Brigham Young: Truth is obeyed when it is loved

Summary

Brigham Young teaches that obeying God’s commandments is essential. That the Saints must follow all God’s laws strictly and fully. Doing so brings blessings and closeness to God. But disobedience leads to sorrow and spiritual darkness. While obedience takes effort, it allows us to understand God’s will. People must stay in their divinely-given roles, just as machine parts must stay in place. We should welcome righteous counsel and know God’s true servants teach the same truths. It is always better to obey God, even if means death, rather than face the consequences of sin that come with disobedience. Obedience leads to stability, while disobedience leads to affliction and turning from the light.

Notable Quotes

Truth is obeyed when it is loved. (p. 340)

There is no law against doing good. There is no law against love. There is no law against serving God. (p. 346)

I know it is hard to receive chastisement, for no chastisement is joyous, but grievous at the time it is given; but if a person will receive chastisement and pray for the Holy Spirit to rest upon him, that he may have the Spirit of truth in his heart, and cleave to that which is pleasing to the Lord, the Lord will give him grace to bear the chastisement. (p. 351)

Source

“Obedience” (Discourses Of Brigham Young, Deseret Book Company, 1925, ch. 19, p. 338 – 351)

Editor’s Note

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Obedience

By Brigham Young

Counsel:

How my heart longs to see the brethren and sisters in a condition that when the words of truth and virtue righteous words of counsel are poured upon them, they will meet like drops of water meeting each other. How I long to see the brethren, when they hear the words of truth poured upon them, ready to receive those words because they are perfectly congenial to their feelings, and every soul exclaims, “Those words savor of the Spirit that is in me; they are my delight, my meat, and my drink; they are the streams of eternal life. How congenial they are, instead of being contrary to my feelings.” 9:3.

If we hearken to counsel, we shall be the best people in the world; we shall be as a bright light set upon a hill, that cannot be hid, or like a candle upon a candlestick. 12:173.

If I or any other man give counsel that meets with opposition, that intrudes upon the affections, meditations, and feelings of the people, and is harsh to their ears, bitter to their souls, it is either not the words of truth, or they have not the fountain of life within them, one of the two. If the Lord speaks from the heavens, reveals his will, and it comes in contact with our feelings and notions of things, or with our judgments, we are destitute of that fountain of truth which we should possess. If our hearts are filled with the Spirit of truth, with the Spirit of the Lord, no matter what the true words from heaven are, when God speaks, all his subjects should shout, “Hallelujah! praise God! We are ready to receive those words, for they are true.” 9:3-4.

Every man in the Kingdom of God would give the same counsel upon each subject, if he would wait until he had the mind of Christ upon it. Then all would have one word and mind, and all men would see eye to eye. 5:100.

If you would always pause and say, “I have no counsel for you, I have no answer for you on this subject because I have no manifestation of the Spirit,” and be willing to let everybody in the world know that you are ignorant when you are, you would become wise a great deal quicker than to give counsel on your own judgment, without the Spirit of revelation. 5:100.

The Latter-day Saints who hearken to the words of the Lord, given to them touching their political, social, and financial concerns, I say, and say it boldly, that they will have wisdom which is altogether superior to the wisdom of the children of darkness, or the children of this world. I know this by the revelations of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the results of my own actions. They who have hearkened to the counsels given to them in temporal matters have invariably bettered their condition temporally and spiritually. 12:118.

Obedience:

When the Lord commands the people, let them obey. 2:123.

Every son and daughter of God is expected to obey with a willing heart every word which the Lord has spoken, and which he will in the future speak to us. It is expected that we hearken to the revelations of his will and adhere to them, cleave to them with all our might; for this is salvation, and anything short of this clips the salvation and the glory of the Saints. 2:2.

Obedience is one of the plainest, most everyday and home principles that you ever thought or know anything about. In the first place, learn that you have a father, and then learn strict obedience to that parent. Is not that a plain, domestic, home principle? 6:173.

