Belonging to Christ

In the most recent general conference Elder Christofferson spoke about the doctrine of belonging in the Church. The Church should be a welcoming place of belonging and kindness for all people: “We cannot permit any racism, tribal prejudice, or other divisions to exist in the latter-day Church of Christ. The Lord commands us, ‘Be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine.’ We should be diligent in rooting prejudice and discrimination out of the Church, out of our homes, and, most of all, out of our hearts. As our Church population grows ever more diverse, our welcome must grow ever more spontaneous and warm. We need one another.” The best way in the long run to feel that we belong is through “service and the sacrifices we make for others and for the Lord.” Elder Christofferson continued, “Excessive focus on our personal needs or our own comfort can frustrate that sense of belonging. We strive to follow the Savior’s doctrine: ‘Whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister. … For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.’ Belonging comes not as we wait for it but as we reach out to help one another.” The more we reach out the more we will feel we belong; the more we lift others the more we will feel lifted. In a society that devalues sacrifice and consecration, he suggested that we should look to our pioneers for the example to follow: “Our pioneer forebears derived a deep sense of belonging, unity, and hope in Christ by the sacrifices they made to serve missions, build temples, abandon comfortable homes under duress and begin again, and in a multitude of other ways consecrate themselves and their means to the cause of Zion. They were willing to sacrifice even their lives if necessary…. Their reward, however, is a powerful sense of belonging among the covenant people. Any sacrifice we make in the Lord’s cause helps to confirm our place with Him who gave His life a ransom for many.” As we seek to keep our covenant of baptism to “mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort,” helping all to find belonging in our fellowship, we will indeed feel a powerful sense of place and purpose among His people (Mosiah 18:9).   

                Elder Christofferson’s final point was that the “most important element of the doctrine of belonging is the central role of Jesus Christ.” Here we might think of the work belong in a slightly different sense: not only do we want to feel we belong in the Church (i.e. be accepted and loved by others), we should also remember that through our covenants we below to Christ. When we are baptized we take upon ourselves His name and covenant to do the things He asks of us; in a sense we belong to Him just like a child belongs to his or her parents. He said to the Israelites, “Ye shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Ezekiel 36:28). King Benjamin told His people who covenanted with the Savior, “Because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters” (Mosiah 5:7). It is as if we become His children, and just like children submit to their parents we submit to Him because He knows what is best for us. Another scripture speaks of our relationship with Him in terms of a yoke. We are His because we have taken His yoke upon us—like a man who owns oxen and yokes them so that they will do all that the man needs, so too we are yoked to Christ so that we can do all that He desires of us. But unlike the yoked animals, we will find that when we belong to Him “[His] yoke is easy, and [His] burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). When we belong to Him, He will make far more of us than if we are on our own. Elder Christofferson quoted these words of President Nelson telling us what happens as we covenant with Him: “Once you and I have made a covenant with God, our relationship with Him becomes much closer than before our covenant. Now we are bound together. Because of our covenant with God, He will never tire in His efforts to help us, and we will never exhaust His merciful patience with us. Each of us has a special place in God’s heart.” We can rejoice that as we make and keep covenants with the Savior we belong to Him and have this promise from Him: “Be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours” (Doctrine and Covenants 78:18).