6 May 2001
Brethren, I commend you for being here this afternoon. It is only the faithful who come to a Stake Priesthood Meeting at 3:00 p.m. on a spring Sunday.
My assignment is to speak to all of us about the character pattern of a man of God, a worthy bearer of the Melchizedek Priesthood. I approach this topic by breaking it down into four segments, each of which will be treated separately. The four segments are:
- the essential characteristics of a worthy son of Jesus Christ.
- The essential characteristics or a worthy bearer of the Aaronic Priesthood.
- The essential characteristics of a worthy bearer of the patriarchal priesthood.
- The essential characteristics of a worthy bearer of the Melchizedek Priesthood.
I hope to paint a word picture of a godly character, and invite each of you to paint you own word picture, hopefully stimulated for the good by what I present. Do not take what I say as final word on the subject. But do think about what I say and improve upon it as you can.
Before treating the four segments, it is important to say a word about the overall process of achieving a godly character. First, our character is our habits. Habits are built by making consistent deliberate choices. It sometimes takes fifty to a hundred unbroken choosings of a good action to make it a habit, so that we do what we have previously consciously chosen as a matter of habit, without having to re-choose. But since it only takes one deliberate contrary choice to shatter a habit, so what we have to make the fifty or a hundred good choices again until the habit is re-fixed.
Acquiring a good character is simply a matter of fixing many necessary good habits. Since we are agents, no one but ourselves can fix our own habits. This no one but ourselves can save us from ourselves, that is to say, from our bad habits.
Bad habits come with being mortal. We are in a fallen world, and every one of us partakes of bad habits to some degree at some time. Our challenge is to come out of the fallen world and take upon ourselves the habits, the character, of Jesus Christ. Our goal is to rise to the stature of His character, to the fulness of the perfection that He is. His grace makes it possible for us to become as He is, and thus we are saved by grace. But it is our own hard work to control our thoughts, feelings, words and actions that actually saves us from ourselves. His grace alone will not and cannot save us from ourselves.
The essence of the Christ-like character is not to be selfish, to state the goal negatively. To say it positively is to say that we must come in the end to attain and habitually manifest the pure love of Christ. This means that in any situation in life we do not consider what will best feather our own nest; but being a child of Christ, our only concern in any situation will be to do what is right, which is to say, to do the action which will most help and bless everyone around us. Our goal is thus to overcome selfishness by taking upon ourselves the habits and attributes of Jesus Christ until we do everything we do in that perfect love that comes only from Christ. The indispensable means to overcoming selfishness and growing to the full stature of the pure love of Christ is to be humble. If we go before our Heavenly Father, humbling ourselves as a little child all of our days and doing it in the name of Jesus Christ, we open the doors of grace that it may come down and bless us with the wherewith that we then can make the changes in ourselves which need to be made.
Armed with humility, seeing the opposition as selfishness, and having as our goal attaining the pure love of Christ, or charity, we are ready to set out on our quest for salvation.
The first step in salvation from ourselves is to be baptized, to be born again as a son of Jesus Christ, and make covenant with him. If we make the baptismal covenant, we set out in pursuit of four special character traits to fix them so permanently in our nature that we can never be shaken from them. The four are to be honest, true, chaste and benevolent.
To be honest is to admit it whenever God speaks to us. To ignore the spiritual promptings to do good which come from God is the essence of worldliness, which is selfishness. Thus our missionaries can only help the honest in heart, because when they pray and receive answers from God, they are humble before Him and are willing to admit that He has spoken to their souls. Knee-jerk honesty is always found in those who love Jesus Christ and serve Him.
To be true means that we keep our word, our promises. If we say we will do something, our word becomes our bond, and we do it, even if it is not convenient. A knife edge is true when it is straight; a person is true when their actions line up perfectly with what they have said they will do. The most important promises we ever make are the promises of baptism: That we will be willing to take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ, that we will keep all of the commandments He gives us, and that we will remember Him always. There is no salvation nor spiritual progress toward salvation without making and being true to those three promises. That is why baptism is our most important covenant, and partaking of the sacrament to renew that covenant is a great key to the life of a Latter-day Saint.
To be chaste means to recognize that our bodies are fashioned in the image of God Himself, and that these mortal tabernacles are not ours to do with as we selfishly please, but these bodies are “loaners,” temporary gifts from God to see what kind of a body we will be worthy of in the resurrection. The most important power these mortal bodies have is the power of procreation, one of God’s great gifts to man. But God is very jealous of His gift and wants it used only as He directs, which is to say, using our power of procreation only in marriage. This is chastity; to guard jealously the gift of God and use it only as we are given permission to do so. The world teaches us selfishness, to use this precious gift as we please, to pleasure ourselves according to our own desires. But that is not the way of Christ.
