The Saints of the Holy One of Israel

As President Nelson has emphasized the need for us to use the correct name of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have focused on calling ourselves Latter-day Saints.  The Church style guide says, “When referring to Church members, the terms ‘members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,’ ‘Latter-day Saints,’ ‘members of the Church of Jesus Christ’ and ‘members of the restored Church of Jesus Christ’ are preferred. We ask that the term ‘Mormons’ and ‘LDS’ not be used.”  With this focus, we now hear a lot more the term “saints” used to describe members.  In other religions a saint is a rare title granted someone who led an exceptionally noble life and who is now passed away; but for us, we are all striving to be saints.  So what does it mean to be a saint?   

            The scriptures help us understand the significance of the term saint.  For example, in the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord chastened His people in these words, “They have not learned to be obedient to the things which I required at their hands, but are full of all manner of evil, and do not impart of their substance, as becometh saints, to the poor and afflicted among them” (Doctrine and Covenants 105:3).  To be a saint we must be obedient, shun evil, and impart of our substance to those in need.  Jacob in the Book of Mormon said it this way, “But, behold, the righteous, the saints of the Holy One of Israel, they who have believed in the Holy One of Israel, they who have endured the crosses of the world, and despised the shame of it, they shall inherit the kingdom of God, which was prepared for them from the foundation of the world, and their joy shall be full forever” (2 Nephi 9:18).  To be a saint we must be striving to be righteous, to believe in the Holy One of Israel and endure the crosses of the world that may come because of our belief in Christ.  And if we do become saints then we can hope to have joy that shall be “full forever.”  Jacob’s son Enos heard his “father speak concerning eternal life, and the joy of the saints” which caused him to seek the Lord so earnestly in prayer (Enos 1:1).  It was knowing of the joy that could come to saints that brought him to the Lord, and surely to seek after true joy is an important quality of saints today.  Mormon suggested that there will come a time in the future when “all the saints shall dwell with God,” and surely at that day those who have lived as saints will indeed be full of joy to be again with God (Moroni 8:26).    

             King Benjamin gave us perhaps the most important description of what a saint is and how we become one.  Quoting the angel he said, “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father” (Mosiah 3:19).  We become a saint only through the atonement of Christ, and what does that mean?  It means that through His divine help we change our natures to become “submissive, meek, humble, patient, and full of love.”  Those words are a description of the Savior’s characteristics, and becoming a saint means indeed to become even as He is.  To be a saint we must trust the Lord enough to humbly accept the refining experiences He gives us and use them to become more like Him.  

               In French the word saint and the word holy is the same word.  So, for example, the phrase “the saints of the Holy One of Israel” from Jacob reads this way, “les saints du Saint d’Israël.”  In Spanish it is the same: “los santos del Santo de Israel.”  Or, in English we would say, “The saints of the Saint.”  To be a saint is ultimately to try to become holy even as the Holy One of Israel is holy and pure.  To be a saint puts our focus on becoming as Christ would have us become.  As we hear now more often the term “Latter-day Saints,” we should always remember that to be a saint is to follow Christ, to strive—through the atonement of Jesus Christ—to become holy as He is holy.