that we are. How can he expect us to be perfect? He doesn't expect us to be perfect. The commandments are a gift. They're not there to tie us down or strangle us. Sure, for a moment, disobedience is much more pleasurable. But, to quote Alma, "Wickedness never was happiness" (Alma 41:10). After that pleasure is over there is a sickening of the spirit and a sinking in the heart. This pain is caused by guilt, and some people try to avoid that guilt by turning to even more worldly, pleasurable things, trying to drown out the pain. This can dull the sensitivities of the soul to such a point that the pain appears to be gone. But it isn't really gone, and repentence brings that pain back in such force and agony that the repentent truly longs for the chance to erase the mistake, as if it never happened. The gift, then, is a set of guidelines designed to keep us from ever feeling that pain and despair. We have a God who loves us so much that he told us exactly what to do and what not to do. The truth is that there is a higher law, an absolute truth, and whether we obey or not, it cannot be erased. In D&C 107:84 it says, "Thus, none shall be exempted from the justice and the laws of God, that all things may be done in order and solemnity before him, according to truth and righteousness." Only through obedience to this absolute, universal truth can we receive exaltation. 1 Ne. 22:31 states, "Wherefore, you need not suppose that I and my father are the only ones that have testified, and also taught them. Wherefore, if ye shall be obedient to the commandments, and endure to the end, ye shall be saved in the last day." Obedience is never meant to hurt us; it is meant to save us. No one would ever scorn a mother for asking her child not to play with matches, even though some other children in the neighborhood claim it is fun, risky, and exciting. And if that child disobeys and gets burned, or worse, mortally wounded, how that mother would mourn for the child that didn't listen. So much pain and heartache can simply be avoided if we listen to our Father in Heaven. Some people are obedient out of fear, or out of blindness. In the church, if someone is blindly following the prophet, we might think, "Oh, that is not so bad, at least they are following the prophet." To some extent, I agree. But this blindness is what keeps the message of the gospel out of the homes of so many good people. They blindly follow their pastors and preachers, never questioning the truth of their church. We can't be blind that way. Knowing why we are obedient is something like having a testimony of the church. If we are blindly obedient, we are likely to toss it aside as soon as a more enticing offer comes along. We have to know not only that the church is true, but that obedience to the commandments is necessary for our exaltation. Fear of the results of being disobedient is a good motivator, but certainly not the best. The best way to be obedient is to come to know and love our Saviour Jesus Christ and our Father in Heaven. It's better to obey out of fear than to not obey, but the Lord emphasizes the difference in D&C 76:5-6: "For thus saith the Lord: I, the Lord, am merciful unto those who fear me, and delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness and in truth unto the end. Great shall be their reward and eternal shall be their glory." If we become obedient out of our fear of punishment, the Lord will be merciful to us. But if we are obedient because of love, we become God's friends. His equals. I've heard that every time we sin we should picture our hand driving the nails into Christ's hand. But I don't like to imagine the torture so much as I'd rather think of being obedient as showing how much we love him and honor him. "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15). Not just in our hearts, but with our deeds and actions, we show to him that we care enough about his gospel and the gift of life he gave us to do something good with it. How selfish is it to abuse our souls or the souls of others for our own pleasure? This abuse comes from any form of disobedience, for we never never hurt only ourselves in disobedience. And we are not our own. Our bodies are a gift but they belong to our Creator. Since we own absolutely nothing in this world except our will (we are, after all, free agents), the only gift we can give back to God is the submission of our will. Mosiah says in Mosiah 3:19, "For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the holy spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things that the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." Some commandments we don't understand. We just can't understand why something like a tatoo or a second earring can seriously affect our celestial standing. Truthfully, it probably doesn't, though D&C 3:4 says that [read scripture]. In asking us to follow these commandments, we are being asked to follow the will of God. He wants to see how much we will do for him. "Come follow me," the Savior said. That means follow him through everything and in everything he asks. We can't pick and choose. Sometimes it's the little things that prove how loyal or disloyal we are to our most loyal friend. It is by being obedient that we take upon us the name of Christ, as as in Mosiah 5:8 [read scripture]. Our obedience magnifies the light of Christ. By covenanting to be obedient to the commandments, we are taking upon us the name of Christ. Of course God knows we are human. He knows we are prone to disobedience even when our hearts are in the right place. That's why we have a Savior. For those times when we mess up and we fall on our knees in tears and anguish, we never have to despair. In D&C 138:4 the Lord says that: [read scripture]. Along with the gift of commandments to guide us, Christ gave us the gift of the atonement to save us. Obedience will never get us to the Celestial kingdom, no matter how hard we try. Even if we were perfect, we couldn't get there. Our obedience is a testament of our love for Christ and our willingness to accept him as our Savior. This allows his grace to work in us, and it is his grace that saves us. I thank God that He loves us enough to give us a Redeemer. Christ suffered for us so that we would not have to suffer, even when we are disobedient. After all he does for us, obedience seems a small thing to give, especially when we win either way. |
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