Desires and Works

When the people of Lamoni were converted the account tells us, “They did all declare unto the people the selfsame thing—that their hearts had been changed; that they had no more desire to do evil” (Alma 19:33).  This is similar to the response of the people of King Benjamin when they accepted his teachings.  They declared, “Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually” (Mosiah 5:2). 

So from these we learn that true conversion is accompanied with a purification of our desires so that we no longer want to commit sin.  Stopping to commit sin, in the gospel of Jesus Christ, is not enough; we must also stop desiring sin.  Other scriptures bear this out.  Alma taught his son Corianton that if a man “has desired to do evil all the day long even so shall he have his reward of evil when the night cometh” (Alma 41:5).  He then reemphasized this saying that if a man “has desired to do evil, and has not repented in his days, behold, evil shall be done unto him, according to the restoration of God” (Alma 42:28).  Certainly our works matter to the Lord, but we won’t be judged on our actions alone. The Lord told us in the Doctrine and Covenants: “I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts” (D&C 137:9).  This was really one of the major themes of the Sermon on the Mount: it’s not good enough just not to kill, but we must also not be angry in our hearts and desire harm to people; it’s not good enough to not commit adultery, but we must not even have lust in our hearts; it’s not good enough just to fast or to pray, but we must also have pure motives when doing these forms of worship.  Works without the right desires might still cause us to be guilty before God; I believe the converse is also true: the right desires without appropriate works may also condemn us.  For example, the parable of the Ten Virgins seems to illustrate this idea.  The five foolish virgins clearly desired to attend the wedding feast.  After arriving to late they pleaded, “Lord, Lord, open to us” (Matt. 25:11).  But that was not sufficient for the Lord to let them in; they had not taken the appropriate actions to accompany their desires and thus they remained locked out of the wedding feast.  So in the end we cannot say that we are judged on our desires alone or our works alone; we must show forth both righteous desires and actions.  Gratefully because of the atonement of Christ, God can help us to change both our hearts and our works to someday be found acceptable before Him.  The people of Lamoni, guilty of grievous sins, were able to both stop their wicked acts and also have the Lord “take them away from [their] hearts” (Alma 24:11).  Through Christ there is indeed hope for all of us.