Monthly Messages, February 2023
1. The Most Important Commandment in the Book of Mormon
The most important commandment? What a value judgment! But there are reasons why it might be so. The commandment is: ”Ye must repent, and become as a little child, and be baptized in my name, or ye can in nowise receive these things.” 3 Nephi 11:37
To repent is to turn from the ways of the world to keeping the commandments of Christ. To become as a little child is to give up all worldly pride and humbly submit to and follow the whisperings of the Holy Spirit. To be baptized in his name is to sincerely make the promises of the baptismal covenant as administered by one having true priesthood authority from Christ. Anyone who does these things and then continues in the gospel covenant path becomes heir to all that Christ is and has.
There are some good reasons why this might be the most important commandment in the Book of Mormon: 1. It is the key to receive all of the blessings Christ gives to his children. 2. It is a warning against pride, which is the great damning sin. 3. It is the pattern which Christ himself followed in relating to His Father.
2. It gives the key to receive all of the blessings Christ gives to his children.
It is our Savior’s purpose and desire to bless all mankind with as many of his own blessings as each can stand to receive and use for good: “And he gave some, apostles, and some prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4: 11–13) But he has to bless, not harm, with his gifts: “He (God) doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.” (1 Nephi 26:24) Because he wishes to bless and not harm, Christ asks his disciples to follow the covenant path, which path prepares them to use all of his blessings to bless others, to minister in the same purity which he does. This enables us to only bless, even as he does. The only stance which makes this possible is humility and child-like obedience. Thus Christ asks each of his followers to be his little child, to be able to grow up unto receiving all that he has to give them.
2. It is a warning against pride, which is the great damning sin.
Pride is the attitude of self-sufficiency, of not needing any help from others. It is the attitude that one’s own wisdom is sufficient to select and pursue the path that leads to success and attainment of the desires of the self. Thus being centered on the self, it pretends to have the universe in control and to assert that its own desires are the sufficient guide to all progress in attaining the goals desired by the self. The self who thus selfishly asserts itself is aided by an unseen power in the person of Satan, who is the ultimate personification of selfishness. This aid is real, sometimes being the cleverness that actually attains a selfish goal sought. Success in being selfish leads to a hunger for more selfishness, and that eventually leads the person to the opposite of what Christ is: a person rebuilt in the image of Satan, a devil in the service of the devil of all devils.
The opposite of pride is for the person to recognize that he or she has limits and needs help to attain desired goals. The optimum opposite of pride is to become as a little child, one who “yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.” (Mosiah 3:19)
3. It is the pattern which Christ himself followed in relating to His Father.
When the Savior appeared to the Nephites on the American continent one of the first things he said unto them was: “Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world.
And I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning.” (3 Nephi 11: 10–11)
And we note the words of Abinadi: “I would that ye should understand that God himself shall come down among the children of men, and shall redeem his people. And because he dwelleth in the flesh he shall be called the Son of God, and having subjected the flesh to the will of the Father, being the Father and the Son—The Father because he was conceived by the power of God; and the Son because of the flesh; thus becoming the Father and the Son—And they are one God, yea, the Very Eternal Father of heaven and earth. And thus the flesh becoming subject to the spirit, or the Son to the Father, being one God, suffereth temptation, and yieldeth not to the temptation, but suffereth himself to be mocked, and scourged, and cast out, and disowned by his people. And after all this, after working many mighty miracles among the children of men, he shall be led, yea, even as Isaiah said, as a sheep before the shearer is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. Yea, even so he shall be led, crucified, and slain, the flesh becoming subject even unto death, the will of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father.” (Mosiah 15: 1–7)
Our Savior sought not to do his own will, but to do the will of his Father and of our Father in all things. This is the pattern of faith. If we have faith in Jesus Christ, we will seek to do his will, even as he did the will of his father in all things, even as little children.
Is it possible that 3 Nephi 11: 37, immediately repeated in verse 38, is the most important commandment in the Book of Mormon?