Life is full of things that must be done in a certain order. Our bodies learn to digest milk before we are introduced to meat and other solid foods. We learn to walk before we can run. We have to plant before we can harvest. Elementary school precedes high school and high school precedes college.
The gospel is also constructed and learned "line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little" (2 Nephi 28:30). As we learn gospel principles and implement them in our lives, the Lord tests our understanding and faithfulness to the principles we have learned (D&C 98:12). He also blesses us with greater knowledge and wisdom that can continue to grow "until the perfect day" (D&C 50:24) when we can have the life he now enjoys (Moses 1:39).
Elder David A. Bednar has taught:
This ongoing cycle of gaining spiritual knowledge ultimately produces a precious and delicious fruit, but that fruit cannot and does not grow from a blossom to its ripened state overnight. Furthermore, such fruit cannot grow in barren soil. Obedience to God’s commandments and our personal integrity and adherence to commitments provide the needed nutrients for fertile spiritual soil. It should be obvious to all of us that evil influences such as filthy language, immodest clothing and appearance, and pornography are bitter poisons that kill the soil and halt the spiritually subtle process of receiving help from heaven ‘line upon line, precept upon precept.’ There can be no shortcut around the law of the harvest; truly, we reap what we sow” (September 2010 New Era).
The Preparatory Gospel
Within the envelope of the gospel, there are two major phases to our learning and development. First we experience the "preparatory gospel". In this phase, we focus on learning obedience and receiving the blessings promised for our faithfulness. The preparatory gospel gives us checklists and formulas to guide our obedient lives, deal with perceived scarcity, and do our duty.
In the Aaronic or Preparatory Priesthood, for example, prayers for the sacrament and baptism are provided verbatim. The Law of Tithing is a preparatory law that prescribes an amount to give back to the Lord-- no more, no less-- and is often associated with specific blessings for our obedience. In Primary we learn formulas that help us know how to say a prayer and how to repent of our sins. The former Boy Scouts and Young Women Personal Progress programs outlined specific actions that, if completed, earned merit badges or medallions or other external recognitions that were indicative of our progress and development. Prior home and visiting teaching efforts were also somewhat scripted with a monthly message in the Ensign and a leader calling at the end of each month to see if you had made the visits you were assigned.
Elder Bednar has taught: "Obedience is the first law of heaven, the cornerstone upon which all righteousness and progression rest. It consists in compliance with divine law, in conformity to the mind and will of Deity, in complete subjection to God and his commands" (at BYU-I on January 6, 2004). Preparatory gospel principles create a firm foundation for our testimonies and our lives.
A Higher Law
Parallel to the preparatory gospel is a second phase of learning and development we might call the "higher law" or the "fullness of the gospel". The principles of the gospel in this phase build upon and are inseparably connected with those of the preparatory gospel, yet here our discipleship is no longer transactional. We still obey the commandments with all of our hearts, but we do so because we love the Lord more than we expect a blessing. We learn to give without expecting anything in return because we love God's children and want to bless their lives (see John 13:34-35).
In the higher law, we abandon the checklists and formulas that sometimes lead to unrighteous judgements of others or assumptions that only a few of God's children will be saved. In their place, we learn to follow promptings of the spirit and act on the circumstances of the moment. We come to know the abundance of the Lord: that He who multiplied the loaves and fishes has blessings and salvation for "all the works of his hands" (D&C 76:43) and He has asked us to return to Him in groups.
Just as obedience is the appropriate focus of the preparatory gospel, with 613 commandments in the Law of Moses to practice that obedience, the fullness of the gospel, the Law of Christ, highlights only two: to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40). When two holders of the Melchizedek Priesthood lay their hands on someone's head to give them a blessing, demonstrating this love for God and their fellow man, the spirit guides their words accordingly. We are all likewise called to practice loving others and following the resulting promptings of the spirit as we gather together at church and as families, minister to one another, set goals with our children and youth, and begin live the law of consecration with our time, talents, and resources.
Obedience and Love
God is the author of the preparatory gospel and its fullness. Jesus Christ provided a perfect example of how to incorporate both into our lives. His Atonement was the result of his obedience to God's commandments and his love for God and for us. As we follow the Savior's example of obedience, it will grow and expand the love we feel for our Heavenly Father. As that love grows, we will want to be more obedient and provide more service to others. The cycle we have then created of growing our love and obedience, each building upon the other, expands our capacity to love and obey; and so we progress by degrees until we have the perfect obedience and charity exemplified by our Savior.
President Benson affirms, "The breadth, depth, and height of this love of God extend into every facet of one's life. Why did God put the commandment [to love God] first? Because He knew that if we truly love Him we would want to keep all of His other commandments" (April 1988). As we begin to live the higher law of the gospel, it ceases to be something we do or our faith tradition or a part of our lives. It swells and grows to be a cornerstone of our very identity and natural to everything we think or do.
"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:24-26).
Charity: The Pure Love of Christ
The Apostle Paul taught:
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Obedience is the foundation, but charity is the rest of the house. The Lord's plan for each of us includes a family that will teach us about His love for us. He instructs us to meet often to serve and teach one another. He invites us to minister to the needs of our neighbors and friends because we want to bless their lives. With every step, He invites us to put away the checklists, the judgement, the divisiveness and contention, and increase our focus on loving those we serve and expanding our desires to bless others.
"Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things" (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).
Fear is not the opposite of love, as is so often portrayed, but rather selfishness. We must learn to give of ourselves without expecting anything in return and to lose ourselves in the Lord's work of sharing His love with the world.
Conclusion: Ministering to One Another
The preparatory gospel teaches us principles of obedience. As we learn to follow the example of Jesus Christ and to love God, the Lord invites us to join with him in loving and serving His children.
One way we can serve with love is to minister to one another. Ministering is an exercise of charity as we learn to care for those we serve, as Jesus did, and seek to bless their lives without expecting anything in return. As he introduced ministering in April 2018, Elder Holland said:
“Brothers and
sisters, we have a heaven-sent opportunity as an entire Church to demonstrate ‘pure
religion … undefiled before God’—'to bear one another’s burdens, that they may
be light’ and to ‘comfort those that stand in need of comfort,’ to minister to
the widows and the fatherless, the married and the single, the strong and the
distraught, the downtrodden and the robust, the happy and the sad—in short, all
of us, every one of us, because we all need to feel the warm hand of friendship
and hear the firm declaration of faith… As [we do so,] we lift our spiritual
eyes toward living the law of love more universally."
Most of us tend to bob and weave between preparatory principles and a higher law through any given day. All of our efforts work together for our profit and learning, but as we strive to love the Lord, to obey his commandments out of love, and to serve others with that same spirit of willingness and love, perhaps we stretch a little farther, enjoy fruit that is a little sweeter, and move a little faster toward the perfect day when we will be complete.