3 Nephi 21-22

(December 4, 2014)

                One of the first scriptures that I ever memorized was 3 Nephi 22:17.  I loved the lyrical format of this scripture – it just pours off the tongue – and I loved the message.  But I mostly focused on the first half of the scripture (no weapon formed against the servants of the Lord will prosper).  Today, though, my mind focused in on the second portion – that our righteousness (if we hold ourselves out as servants of the Lord) is of Christ.

                We like to think that we have value in and of ourselves, but that really isn’t true.  The reality is that we have no inherent value other than the fact that we are loved by God.  We may have potential, but even that we cannot reach without His help.  There is no place for pride in righteous living, because any righteousness that we achieve is not of us, but of Him.  By that same token, there is no reason for us to hold ourselves out as more righteous than another because that same righteousness is not attributable to us (on top of the fact that we often lack the basic capacity to judge ourselves, much less each other).