According to Our Knowledge and Understanding

As Mormon discussed his efforts to create the record that would become the Book of Mormon, he wrote, “And now I, Mormon, proceed to finish out my record, which I take from the plates of Nephi; and I make it according to the knowledge and the understanding which God has given me” (Words of Mormon 1:9). That final phrase stuck out to me as I pondered it this morning; I think he was essentially saying, “I have done my very best to fulfill this task given me based on what I know.” He labored “according to the knowledge and the understanding which God” had given to him. Ultimately that is all that God can require of each of us; we must work within the light and understanding that we have and do our best to fulfill the things He wants us to do. And where more light and understanding is given, more is expected. As He told the Prophet Joseph Smith, “For of him unto whom much is given much is required; and he who sins against the greater light shall receive the greater condemnation” (Doctrine and Covenants 82:3). The Lord does not judge us by comparing our efforts to what others have or have not done; rather, we are judged according to the light we have received. Mormon’s words remind us that we must do our very best to do right and fulfill God’s expectations for us according to the knowledge and understanding we have been given.

                Occasionally when my oldest son (almost nine years old) tries to get away with something we have asked him not to do, he’ll point to his younger brother (age 2) or younger sister (age 4) and say, “Well if they can do it, so can I!” But I’ll respond that he knows better, whereas they are still young and don’t know better like him. I believe that the Lord sees us in a similar manner; He knows what we know and understand, He knows what we are capable of, and He judges us accordingly. Mormon, for example, could have easily used the wickedness of the people around him as an excuse to relax in his own devotion to righteousness, but he didn’t and gave this warning to his son Moroni: “And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God” (Moroni 9:6). In other words, Mormon and Moroni knew what they knew and they could not cease to do the things God required even if no one around them was doing those things. I love how Joseph Smith put it when he was tempted to deny the vision he had experienced: “For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it; at least I knew that by so doing I would offend God, and come under condemnation” (JSH 1:25). No matter what the world said, he knew what he knew and earthly opposition didn’t change the fact that God would judge him based on the light and understanding he had been given. Each of us must learn to act according to the knowledge and the understanding that the Lord has given us, for when we willfully go against that—no matter what is happening around us—we will come under condemnation. Alma warned the people of Ammonihah what would happen if they “should transgress contrary to the light and knowledge which they do have” and if they would continue to reject God’s commandments “after having had so much light and so much knowledge given unto them of the Lord their God” (Alma 9:19,23). Ultimately they continued to go against the knowledge they had been given, and the Lord removed His protection from them and allowed the Lamanites to destroy them. Each of us must learn to independently act and keep God’s commandments as best we can according to the light and knowledge He has given to us.st the greater light shall receive the greater condemnation” (Doctrine and Covenants 82:3). The Lord does not judge us by comparing our efforts to what others have or have not done; rather, we are judged according to the light we have received. Mormon’s words remind us that we must do our very best to do right and fulfill God’s expectations for us according to the knowledge and understanding we have been given.