After teaching the Nephites to avoid oaths, the Savior once
again returns to the Mosaic Law.
Under the Law, it allowed an eye for an eye and a tooth for
a tooth. Here, again, the Savior gave us
a higher law. If a person hits you on
the cheek, turn the other cheek and allow them to strike the other. If, through the law, you lose your coat to a
person, give that person your cloak as well. If you are forced to go a mile, go
the second mile.
This is not to say you have to literally do these
things. The point the Savior is making
is do not return evil for evil. It goes back to the concept of forgiveness. We are to forgive those who do evil against
us.
“There were, in ancient Israel, as you know, laws of
reparation and damage. Under the law of Moses, the system was that if an injury
was done to you, it would be appropriate on your part to expect someone to
repair the damages. Ancient Israel didn't live under some barbaric idea that if
someone happened to accidentally poke your eye out, you should search them out
and poke their eye out. That is barbaric. No, it was the idea of repairs and
damages. The Lord again calls us to a higher level of righteousness.”[1]
Continuing teaching us to return good for evil, He refers to
the fact they had been taught to love their neighbor but hate their enemy. We are taught to love our enemies. Bless them, do good to them, and pray for
them.
We are to do this, “[t]hat ye may be the children of your
Father who is in heaven; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the
good” (3 Nephi 12:45).
“Let's go to 3 Nephi 13. This chapter seems to be a call not
only to a higher righteousness but to a higher motivation. I don't know and you
don't know all the reasons people do what they do, and the Savior is going to
warn us soon enough to be careful about judging people's motives. I know me,
and it seems to me that I can do the right things for the right reason or the
right things for the wrong reason, and maybe I can do the wrong things for the
right reason and the wrong things for the wrong reason. That seems to be a
discussion that is going on here. It is the call not only to do the right
things, but to do them for the right reasons. You will occasionally hear people
say, ‘Oh, the way I feel right now, it would be better not to go to church.’
No, it is better to go to church. ‘With the way I feel about this, I shouldn't
even pay tithing.’ No, we should pay tithing, but the Lord calls us to try to
gain a new motivation.”[2]
46 For if ye love them which love you, what
reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what
do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is
in heaven is perfect.
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46 Therefore those things which were of old
time, which were under the law, in me are all fulfilled.
47 Old things are done away, and all things
have become new.
48 Therefore I would that ye should be
perfect even as I, or your Father who
is in heaven is perfect.
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The wording in verses 46-47 differ from Matthew
5:46-47. In Jerusalem, He refers back to
the concept of loving those who hate you.
If you do, what reward to they have?
Even the publicans do this.
Teaching the Nephites, He told them these things were under
the old Law. They have been fulfilled.
In fact, all old things are done away with, as all things have become new; that
is, we now follow the teachings of Christ.
“From Genesis to Malachi and from Moses to Abraham, it was
prophesied the Savior would come. From the books of Matthew to Revelation, from
Nephi to Moroni, and from Joseph Smith to our beloved living prophet, President
Gordon B. Hinckley, the prophets all testify that Jesus Christ, the
long-awaited Messiah, has come and will come again. In Him ‘old things are done
away, and all things have become new.’ Through the holy scriptures, His new and
everlasting gospel proclaims: ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself.’ ‘Love your
enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for
them which despitefully use you.’ ‘Of you it is required to forgive all men.’
For this is the gospel of our Savior, who is anointed ‘to heal the
brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and … to set at liberty
them that are bruised.’”[3]
Teaching the Nephites, the Savior makes an important change
in verse 48, identifying His new role.
He told the Jews to be perfect like their Father in heaven. Now, He is a resurrected, perfected
being. We now are told to be perfect,
like He or our Father are perfect. The
Savior can now declare Himself perfect and liken Himself to the Father.
“Some may feel that only Christ can judge righteously
because he is the only sinless person: ‘He is the Rock, his work is perfect:
for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and
right is he’ (Deuteronomy 32:4). Although Christ was the only perfectly
righteous person in mortality, he has asked us to become perfect like him (see
Matthew 5:48; 3 Nephi 12:48). He calls us to follow him in distinguishing
between good and evil, in judging between right and wrong. While judgment is a
great responsibility, the counsel of the Lord to his servants is a guide to
all: ‘the rights of the priesthood [of Melchizedek, Hebrew malko-ṣedeq]
are . . . handled only upon the principles of righteousness [ṣedeq] . . . by
gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; by kindness, and pure knowledge’
(D&C 121:36, 41–42).”[4]
“When the twelve
disciples were called in the Americas, the Lord Jesus Christ commanded them: ‘Therefore
I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is
perfect.’ The Savior had recently finalized His successful, selfless, and
transcendental mission on earth. This allowed Him to declare with authority
that He and His Father, our Father, are the models to be followed by each one
of us.”[5]
[1] The
Doctrine of the Risen Christ: Part 2, Robert L. Millet, Maxwell Institute
website.
[3] Holy
Scriptures: The Power of God unto Our Salvation, Elder Robert D. Hales,
October 2006 General Conference.
[4] What’s
in a Word?, Cynthia L. Hallen, Journal
of Book of Mormon Studies 10/2 (2001): 65.
[5] Attempting
the Impossible, Elder Jorge F. Zeballos, October 2009 General Conference.
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