I cannot save you. I can tell you how to save yourselves, but you must do the will of God. 10:317.

How shall we know what to do? By being obedient to every requirement of the Gospel. 8:148.

A mere theory amounts to but little, while practice and obedience have to do with stern realities. 9:330.

Every good and wholesome law we should obey strictly and do it with a good and honest heart. 11:134.

Blessed are they who obey when the Lord gives a direct commandment, but more blessed are they who obey without a direct commandment. 12:128.

Do you think that people will obey the truth because it is true unless they love it? No, they will not. Truth is obeyed when it is loved. Strict obedience to the truth will alone enable people to dwell in the presence of the Almighty. 7:55.

The Lord has sent forth his laws, commandments, and ordinances to the children of men and requires them to be strictly obeyed, and we do not wish to transgress those laws, but to keep them. We do not wish to change his ordinances, but to observe them; we do not wish to break the everlasting covenant, but to keep that with our fathers, with Jesus, with our Father in Heaven, with holy angels, and to live according to them. 16:31.

If a man is called to go and labor for the poor, if his Bishop calls upon him to go into the canyon after a load of wood for the poor, and he goes there, with his heart uplifted to God, and with his eye single to the building up of the Kingdom, and gets the load of wood and lays it at the door of the Bishop for the poor, for the widow or for those who cannot help themselves, he is just as much in the line of his duty in so doing as though he were on his knees praying. 11:293.

This people have got to become of one heart and one mind. They have to know the will of God and do it, for to know the will of God is one thing, and to bring our wills, our dispositions, into subjection to that which we do understand to be the will of God is another. 3:54-5.

We believe in obeying the laws of the land; we should also obey the laws of God. 16:45.

Some of you may ask, “Is there a single ordinance to be dispensed with? Is there one of the commandments that God has enjoined upon the people, that he will excuse them from obeying?” Not one, no matter how trifling or small in our own estimation. No matter if we esteem them non-essential, or least or last of all the commandments of the house of God, we are under obligation to observe them. 8:339.

With regard to the obedience of heavenly beings, to which reference has been made today, they live pure and holy, and they have attained unto this power through suffering. Many of them have drunk of the bitter cup even to the dregs. They have learned that righteousness will prevail, that truth is the foundation of their very existence. 11-15.

The most effectual way to establish the religion of Heaven is to live it, rather than to die for it. I think I am safe in saying that there are many of the Latter-day Saints who are more willing to die for their religion than to live it faithfully. There is no other proof that can be adduced to God, angels, and men that a people faithfully live their religion than that they repent truly of their sins, obey the law of baptism for the remission of sins, and then continue to do the works of righteousness day by day. 9:333.

There are a great many texts which might be used, very comprehensive and full of meaning, but I know of none, either in the Old or New Testament, more so than that saying, said to have been made by the Savior, and I have no doubt it was, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” How long? For a day? Keep the commandments of the Lord for a week? Observe and do his will for a month or a year? There is no promise to any individual, that I have any knowledge of, that he shall receive the reward of the just unless he is faithful to the end. If we fully understand and faithfully carry out in our lives the saying of Jesus, “If ye love me, keep my commandments,” we shall be prepared to go back and dwell in the presence of the Father and the Son.

What are his commandments? Did he ever teach the people anything that is wrong? If we read the requirements made by Jesus, by the Father, or by any messenger sent from the heavens to the children of men, we shall find nothing that will injure any human being or that will destroy the soul of one of the sons or daughters of Adam and Eve. Many think that the sayings and doings of some of the prophets and servants of God, in ancient and modern times, said and done in obedience to the commands of the Lord Almighty, tend to evil; but it is not so. All God’s requirements tend to do good to his children. Any notion to the contrary is the result of ignorance. The human family are enveloped in ignorance, so far as the origin and object of their existence here is concerned. Their ignorance, superstition, darkness, and blindness are very apparent to all who are in the least enlightened by the Spirit of truth. They seek to hide themselves in ignorance and blindness rather than learn who they are and the object of their being here.

