Book of Mormon Lesson Plan 48

Mormon explains how to judge between good and evil

Callings are a gift

Read Moroni 7:2.  Mormon considered his calling a “gift.”  Think about what Mormon was called to do – preach repentance to a people who had utterly rejected Jesus Christ and his gospel and thus were doomed to destruction.  And yet, he referred to this not as an assignment, but a gift.  That kind of makes any calling Bishop Nelson might extend to you seem pretty easy, huh?

Peaceable followers of Christ

Read Moroni 7:3.  Mormon here is not speaking to the degenerate members of his society; he is speaking to those who are “peaceable followers of Christ.”  In spite of the fact that they are living in a wicked, violent society, Mormon commends them for attaining a present hope and rest to sustain them to their final rest with God.

• How can we develop this hope in our lives as we too live in a society characterized by wickedness and violence?

Read verses 4-5.  How do we walk peaceably today?  What good works can we do?

Giving gifts righteously

We are just coming out of our traditional gift giving season.  How did you feel about the gifts you gave?  About the people you gave them to?  Why did you give these gifts?

Read Moroni 7:6-9.  How can we purify our motives for doing good?  How does this change the experience of both us as the givers, and of the receiver?

Discerning good from evil

Read Moroni 7:15.  It is “given unto [us] to judge.”  We can’t simply hide from some matters.  We must discern between good and evil and choose the good.  How do we do that? 

Read verses 16-19.  What does a particular choice want us to do?  Rather than asking “Is this good enough?” or “Is this too bad?” we can ask, “Does this invite me to love and serve God?”  Think through the consequences of a particular choice.  If the immediate consequence appears neutral, continue down the consequence chain and see which direction it takes you.  Notice in verse 19 that we are commanded to search “in the light of Christ.”  We’re not looking for it; we already have it.  Instead, we use that light to help us see clearly whether a thing is good or evil.

Mormon explains the importance of faith, hope, and charity

Faith

In Moroni 7:20-26, Mormon counseled us to lay hold of every good thing, and asks rhetorically how to do that.

• Verse 21 – I’m going to speak about faith
• Verse 22 – God sent angels to testify of Christ; all good things come in Christ
• Verse 23 – God sent prophets to testify of Christ
• Verse 24 – God used other ways to testify of Christ; all good things come in Christ.  Without Him, we don’t get anything good.
• Verse 25 – Because of what was taught by angels and prophets, men began to exercise faith in Christ.  This allowed them to “lay hold upon every good thing.”
• Verse 26 – This is exactly the faith that we need to ultimately be saved.

Hope

What is the relationship between faith and hope?  This is almost the question of which came first – the chicken or the egg?

• Moroni 7:40 – You can’t “attain unto faith” unless you first have hope
• Moroni 7:42 – If you don’t have hope to begin with, you can never develop faith.

Elder Bruce R. McConkie taught: “As used in the revelations, hope is the desire of faithful people to gain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God hereafter. … Faith and hope are inseparable. Hope enables [us] to have faith in the first instance and then because of faith that hope increases until salvation is gained” (Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed. [1966], 365–66).

I believe both faith and hope are gifts from God.  Just as we can’t create life in either the chicken or the egg, we can spontaneously generate the kinds of faith or hope spoken of in the scriptures.  Hope comes from the light of Christ, and faith is a gift of the Holy Ghost.  What does this mean we need to do if we don’t feel like we have the faith we would like to have?

There is something we can and should do to prepare ourselves to receive the spiritual gifts of hope and faith.  Verse 43 counsels us to begin by being meek and lowly of heart.  How can we develop meekness in our personal lives?

Charity

Mormon teaches that having faith and hope naturally leads us to have charity, and warns that without charity we are nothing.  Read verse 45.  Here are a couple items that jump out at me:

• Seeketh not her own – Our whole society is built on an idea of “self-interest.”  Everyone acting in their own best interest (within certain reasonable assumptions) is what makes our free market economy work.  But charity doesn’t operate that way, and we need to learn to be motivated charitably or we “are nothing.”
• Thinketh no evil – For me, I need to work more to avoid thinking badly of others or ascribing evil motives to the actions of others.  I don’t spend lots of time thinking evil thoughts…at least I don’t think I do!
• Rejoiceth not in iniquity – Do we ever secretly congratulate ourselves when others are caught doing wrong?  I believe this comes from a “scarcity mentality.”  If we assume there’s only so much room in heaven, then someone else’s failures makes it more likely we’ll make it to heaven.  But that’s wrong!  In mortality we need to deal with scarcity and limited resources.  Those limitations do not apply to exaltation.  That’s what the Savior was trying to convey when he taught his disciples in Jerusalem, “In my Father’s house are many mansions” (see John 14:2).

Little children are saved through Christ’s atonement

Encourage the class to read Moroni 8.  We don’t have time today.

The Holy Ghost testifies of all truth

Read Moroni 10:3-5.  Identify who has what responsibilities in these verses:

• We:
• Read the Book of Mormon
• Remember God’s mercy to His children
• Ponder these things in our hearts
• Ask God in the name of Christ if these things are not true
• Have faith in Christ
• God:
• Manifests the truth through the power of the Holy Ghost

All the reading, studying, pondering, praying, fasting, etc. that we do in search of a testimony are good, but that is not what gives us a testimony.  A true testimony ALWAYS comes from the Holy Ghost.  Everything we do prepares our hearts and minds to receive and recognize the influence of this glorious member of the godhead. 

Moroni finally pleads with us in Moroni 10:31-32:

• Put on thy beautiful garments – go to the temple and receive your endowment
• Strengthen thy stakes – be active in the Church
• Come unto Christ and be perfected in Him – This is one of my favorite verses in the entire Book of Mormon.  This admonition is in passive voice.  We actively come to Christ, then he takes over and is the one responsible for the perfecting.  The promise is sure – if we come and do everything Moroni lists in verse 32 as our responsibility, Jesus Christ will make us perfect because His grace is that powerful.  If we don’t believe that, then we are denying God’s power.