To be benevolent means to have good will toward all men. It means that we seek peace, not strife; we seek to help others, not to take advantage of them. In a world where might often is the only right people recognize, the servant of Christ can be counted on to do what is right and fair; he will not seek to improve his own lot at the expense of another. Whatever benefit the Saint is willing to receive, it is because others benefit also and everyone is better off. The Saint does not think of feathering just his own nest. He continually ponders how to feather everyone’s nest, that all around him might be better off. He works tirelessly to see that others enjoy the advantages he has, that all might be blessed.
To summarize the character of the child of Christ: He is honest, true, chaste and benevolent, which is to say, he will not lie, he will not break his promises, he will not commit fornication or adultery, and he will not allow harm to his neighbor to be the means of getting any benefit.
We turn now to the character traits of a worthy bearer of the Aaronic Priesthood. The principal concern of the Aaronic Priesthood is with temporal things. The Aaronic order is the power and discipline by which we who are servants of Christ subdue the earth, earn a livelihood, and recreate the Garden of Eden on earth. My suggestions as to the essential character traits of a Son of Jesus Christ who has received the Aaronic Priesthood are as follows: He is responsible, productive, well-organized, and skillful in what he does.
To be responsible means to be able to be given a task to perform, to complete the task well, and to report back to the giver of the task that the work has been accomplished. This trait of being responsible is the backbone of all priesthood functioning, at any level. The Savior pointed out that he had little use for a servant who accepted a command but who then did not do what he was told. To be responsible is to be trustworthy. President McKay said that it is more important to be trusted than to be loved. And it is indeed. The essence of being a worthy priesthood holder is to be trustworthy.
To be productive means to be a hard worker. The lazy person cannot be a profitable servant unto Christ. The profitable servant works and wears away his life and strength in doing the tasks the master has set, even when he seems to be making no progress, even when the odds or opposition seem to be overwhelming. The productive servant of Christ throws all he has into the fray, not fearing for his life, for his health, for the feathers in his nest. He only seeks to do the will of the Lord because he knows that whatever his Lord commands is right. So he works hard to produce all that he reasonably can, be he seeking a harvest of grain in the field or souls in the mission field.
To be well-organized means that the servant of Christ is orderly. He keeps his possessions in order. He keeps his tools repaired and sharpened. He can lay his hands on the possession he needs in the dark, because he is so well organized that everything is in its place. With this order goes cleanliness, for dirt and mess are forms of disorder which destroy the worthiness of his stewardship and of himself as a steward. He strives to order his mind, his heart, his body with the best food and exercise, his words with the best things to say, his actions with the works of a disciple of Christ.
And the worthy bearer of the Aaronic Priesthood is skillful. He sees who does things well and learns from them. If no human source of help is available, he goes to his Father in Heaven and boldly seeks instruction from angels, if necessary. His is so anxious to do his work well that he is willing to do it over and over until he gets it right. Be he translating or tracting, planting or harvesting, reading or writing, singing or dancing, he wants to do each act the very best that it can be done, and he is willing to sacrifice both to learn and then to perform well.
To summarize the worthy Aaronic Priesthood steward over temporal things: he is responsible, trustworthy; he is a hard worker; he is orderly and well-organized in all things; and he does what he does very well, skillfully. He will not tolerate an undischarged command. He will never be lazy and unproductive. He will never deliberately have or leave things in a mess. And he will never be slothful or careless in his performance. Because the light of Christ is in him, he seeks excellence in all things.
We turn now to the Patriarchal Priesthood. The Prophet Joseph Smith pointed out to us that there are three orders of priesthood: The Melchizedek, the Patriarchal, and the Aaronic (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Deseret Book, 1976, p. 323). We do not often discuss the Patriarchal Priesthood, but this seems to be a good time to say some obvious things about it.
When a man and woman are sealed in the Holy Temple of God, they receive the Patriarchal Priesthood to preside over their family, which priesthood is a branch of the Melchizedek Priesthood. The character traits a person needs to learn to be a worthy family patriarch are to be understanding, to be tender, to be inspiring, and to be exemplary. These traits focus on how we relate to other people, specifically those in our own family.
To be understanding is to seek the spiritual gift of discernment, to be able to observe another person and sense when they are hurting and what their needs are. To be a husband and father in a family is to be one who administers to needs, first of his wife, and then of his children. The more pure (unselfish) his own heart is, the more the Holy Spirit can help the father to minister to the needs of his family. This may not come naturally; he may need to pray, fast and ponder long and hard to understand the persons in his family.
