"Our Light Affliction"

As William Tyndale was translating the New Testament, he came across 2 Corinthians 5:18--"And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation." Only the Greek text he was translating from didn't use the word reconciliation. The word he needed to properly express the concept just didn't exist in English. So he made one up: At-one-ment.

God hath given to us the gospel of the Atonement.

We usually speak about the Atonement of Jesus Christ in context of how He suffered and died for our sins. Indeed, that is the meat and bones of His great atoning sacrifice, the promise that if we make sacred covenants and keep them until the end, we may be allowed to pass the immeasurable gulf of sin that separates us from heaven--"for he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Cor. 15:21)

But we also know that all that is unjust or unfair about this life can be made right through the Atonement as well. Brigham Young once said "every trial and experience you have passed through is necessary for your salvation." The thing about our mortal existence is that problems don’t just go away. Things don’t work out. Your heart gets broken. You feel life and time itself relentlessly dragging you through the dirt, without even pausing to notice you. But, because Jesus Christ suffered and bled out his love for us--“our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." (2 Cor. 4:17).

Charity

This week in class we studied 1 Corinthians 13, Paul’s quintessential summary of charity. We know from the Book of Mormon that charity is “the pure love of Christ” (Moro. 7:47), and I have often been tempted just to accept that definition and move on. Charity = pure love of Christ. That’s simple enough. What’s next?

But Bro. Griffin stopped us on that phrase and analyzed each word: The pure love of Christ. The pure love of Christ. The pure love of Christ. The pure love of Christ.

“Of” tends to indicate possession; the thing before belongs to the person after. Therefore, that pure love belongs to Christ—not to us.

When we talk about charity, generally we default to talking about ways we can serve others, things we can do to be kind and generous, attention on everyone but ourselves. That is definitely good, and a big part of practicing charity. But charity itself, we don’t possess; charity is the love that Christ has for each of us, and the best we can do is to try to reflect that charity towards those around us. I don’t have the reference, but Elder Jeffrey R. Holland is quoted as saying that you and I make attempts, but true charity was seen on earth only once.

1 Cor. 13 describes charity, but in the third person, almost a disembodied concept. But when we remember that true charity is an attribute of God, those descriptions become descriptions of Christ Himself. And as we strive to become more like the Savior, they naturally become descriptions of ourselves as well.

Paul vs. the Gospel

In many parts of the New Testament, particularly in the epistles of Paul, there are verses of scripture that seem to support teachings of other Christian churches instead of the LDS Church, or even contradict our doctrine. For example, in a few places Paul says, in effect, that all you need to do is have faith in Jesus and confess Him with your mouth, and you will be saved--a staple teaching of many churches, but patently against our understanding that faith is an essential part of the whole gospel. Of course, the trouble with such a reading is that it takes the verse in isolation, rather than in the context of all of Paul's teachings.

In 1 Corinthians 1:17 we find one such seeming inconsistency: Paul says, "Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel." Some churches have interpreted this verse to mean that baptism isn't essential, but we know that baptism is an absolute requirement to gain exaltation. I think that the lesson we can learn in these examples is twofold: there are no quick-and-simple solutions to the gospel, no easy way to heaven; and we ought to study out the gospel as far as we can to enrich our knowledge and understanding of its principles. If you study all of the teachings of Paul, and understand the context in which he is teaching, it becomes clear that he merely meant that the important step for that man at that time was to have faith and be humble enough to confess the Christ, and that Christ sent him not just to put people in the water, but to teach the whole gospel. Thus by really studying the scriptures we can learn true doctrine, and come closer to our Savior.