Faithful

In James 2:20 we have this famous statement: “Faith without works is dead.”  I think that the first part of the Book of Mormon shows the importance of both faith and works and the great good that can come when we have both.  In particular, Lehi and Nephi both showed tremendous faith, and they had the works to accompany it.  After Lehi’s faithfulness in declaring the word of God to the people at Jerusalem despite the danger it posed to him, the Lord told Lehi, “Blessed art thou Lehi, because of the things which thou hast done” (1 Nephi 2:1).  The Lord called him blessed because of what he had done—his works.  In the same chapter the Lord similar commended Nephi, but this time it was the faith of Nephi that the Lord mentioned: “Blessed art thou, Nephi, because of thy faith, for thou hast sought be diligently” (1 Nephi 2:19).  Both Nephi and Lehi exhibited great works and faith.  Lehi showed with his actions that he really did have faith in the word of the Lord because he altered the whole course of his life to leave forever his homeland; in other words, he put his money where his mouth was.  Nephi likewise showed both faith and works together as he not only said he believed his father but he traveled back to get the plates from Laban and did whatever it took to get them. 

My mission president used to turn it around and say, “Works without faith is dead.”  It seems that one of the biggest problems of Laman and Lemuel were that they did not believe, even though they performed some of the works required.  They didn’t believe their father was a prophet, but they still went with their family to the wilderness.  They didn’t want to go back to get the plates of brass, but they did go.  They even tried a couple of times to get them, but when that failed they gave up all hope and started to beat Nephi.  They simply did not believe.  Even when the angel came and they could see with their eyes, they didn’t have faith in the Lord: “How is it possible that the Lord will deliver Laban into our hands? Behold, he is a mighty man, and he can command fifty, yea, even he can slay fifty; then why not us?” (1 Nephi 3:31).  They had works but no faith, and it certainly led to great frustration on their part.  I remember someone once saying that the best method for finding people to teach the gospel is the one that you believe in—I think there is truth to that, and in whatever we are doing in life if we don’t believe in it then there is little chance for success.  I’ve always found the word “faithful” a bit interesting and I think it merges these two principles.  On the one hand it is made with the word faith, and so we might say someone is faithful if they have a lot of faith.  But generally when we use the term to describe someone, we are talking about their diligence to works.  One definition says, “Strict or thorough in the performance of duty.”  That’s talking about works—a person is faithful if he or she is diligent in doing certain things.  So to me the word “faithful” itself is the perfect melding of the two words: you can’t be full of faith without being faithful in works.