What do the human family know of God or Jesus, or of the words which I have quoted, “If ye love me, keep my commandments?” “Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life,” says Jesus, “and they are they which testify of me.” They testify of the Savior, of his doctrines and requirements, and of the ordinances of his house; the plan of salvation is there portrayed, and any person who follows its dictation may redeem himself from the thraldom of sin, and know, by the Spirit, that Jesus is the Christ. All who will take this course will know by revelation that God is our Father; they will understand the relationship they hold to him and to their fellow-beings. The world may in vain ask the question, “Who are we?” But the Gospel tells us that we are the sons and daughters of that God whom we serve. Some say, “We are the children of Adam and Eve.” So we are, and they are the children of our Heavenly Father. We are all the children of Adam and Eve, and they are the offspring of him who dwells in the heavens, the highest Intelligence that dwells anywhere that we have any knowledge of. Here we find ourselves, and when infants, the most helpless, and needing the most care and attention of any creatures that come into being on the face of the earth. Here we find in ourselves the germ and the foundation, the embryo of exaltation, glory, immortality, and eternal lives. As we grow up we receive strength, knowledge, and wisdom, some more and some less; but only by keeping the commands of the Lord Jesus can we have the privilege of knowing the things pertaining to eternity and our relationship to the heavens. 13:310.

The most excellent human or divine laws are of no use to earthly or heavenly beings unless they are faithfully observed. Law is for the protection of the law-abider, and the penalty of the law is for the law-breaker. 9:332.

People will never be taken and sacrificed for their ignorance when they have had no opportunity to know and understand the truth. Such a proceeding would be contrary to the economy of heaven. But after we receive and understand things as they are, if we then disobey, we may look for the chastening hand of the Almighty. 3:246.

Walk up, ye Latter-day Saints, and wake up! Come to the Lord, forsake your covetousness, your back-slidings, forsake the spirit of the world, and return to the Lord with full purpose of heart until you get the Spirit of Christ within you, that you, like others, can cry, “Abba Father, the Lord, he is God, and I am his servant.” 15:6.

We have nothing to sacrifice. All we have to do is to love and serve our God and do everything we can to bring knowledge to ourselves and to the people. 6-196.

When the Gospel is preached to the honest in heart, they receive it by faith, but when they obey it, labor is required. To practice the Gospel requires time, faith, the heart’s affections, and a great deal of labor. Here, many stop. They hear and believe, but before they go on to practice, they begin to think that they were mistaken, and unbelief enters into their hearts. 16.40.

When we get to understand all knowledge, all wisdom that is necessary for us to understand in the flesh, we will be like clay in the hands of the potter, willing to be molded and fashioned according to the will of him who has called us to this great and glorious work of purifying ourselves and our fellow-beings, and of preparing the nations of the earth for the glory that awaits them through obedience. 19.93.

I believe that it is a hell intolerable for a people, a family, or a single person to strive to grasp truth with one hand and error with the other, to profess to walk in obedience to the commandments of God, and at the same time, mingle heart and hand with the wicked. 3 254.

Effect of Obedience: Great peace have they who love the law of the Lord and abide in his commandments. 8 -121.

If you wish to receive and enjoy the favor of our Heavenly Father, do his will. 8:33.

When will this people become Saints indeed? Not until they observe every counsel that is given to them of this kind, doing with their might the things that are required of them. 11.139.

All who receive eternal life and salvation will receive it on no other conditions than believing in the Son of God and obeying the principles that he has laid down. Can we devise any other means and plan of salvation? We cannot. 13 213.

