Wickedness Never Was Happiness

In about the 330^th year, as Mormon led the Nephite armies, “there began to be a mourning and a lamentation in all the land” because of the “thieves, and the robbers, and the murderers” which were in the land. Mormon had hoped that this was sorrow that would lead them to repentance, but he soon realized that it was not. He wrote, “Their sorrowing was not unto repentance, because of the goodness of God; but it was rather the sorrowing of the damned, because the Lord would not always suffer them to take happiness in sin.” They wanted to find happiness, but they weren’t willing to give up their sin for it, and so they were miserable and “did curse God and wish to die” (Mormon 2:11-14). That sin does not bring happiness was also emphasized by Alma to his son Corianton who had committed a serious transgression. He declared, “Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness.” If we choose to remain in a “carnal state” and “in the bonds of iniquity” such that we are “without God in the world,” then we “are in a state contrary to the nature of happiness” (Alma 41:10-11). Surely some can find pleasure for a time in rebelling against God, but it cannot last. If we consciously choose sin and reject the commandments of God, we will not find ultimate happiness.

                Samuel the Lamanite also warned of this truth when he taught the Nephites in a time of much wickedness. He told them that the day would come for the wicked who persisted in their sin that these words would be spoken against them: “Ye have procrastinated the day of your salvation until it is everlastingly too late, and your destruction is made sure; yea, for ye have sought all the days of your lives for that which ye could not obtain; and ye have sought for happiness in doing iniquity, which thing is contrary to the nature of that righteousness which is in our great and Eternal Head” (Helaman 13:38). Ultimately we cannot expect to find “happiness in doing iniquity” because it is contrary to the very nature of God. We can only find true happiness in seeking to come unto Him and to be like Him; we will never find lasting joy in rejecting his commandments and working iniquity. As Elder Maxwell put it: “So many have erred, thinking that freedom, included both freedom to obey or not to obey eternal laws and, wrongly, that it included freedom to change those laws. Not so. Ultimately, freedom involves choice between eternal alternatives, but not the altering of the alternatives. We can choose wickedness or happiness, but not wickedness with happiness.” The result of wickedness, if there is no repentance, is exactly what Satan wants for us: “He seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself” (2 Nephi 2:27).

                The promise of the gospel is that we will have true happiness if we keep the commandments of God and humbly seek to follow Him. Mormon described the joy of Ammon who gave up a life of sin to serve God, “Now the joy of Ammon was so great even that he was full…. Now was not this exceeding joy? Behold, this is joy which none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness” (Alma 27:18). King Benjamin invited us to find happiness in keeping the commandments: “And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness” (Mosiah 2:41).  As Lehi proclaimed, “Men are, that they might have joy.” But we will only find that joy if we “choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men” (2 Nephi 2:25, 27). If we really want to be happy, we must choose to follow our great Mediator who can take away our sins and sanctify us as we keep His commandments, so that one day we can indeed dwell with God in “never-ending happiness.”