Russell M. Nelson said in April 1996 “No matter where we live or in what position we serve, all of us need to determine which way we face. God’s commandments serve as a standard against which priorities can be measured. Our respect for the first commandment fashions our feelings for all the others. Consider the commandment to keep the Sabbath day Holy, for example. We live in a time when people throughout the world have transferred their allegiance on the Sabbath from places of worship to places of amusement. . . . I ask, “Which way do you face?” (see 1 Kings 18:21)…
Self-esteem is also earned by obedience to God’s commandments regarding chastity. Yet in our day those commandments have been attacked and trivialized, The morality of self-discipline with appropriate “denial or restraint has been popularly depicted as unhealthy and dehumanizing.” The truth is, “it is dehumanizing to define ourselves by our desires alone” (Report of the Ramsey Colloquium, Wall Street Journal, February 24, 1994, A-18). Each human being is a child of God—created in His image—with natural appetites to control.
If we break God’s first commandment, we cannot escape retribution. If we allow any other person or cause to come before allegiance to Him, we will reap a bitter harvest. Paul foresaw “destruction’ for those “whose God is their belly” (Philippians 3:19). (I might include all forms of anatomical affection.) Any who choose to serve the creature more than the Creator” (Romans 1:25) deprive themselves of spiritual reward. (“‘Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods’“, April 1996)
Quote above also from ‘Teachings of Russell M. Nelson’, p. 293-94, Deseret Book 2018.
(Posts with a preamble asterisk * are for a more general audience, and not specific to teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)
