“Should the
Commandments Be Rewritten”
Richard L. Evans October
1971
Perhaps I could begin with an interesting question posed
recently and an equally interesting answer. The question was, “Don’t you think
the commandments should be rewritten?” The
answer was, “No, they should be reread.”
This may be a good point from which to take off for
consideration of some fundamental facts; namely, the commandments of God are
there. They come from a divine source. The experience of the ages has proved
the need for them, and has proved what happens if they are ignored.
So why spend life in the frustration and unhappiness and sorrow
and tragedy of trying to rationalize and wave them away?
Beginning with the Ten Commandments may be as good a place as
any. It would be well to read and reread them and not spend life trying to
convince ourselves that they really don’t mean what they say.
Some things the commandments say thou shalt not do, and if that
is what they say, that’s what they mean, and there’s a reason for it.
Some of them say this you should do, and there’s a reason for
it.
It would be interesting sometime to make a list of what our
Father in heaven tells us to do and what he tells us not to do. Any parent is
faced with the same situation. Any doctor is faced with the same situation.
Essentially this is what the gospel is: counsel from a living
Father who says to his children, “You have limitless, everlasting
possibilities. You also have your freedom. It’s up to you how you use it. This
is what you can become if you take my advice—and this is what will happen if
you don’t. The choice is yours.”
We all make choices every day. We all have to live with the
results of the choices we make.
It’s just that plain. It isn’t a question of quibbling or
hairsplitting or arguing about the mysteries or brooding about the things God hasn’t
yet told us, while neglecting the things he has told us. Let’s stop quarreling
with the commandments and the requirements and just face the facts.
Who knows better than the Creator and Father of us all what is
and isn’t essential?
Brilliant men, philosophers and others, have wrestled with these
questions through the centuries, and haven’t arrived at any answers they can
agree on among themselves.
I have a great respect for scholarship, for education and
research, for academic excellence, and for the magnificent accomplishments of
sincere and searching men. But I also have great respect for the word of God,
and his prophets, and life’s purpose; and it comes to a question of where to
place our trust.
I have been privileged to know some of the ablest men on
earth—men of many faiths, many professions, many accomplishments, in nearly 150
countries. But I’ve never known a man who knew enough that I was willing to
trust him with my everlasting life.
Sometimes people quibble about the meaning of scripture and rationalize
and justify themselves in doing things they well know they shouldn’t do. They
sometimes say, for example, that “Thou shalt not commit adultery” doesn’t
include all the other kinds and degrees of immoral sins and perversions, or
that the Word of Wisdom, for example, doesn’t catalogue all the substances and
brand names and all the products and dope and harmful things that have been
discovered or concocted that are not good for men.
Obviously, all of them couldn’t be catalogued. In the words of
King Benjamin: “And finally, I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may
commit sin; for there are divers ways and means, even so many that I cannot
number them.” (Mosiah 4:29.)
The Lord expects us to use wisdom and common sense and not
quibble about what obviously isn’t good for the body or mind or spirit or
morals of man. And before doing or partaking of anything, stop and ask
honestly, “Does this contribute to health? Does it contribute to happiness?
Would this please God? Will this bless and benefit me and others, or does it
drag me down? Is it good or isn’t it?”
It doesn’t matter what people call things. It
matters what they are—what they do. If
I may modify Shakespeare considerably: Anything by any name will still be what
it is and will still do what it does no matter what you call it.
And if anyone doubts that all forms of moral infraction and
perversion are not condemned by scripture, may we assure you that there are
scriptures that could be cited for you that prohibit all evils, all impurities
and perversions, all uncleanness and excesses, all unwise habits and unbecoming
conduct.
Why quibble? Why not simply accept the facts and be honest with
ourselves?
“… fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole
duty of man.” (Eccl. 12:13.)
“If ye love me,” said our Savior, “keep my commandments.” (John 14:15.)
But we ought also to keep the commandments simply as a favor to
ourselves.
Many years ago Emerson wrote an essay, “Compensation,” in which
he said:
“The world looks like a multiplication-table, or a mathematical
equation, which, turn it how you will, balances itself. … Every secret is told,
every crime is punished, every virtue rewarded, every wrong redressed, in
silence and certainty. …
“Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit, cannot be
severed; for the effect already blooms in the cause, … the fruit in the seed. …
“What will you have? quoth God; pay for it and take it. … Thou
shalt be paid exactly for what thou hast done, no more, no less. …
“A man cannot speak but he judges himself. … Every opinion reacts
on him who utters it. …
“You cannot do wrong without suffering wrong. …
“The thief steals from himself. The swindler swindles himself. …
“… it is impossible to get anything without its price. …
“Commit a crime, and it seems as if a coat of snow fell on the
ground, such as reveals in the woods the track of every partridge and fox and
squirrel and mole. You cannot recall the spoken word, you cannot wipe out the
foot-track, you cannot draw up the ladder, so as to leave no inlet or clew.