The father needs to be tender as he ministers to the needs of his family members. Sometimes the person in his family who needs the most help is the most resistive. Whatever help he gives must be done in long-suffering, with love unfeigned, in all humility, to be effective. Helping someone often hurts them, as when we go in with a needle to extract a deep splinter of wood, or when we find someone in a fault and gently try to reason with them about it. Brute power and force are seldom the answer to minister to the needs of the ailing soul, so sympathetic tenderness is necessary for every father.
The father is a leader, and as such, he needs to be inspiring. He will best be inspiring if he is inspired himself. As he humbles himself before the Lord, knows the path his family should go, then leads them on to where the Lord would have them go, he will be inspiring. The power of the Holy Ghost in him will inspire his wife and children to follow him, to make the sacrifices necessary to spiritual progress, and to progress toward being a celestial family.
And finally, the father needs to be an example of a servant of Christ unto all of his family. He needs to lead our in scripture study and family prayer, in church attendance and participation and in family meeting, in fulfillment of callings and sustaining those in authority, of supporting his wife and other family members in their church callings, in being a good neighbor, in being a faithful ministering brother and a warm receiver of ministering brothers, of being politically responsible, of being a good provider, of instructing and organizing his home so that there is order, cleanliness, and many happy occasions. He cannot set this example without the help, cooperation and example of his wife. But he will see to it that both he and she are converted to the ways of the Lord and that they then set the pattern for all of their children and grandchildren.
The worthy bearer of the Patriarchal Priesthood thus is a concerned family man. He tries to relate to each person in his family as he should, to entice them to come to Christ. He knows that the most important relationship he has is with his wife, and does everything he can to forge a strong bond of love and commitment with his wife, knowing that only then can they maximally help their children. He will not be a tyrant, he will not ride rough-shod over feelings, he will not lead by force, and he will not give aid to the enemy by setting a bad example.
Now we turn to the character traits of a bearer of the Melchizedek Priesthood, one who serves in the Kingdom of God, the Church of Jesus Christ, to bring souls to Christ. A true servant of Christ is cooperative, he is a leader, he is visionary, and he is powerful. Let us enlarge on each of these.
A worthy bearer of the Melchizedek Priesthood is cooperative because he knows that the ultimate purpose of all priesthood action is to bring all who bear the priesthood into a oneness with Christ and the Father. Thus he is anxious to cooperate, to bear part of the burden, to help see that the work succeeds, to be a part of the success of his quorum, presidency, or committee. He is a student of the manuals of the Church, striving to bring all into conformity with the desires of those who preside, who represent our Savior. He cooperates as a follower and as a leader, striving to make the body of Christ, the Church, sound, whole, and productive at every turn.
He is a leader, and when it is his turn to lead, he leads by the Holy Spirit, seeking counsel of those who are his counselors and those who preside over him. He leads with kindness and love unfeigned, with pure knowledge, not asking blind obedience but giving informed direction. He is constant, commendatory, quick to praise and slow to reprove, ready to instruct and encourage. He knows that the enemy is not flesh and blood but is a spiritual force, and he counters with all of the power of God to lead away from the ways of the enemy into the ways of godliness.
As a leader, he must be visionary, even as Father Lehi. Father Lehi had a vision of the work of Christ and of the promised land which his children would inherit. Lehi’s “visionariness” was a trial to his unfaithful children, but a blessing to them nevertheless. And it was a great inspiration to his faithful children, leading them to Christ also.
Finally, the worthy bearer of the Melchizedek Priesthood must be powerful in the Holy Spirit. He leads not for gain or glory, but for the sake of the cause of Christ. Because he is humble before Christ, Christ fill him with power, and using that power he inspires, guides and blesses all who are in his stewardship. He fears no obstacle, knows no defeat, and is not discouraged, in spite of the raging of mobs or the powers of hell. For he knows whom he serves and that the cause of Christ will prevail over all in this world and will reach into heaven and to the expanses of eternity.
So, in addition to all of the other characteristics gained being a son of God, a bearer of the Aaronic Priesthood, and a bearer of the Patriarchal Priesthood, the worthy bearer of the Melchizedek Priesthood is priesthood “broke”: he knows how to follow, obey and to lead in the Church of Jesus Christ, and he leads with vision and power unto establishing the Kingdom of Christ on the earth that it will be worthy of being joined by the Kingdom of Heaven when our Savior comes in the Second Coming. He does not criticize those who preside, he does not shirk leading out when so called, he does not substitute his own ideas for the visions of God, and he never seeks the evil gift or to accomplish the purposes of God.
Brethren, I testify that this work in which we are engaged is the true work of Jesus Christ, that his power and authority are in the priesthood of this church, and that the most intelligent thing we can do is to learn both our priesthood duty and our priesthood opportunity, and to be found being a faithful servant in all things. For “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man” (1 Cor. 2:9) the blessings the Lord has in store for those who love Him and serve Him with all of their heart, might, mind and strength. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.