A previous post of November 30, 2020, from which the the below now follows was titled ¨A Pharisaic Prism.¨ Here this thought train is continued below by Neal A. Maxwell:
. . . . Indeed, the Christian may even witness his morality by his silence in some situations. Theodore Roxzak in writing of the “thwarted longings of men” recalled that George Fox chose to “stand still in the light,” because Fox was “confident that only such a stillness possesses the eloquence to draw men away from lives we must believe they inwardly loathe.”
Mormon once “refused to go up against mine enemies” and, as the Lord had commanded him—“I did stand as an idle witness.” No doubt as Roszak predicted of the wise man who knows when and how to do nothing, Mormon’s voice was “like thunder.”
Jesus’ silence before his accusers in certain situations was “like thunder” —but only because he was certain not just about what was the right thing to do tactically, but also about what was right!
When the light of the gospel was bent by processing it through a pharisaic prism, it lost its fullness as Jesus so often noted during his ministry. When the light of the gospel was processed through a labyrinth of legalism, it was not only less illuminating, it was distorted. In the case of the Pharisees, scribes, and lawyers. the lessened illumination and the distortion in perspective resulted in a tragic reversal of values. . . .
. . . .While the world is caught up with the smashing of forms in the arts and elsewhere (all in the name of freedom), what the gospel of Jesus Christ smashes are the conceptual and behavioral walls and compartments that keep men from being whole and congruent. The gospel presses to align our public and private behaviors, for the gospel of Jesus Christ illuminates even the dark recesses of one’s mind, where the battle for interpersonal morality, too, is won or lost.
It takes courage to face up to the special perspectives that come with the fullness of the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for one sees the human drama quite differently! Eternal perspective does not say to us to be inattentive to things like the dollar crises, floods, poverty, law and order, and borders—for these contemporary challenges represent, in fact, some of the interpersonal moral issues and challenges to our agency and to our ability to apply the gospel by assisting others. But in the fullness of the gospel there is also a warning by our being so caught up in the webbing and throbbing of such events that we fail to see what other moral issues are at stake. We are clearly in one of those
“times when a whole generation is caught . . . between two ages, between two modes of life and thus loses the feeling for itself, for the self-evident, for morals, for being safe and innocent.” (Herman Hesse, as quoted in Trousered Apes, New Rochelle, N. Y.: Arlington House, 1971.)
The Christian must speak out with the eloquence of example concerning the fullness of morality which is contained in “the fullness of the scriptures” in order to help others. While three-dimensional morality moves men toward Christ, secular morality has moved men toward agnosticism and atheism. Chesterton noted that atheism is abnormality. . . . it is the reversal of a subconscious assumption in the soul.”
Just as Joel Barlow could writhe in the early days of the American Republic about how important “the habit of thinking” was to this nation’s future (noting that if we believed enough in our equality as citizens, then our attitudes could spare us either anarchy or tyranny)—so our “habit of thinking” in matters of truth and morality can keep us joyful and free men—worthy sons and daughters of Him who gave us life and freedom in the first place. Without a belief in God—and in His moral laws—joy goes, too. Without the “why?”, the gospel supplies answers to [concerning the need for righteous behavior], then, as Professor Earl Rovit warned, “Why not?” is “ceasing to be a question at all. It is becoming a kind of answer.”~Neal A. Maxwell, The Smallest Part of which I feel (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1973). 24-9
