The Light of Christ

Today I read Moroni 7, a spiritual feast! There is so much we could talk about in this chapter. There’s faith, hope, charity and of course, the Light of Christ. How appropriate it is on the day where we celebrate His birth to read about the Light of Christ. I really do feel I could talk for hours on this chapter alone there is just SO much to talk about here.

However I do in fact wish to focus on the Light of Christ. Mormon tells us that it is given to all men to know good from evil. He calls it the Spirit of Christ and it is truly known by several names including as I have called it, the Light of Christ. In one cartoon it was even known as Jiminy Cricket! But whatever name we give it, we are all born with an innate sense of what is right, and what is wrong. The only people who were ever placed on this earth without it, were Adam and Eve, and by partaking of the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they too learned what was right and what was wrong.

In the Doctrine and Covenants we learn that truth is light. D&C 84:45 - “For the word of the Lord is truth and whatsoever is truth is light, and whatsoever is light is Spirit, even the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” So, really if you think about it, the Light of Christ, is the ability to discern what is truth and what is falsehood. That is why those who are close to the Spirit can have what is commonly called a discerning spirit. I know that it is often a joke how easy it is to dupe some Latter-day Saints and how trusting we are and it is true that all humans have weaknesses and some do not heed the warnings of the Spirit or are not living worthy enough to have the companionship of the Spirit to guide them at all.

But those that are living a good and righteous life and have not deadened their Spirits by riotous living know that the Spirit of God can lead us to do that which is right and to feel uncomfortable in the presence of sin. For those of you who have seen the movie or read the book, “the Fellowship of the Ring” you may remember when the hobbits meet Aragorn for the first time Sam asks Frodo how they know he isn’t a servant of their enemy and Frodo tells Sam that a servant of the evil one would look more fair, but feel more foul. How right he is too! Have you ever met someone that from the moment you saw them they almost made your skin crawl you felt so uncomfortable? I sure have. I never found out why because I did not stick around long enough to associate with that individual. But likewise there are those people that from the moment you see them you are drawn to them like a moth to a flame. And I'm not just talking about a pretty lady or handsome man! :) There are those people that just seem to radiate light and goodness. If you have the good fortune to meet such a one, you will have a perfect example to emulate.

Now, just like we can drive away the Spirit from being our constant companion, we can also drive away the Light of Christ from ourselves and we can lose our ability to discern between what is right, and what is wrong. Anyone reading this who has engaged in too much sin for too long knows that. After awhile you stop feeling guilty about it. This is dangerous because Satan will try and trap you by whispering lies in your ear and telling you that because you don’t feel guilty about it, it must not be bad. But it is in fact a lie and the reason you do not feel guilty anymore is because you have deadened the Light of Christ in you to tell you that it is wrong.

It takes surprisingly little effort to lose the potency of the Light of Christ and it goes really fast. But fortunately, like the Prodigal Son, it can be brought back. Through sincere repentance and a LOT of effort, one can rebuild the Light of Christ in themselves. I hope none of you all put yourselves in that position that you need to find out first-hand what I am referring to. I hope that all of you treasure what a gift you have in your ability to discern between good and evil, between truth and lies. Until tomorrow and Merry Christmas!