REL A 250 - 2/17/2017 Doing vs Becoming

Doing Versus Being

This week in our religion class Brother Griffin shared with us his understanding of the Beatitudes. The perspective he provided us was that each of the Beatitudes that Christ taught were steps or characteristics that we needed to take in our journey of repentance and quest for eternal perfection (perfection not being a sinless life, but a completeness of person – see Greek translation and Matt 5:48). It is on the idea of perfection being a quest that I want to build the following paradigm:

The old Mosaic Law was built on actions and works that needed to be completed, but Christ had come to fulfill the law and teach a higher way (Matt 5:17).

In D&C 29:34 we read, “Wherefore, verily I say unto you that all things unto me are spiritual, and not at any time have I given unto you a law which was temporal; neither any man, nor the children of men; neither Adam, your father, whom I created.”

Heavenly Father has never given us a law that was wholly temporal. He has always given us laws that are spiritual. Spiritual laws require internal obedience rather than just outwardly action. I believe that Heavenly Father is much less concerned with what we do in our lives than He is with whom we become.  He gives us commandments that dictate our outwardly actions because our actions will affect who we are. When one lies, cheats, or steals, he/she is not only committing a violation of a temporal law, but is becoming something less perfect or less whole spiritually.

The same concept applies to all the commandments that God has given us. The Word of Wisdom helps us spiritually to be self-reliant and clean of addictions. The Law of Chasity helps us to maintain good thoughts and be pure in heart and mind. The list goes on.

So in application of this principle, I think it is important that when we are considering questions like, “what is appropriate to do on the Sabbath? Or should I, as a disciple of Jesus Christ, drink caffeine?” we remember what the purpose of the commandments are. There is no definite answer to these questions, but we can know what we are to do if we ask ourselves, “will this help me in my journey to become more perfected (whole) like Christ?”