Fear God, not Man

Today I read Doctrine and Covenants section 3 which is a revelation given to Joseph Smith after Joseph became aware of the fact that Martin Harris had lost the 116 pages they had translated which contain the book of Lehi. Critics of Joseph Smith can say whatever they want about the man, but the fact remains, he was a very humble man when it came to his own image. How many of us would include a revelation for publication where we were getting absolutely slammed by the Lord? It would certainly be embarrassing.

But perhaps that is part of the point. God tells Joseph Smith that he should have feared God and not man. I remember a year ago or so, my wife and I got into a discussion on what we thought it meant to fear God. I don't remember much about the discussion other than we differed in our opinions on the matter. My definition actually comes from this section as well as Mosiah 26 where is says Alma fears to do that which is wrong in the sight of God. I have always felt that the phrase "fear God" meant that we were afraid of displeasing Him, of doing that which is wrong in His sight.

So perhaps God had Joseph include this revelation to help him learn to worry more about what God thinks, rather than about what man thinks of him. It is a hard lesson to learn but a very important one that needs to be learned by all who desire eternal life. It also goes hand in hand with godly sorrow. When we have godly sorrow, we are more concerned with what God thinks of us as opposed to what anyone else thinks.

Unfortunately this is one of those areas where it is really hard to overcome on our own and we need the help of the Spirit to change us in this regard. But like all the other areas we need the help of the Lord to overcome, He is more than willing to help us learn to overcome and do what is right. There are somethings we can do to help facilitate our change though. Immersing ourselves in the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon, for one thing is a great way to overcome the natural man and have the desire to please God. More time reading the scriptures will lead to more time in prayer which will result in more desire to please Him.

Those of you reading this who are a member of the LDS church know that in our church meetings we like to refer to certain things as "the primary answers". The primary answers usually include things like scripture reading, prayer, family home evening, and other basic things that our children our taught on a weekly basis in primary. But the reason so many questions have the primary answers as their actual answer is because we have to perfect the basics before we can move onto the more complex. If we haven't mastered reading our scriptures, it is highly unlikely we are going to master temple attendance. If we are not praying regularly, it is very unlikely that we will have regular church attendance. I could go on and on but you see my point I think. We have to have the basics as our building blocks before we can build any higher.

The closer we get to Him by doing the things we have been asked to do, the more we will fear displeasing Him. And the more we fear displeasing Him, the more we will be doing what is right and not have cause to displease Him. Just as the song says, "do what is right, let the consequence follow", because when we do what is right, we can be confident that the consequence is the one God wants to have happen, because it will be for our benefit. Until tomorrow.