16 For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.Everybody can know for themselves what is good and what is evil--it really is as simple as Moroni teaches. . .Good can be found in many places in the earth. There are many people and organisations that help the sick and the needy. There are many people that do their best to do the right thing. They are honest, and have integrity. We know that we don't "have the corner" on righteousness, or goodness in our church.
17 But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil; for after this manner doth the devil work, for he persuadeth no man to do good, no, not one; neither do his angels; neither do they who subject themselves unto him.
In the church we are taught to seek after those things around us that are good. In fact, one of our scriptures found the Doctrine and Covenants teaches us that we are supposed to seek after the good (D&C 88:118)
118 And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.An excellent example of this is our prophet, President Monson. He frequently quotes poems or stories that he has read from the great literature of the world. It is not very often in a church setting that you will find someone quoting from some of these works. A great example of that is the talk that he gave this for this past Christmas devotional. In his talk, entitled "Because He Came", President Monson quotes from not only the scriptures, but also Charles Dicken's "A Christmas Carol", as well as "The Mansion" by Henry Van Dyke.
On the other hand though, there is much that is not good in the world. . .There is much that teaches us to do evil, and to deny Christ. They are the things that encourage us to be mean and spiteful, or to be selfish and prideful. They are the things that demean and belittle others. Those things that do that are evil, and we should avoid them. If we are able, we should courageously stand against such things.
Let us seek the good in others and in life!
Also, my long-time favorite: 1 John 4:1-3.
ReplyDelete"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
"Hereby aknow ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
"And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world."
Additionally, not everything evil comes from Satan. Some of our biological nature is at odds with the gospel, and much of our social nature can create situations or put us into situations that are at odds with the gospel.
Satan had thousands of years to get to know human nature and so uses our nature against us, but we do err in thinking that he is the origin of all our shortcomings.
I argue, if we knew our nature as much as Satan, most of Satan's tactical moves would have much less influence.
I'm just saying...