13 Wherefore, my
beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of
heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent,
repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take
upon you the name of Christ, by baptism—yea, by following your Lord and your
Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye
receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy
Ghost; and then can ye speak with the tongue of angels, and shout praises unto
the Holy One of Israel.
14 But, behold, my
beloved brethren, thus came the voice of the Son unto me, saying: After ye have
repented of your sins, and witnessed unto the Father that ye are willing to keep
my commandments, by the baptism of water, and have received the baptism of fire
and of the Holy Ghost, and can speak with a new tongue, yea, even with the
tongue of angels, and after this should deny me, it would have been better for
you that ye had not known me.
What do we do if we
desire to follow Christ? Nephi gives us
direction.
To follow Christ,
we must follow him “with full purpose of heart” (2 Nephi 31:13). We can have no hypocrisy nor can we deceive
God. We must have “real intent to take
upon you the name of Christ, by baptism” (2 Nephi 31:13). Paul wrote to the Galatians and told them,
“For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into
Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:26-27).
After we receive
baptism, we are given the gift of the Holy Ghost. This will bring forth a baptism of fire that
will allow us to speak “the tongues of angels” (2 Nephi 31:13).
Noel Reynolds has
written and commented on this verse.
“And so again we
have the pattern. First, we have the pattern in the vision. We see Jesus
himself setting the pattern—humbling himself, being baptized, and receiving the
Holy Ghost—and then we see the Father and Jesus repeating the pattern to Nephi,
who hears their voices. Nephi concludes, or sums this up, by saying: ‘Wherefore,
my believed brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose
of hearth, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real
intent, repenting of your sins?’ (2 Nephi 31:13).”[1]
“When men love
their evil ways, it is not easy to turn away to a path of obedience to the
Lord. Nephi reports the instructions of the Father and the Son through which he
learned that this turning to follow the Son could not be accomplished unless
one acts ‘with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception
before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins’ (2 Nephi 31:13).”[2]
While Nephi’s
writing, the voice of Christ came to him.
He tells Nephi that, “After ye have repented of your sins, and witnessed
unto the Father that ye are willing to keep my commandments, by the baptism of
water, and have received the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost … after this
should deny me, it would have been better for you that ye had not known me” (2
Nephi 31:14).
This concept of the
unpardonable sin was mentioned by Christ during his earthly ministry.
“Whosoever
therefore shall [solemnly covenant with me] before men, him will I confess also
before my Father which is in heaven.
“But whosoever
shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in
heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33).
Paul wrote to
Timothy: “If we suffer [GR endure,
remain constant], we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will
deny us” (2 Timothy 2:12).
Hebrews tells us,
“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of
the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted
the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall
away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves
the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame” (Hebrews 6:4-6).
Peter also wrote,
“For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness,
than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered
unto them” (2 Peter 2:21).
[1]
Nephi's Teachings (part 2), Noel Reynolds, Maxwell Institute.
[2]
The True Points of My Doctrine, Noel B. Reynolds, Maxwell Institute.
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