“… we gain the strength of the temptation we resist. …
“Men suffer all their life long under the foolish superstition
that they can be cheated. But it is … impossible for a man to be cheated by
anyone but himself. …”
I heard from President Lee a very short sentence that said
essentially what Emerson said, that there are no successful sinners. It is a
remarkable sentence to contemplate.
Since there is a law of compensation that is built into life, we
ought always to take time to stop and look and consider what we do, and fail to
do, and what we will wish we had done.
Now this to our youth: There are persuasive people who will tell
you that the commandments of God are not valid, that there are no serious
consequences for breaking them.
But if you want a guideline to know whom to follow, who’s
telling the truth, ask yourself always, “Is what this person is telling me or
tempting me to do something that will bring me happiness and peace and lead me
to my highest possibilities, or is it something that will lead me to the baser
side?”
Don’t follow anyone who will endeavor to destroy ideals, reject
the commandments, or lead you to lower levels.
I heard a question once asked by President [Hugh B.] Brown: “Do
you want to repent or to rationalize?”
To quote a sentence from Cromwell: “I beseech you, … Think it
possible that you may be mistaken.”
Anyone is mistaken if what he is doing would lead him down
physically, mentally, or morally, if it would destroy his peace, or estrange
him from his Father in heaven, or impair his everlasting life.
“Pride,” said John Ruskin, “is at the bottom of all great
mistakes.”
At least, pride is one of the principal barriers to repentance,
because we can’t correct an error without first admitting a mistake.
God bless you, my beloved young friends, and be with you and
give you the humility to overcome pride, to admit and correct mistakes.
Respect parents. Confide in them. Respect yourselves. Respect
God and the knowledge he has given. Don’t gamble with life. It is all we have.
Don’t tempt temptation. Don’t foolishly see how close you can
come to danger or evil, how close you can come to a precipice. Stay away from
what you shouldn’t do or where you shouldn’t go, or what you shouldn’t partake
of.
And if you’ve turned toward some dead-end or down some wrong
road, turn back as quickly as you can—not later than right now—and thank God
for the principle of repentance.
Don’t run aimlessly looking to and fro for what has already been
found. Don’t live by the sophistries and temptations of these times.
Don’t tamper with the degrading soul- and body-destroying things
of life. Don’t deliberately look less than your best, or grubby or unclean,
physically or morally.
Parents, set before your children an example of honesty and
honor and cleanliness and righteousness and dedication to duty.
Children, love and respect your parents. They’ve given you life.
They’d die for you. Families, draw closer together, in love and kindness,
preserving the home, building traditions that will make you proud of each other
and grateful to belong and be what you are.
Should the commandments be rewritten? No, they should be reread
and become the guide and standard of our lives, if we want health and happiness
and peace and self-respect.
I remember the words of a beloved stake president, and I thank
him for the thought he left with me some months ago. He said, “I used to ride
the range with my father, looking for lost sheep or cattle. And as we would
mount a ridge we would look off into a distant hollow or a clump of trees, and
my father would say, ‘There they are.’” But this stake president said, “My
father could see farther than I could, and often I couldn’t see them. But I
knew they were there because my father said so.”
There are many things, my beloved brethren and sisters, that I
know and you know are there, because our Father said so. And I know that he
lives, that he made us in his image, that he sent his divine Son, our Savior,
to show us the way of life and redeem us from death. I know that he will enter
into our lives as fully as we let him, and that his church and gospel and way
of life are on earth and here with us, and that we will realize our highest
possibilities if we accept the counsels God has given, and that we will fall
somewhat, somewhere short of what we might have been, or might have had, if we
run contrary to his commandments. God bless you and be with you always, I pray
in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Simple Rule”
(Keep the Commandments)
cji
11/18/18
Over and over repeated
what are we to do?
running here and there
jumping off high
buildings
inhaling stiff drugs
drinking the night away
all worldly answers
then there’s one more
‘rewrite the
Commandments’
missing the idea of obedience
the simple rule of Salvation
not unlike God’s other
law
discarding the
Constitution
rather than reading
discerning
keeping all of God’s
law!
Copyright © 2018 – cji