The Saints who live their religion will be exalted, for they never will deny any revelation which the Lord has given or may give, though, when there is a doctrine coming to them which they cannot comprehend fully, they may be found saying, “The Lord sendeth this unto me, and I pray that he will save and preserve me from denying anything which proceedeth from him, and give me patience to wait until I can understand it for myself.” Such persons will never deny but will allow those subjects which they do not understand to remain until the visions of their minds become open. This is the course which I have invariably pursued, and if anything came that I could not understand, I would pray until I could comprehend it. Do not reject anything because it is new or strange, and do not sneer nor jeer at what comes from the Lord, for if we do, we endanger our salvation. It is given to us as agents to choose or refuse, but we are agents within limits; if it were not so, there would be no law. 3 -266.

By obeying the ordinances of God, mankind glorify God, but if they do not obey Him, they do not detract one particle from his glory and power. The commandments of God are given to us expressly for our benefit, and if we live in obedience to them, we shall live so as to understand the mind and will of God for ourselves and concerning ourselves as individuals. 12*126.

How shall we know that we obey him? There is but one method by which we can know it, and that is by the inspiration of the Spirit of the Lord witnessing unto our spirit that we are his, that we love him, and that he loves us. It is by the spirit of revelation we know this. We have no witness to ourselves internally without the spirit of revelation. We have no witness outwardly, only by obedience to the ordinances. 12.99.

Law is made for the lawless. Let the Saints live their religion, and there is not a law that can justly infringe upon them. 8:140.

There is no law against doing good. There is no law against love. There is no law against serving God. There is no law against charity and benevolence. There is no law against the principles of eternal life. Live them, and no righteous law of man can reach you. 8 140.

When the law of God is written on the hearts of a people, every person will know his place. 8 296.

When men and women talk about giving everything for the salvation which they anticipate and live for, behold, they have nothing to give, nor have they anything to do, only to do their duty. And what is that? To improve upon that which is committed to their possession, to prove themselves worthy to their Father and God, that ere long they may be worthy to receive crowns of glory, immortality, and eternal life. Then we shall be beyond the power of Satan. 6196.

So long as the Latter-day Saints will live their religion, they shall never be confounded, worlds without end. Never be afraid; your hearts are brave, your arms are strong, and God is our defense. 10:40.

Those who live their religion will enjoy the Spirit, and that enjoyment will increase. And if we will be faithful, the Lord will make our feet as firm in these valleys as are the everlasting riches in these mountains, and no power can remove us. He will give us a sure place in these mountains until we go forth and redeem Zion. Do right, be faithful, and make no calculations about removing before the time comes. 8 ‘285.

Obedience and Free Agency: Here is a brother who says, “Why, yes, you may have some of my property or even take it all, but I want to be a man for myself; I do not want to be dictated; I want to preserve my own freedom. I do not want to be a slave.” What an idea! It is from the enemy, and because a person has not the Spirit of the Lord to see how things are. There is not a man of us but what is willing to acknowledge at once that God demands strict obedience to his requirements. But in rendering that strict obedience, are we made slaves? No, it is the only way on the face of the earth for you and me to become free, and we shall become slaves of our own passions and of the wicked one and servants to the Devil if we take any other course, and we shall be eventually cast into hell with the devils. Now to say that I do not enjoy the volition of my own will just as much when I pray as I would to swear is a false principle, it is false ground to take. You take the man who swears, and he has no more freedom and acts no more on his own will than the man who prays; the man who yields strict obedience to the requirements of Heaven acts upon the volition of his own will and exercises his freedom just as much as when he was a slave to passion, and I think it is much better and more honorable for us, whether children or adults, youthful, middle-aged or old, it is better to live by and better to die by, to have our hearts pure, and to yield strict obedience to the principles of life which the Lord has revealed than to be a slave to sin and wickedness. All that the Lord requires of us is strict obedience to the laws of life. All the sacrifice that the Lord asks of his people is strict obedience to our own covenants that we have made with our God, and that is to serve him with an undivided heart. 18-246.

One of the simplest things in the world is to control a people. Is there any particular art in making this people obedient? There is just one. If you, Elders of Israel, can get the art of preaching the Holy Ghost into the hearts of the people, you will have an obedient people. This is the only art required. Teach the people truth, teach them correct principles, show them what is for their greatest good, and don’t you think they will follow in that path? They will, just as far as it is consistent with their weaknesses and the power of darkness that is over the inhabitants of the earth, with us as with others. 12:257.

A person before he can understand the law and government of God must see and understand the propriety of it and see its beauties. So it is with the whole system of salvation. Not that I would say we are machines, for we have our agency, but God has placed us here, and he exacts strict obedience to his laws before we can derive the benefit and blessings their observance will yield. You may take a beautiful machine of any kind you please, and when the machinist has finished his work and set it in perfect order, how could it be expected to operate satisfactorily if a hook here or a journal yonder were to say, I am not going to stay here, or, I am going to jump out of place and am going somewhere else; and then another piece of the machinery would jump out of its place into another part of the machine. What would be the state of such a machine? Confusion and disorganization would soon result, and the machinist might very properly say, what a pity that I bestowed so much labor on such unruly members of my machine. 13:241.

The world will not receive the Gospel unless they can have it on their terms and will persecute the few that do receive it. 9:331.

We as a people will be chastened until we can wholly submit ourselves to the Lord and be Saints indeed. 5:354.

Effects of Disobedience: When light comes, if the people reject that light, it will condemn them and will add to their sorrow and affliction. 6:288.

If we live our religion, we shall prosper, and if we live in the neglect of our duty and continue to do so, there will be tribulation and anguish here, and the chastening hand of the Almighty will be on this people. 3 340.

I feel in my heart to bless you; it is full of blessings and not cursing. It is something that does not occupy my feelings to curse any individual, but I will modify this by saying those who ought not to be cursed. Who ought to be? Those who know their Master’s will and do it not; they are worthy of many stripes; it is not those who do not know and do not do, but those who know it, and do not do it, they are the ones to be chastised. 1 -248.

As soon as you are overcome by the spirit of the world, you forget every good deed and kindness that has been extended to you, and you only remember the transpiring and infliction of what you deemed to be evil that would have resulted in good, had you done right. 3 358.

It is the misapplied intelligence God has given us that makes all the mischief on the earth. That intelligence he designed to carry out the purposes of his will and endowed it with capabilities to grow, spread abroad, accumulate, and endeavor to enjoy greater happiness, glory, and honor, and continue to expand wider and wider, until eternity is comprehended by it; if not applied to this purpose, but to the groveling things of earth, it will be taken away and given to one who has made better use of this gift of God. 2 1*24-5.

If we will only practice what we profess, I tell you we are at the defiance of hell. 2:186.

For a man to undertake to live a Saint and walk in darkness is one of the hardest tasks that he can undertake. You cannot imagine a position that will sink a person more deeply in perplexity and trouble than to try to be a Saint without living as a Saint should, without enjoying the spirit of his religion. It is our privilege to live so as to enjoy the spirit of our religion. That is designed to restore us to the presence of the Gods. Gods exist, and we had better strive to be prepared to be one with them. 7.238.

Anything that is impure must, sooner or later, perish; no matter whether it is in the faith and practice of an individual, town, nation, or government. That kingdom, principality, power, or person that is not controlled by principles that are pure and holy must eventually pass away and perish. 14.75.

I know it is hard to receive chastisement, for no chastisement is joyous, but grievous at the time it is given; but if a person will receive chastisement and pray for the Holy Spirit to rest upon him, that he may have the Spirit of truth in his heart, and cleave to that which is pleasing to the Lord, the Lord will give him grace to bear the chastisement, and he will submit to and receive it, knowing that it is for his good. 3:47.

Men must quit swearing and taking the name of God in vain; they must refrain from lying, stealing, cheating, and doing that which they know they ought not to do, or they must be severed from this Church and Kingdom. 4:307.

The Latter-day Saints, in all their travels, have not been as rebellious as the Children of Israel were. 11:279.