From Neal A. Maxwell:
. . . . Yet not only did the Prophet Lehi see wickedness in the people of Jerusalem but so did Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s writings describe the adultery and immorality in Jerusalem of that time, using imagery about individuals going “by troops in the harlots’ houses (Jeremiah 5:7-8). Laman and Lemuel looked beyond the mark:
And we know that the people who were in the land of Jerusalem were a righteous people; for they kept the statutes and judgments of the Lord, and all his commandments, according to the law of Moses; wherefore, we know that they were a righteous people; and our father hath judged them, and hath led us away because we would not hearken unto his words; yea, and our brother is like unto him. And after this manner of language did my brethren murmur and complain against us (1 Nephi 17:22).
Thus can people come to have errant pride in the status quo; hence the importance of listening to the Lord’s prophets without being offended.
Despite all their warning and pleadings the prophets recognize and honor human agency as given by the God they serve. They are well aware of how dangerous the sensual human appetites are, but also are conscious that these celebrated appetites of the “here and now” will not survive after the resurrection, for “the world passeth away, and the lust thereof”(1 John 2:17). The worldly appetites are, in a sense, like secularism’s manna, a day-to-day thing, seldom preserved overnight. Instead, prophets urge the long view of the individual’s eternal self-interest.
To have faith to deny oneself certain of life’s questionable pleasures is to confirm oneself, an attitude involving a healthy respect that is proper for the submissive. One’s intrinsic, eternal worth is not to be treated for things of the moment. Jesus made it clear that we are to deny ourselves the things of the flesh as part of taking up our cross daily (3 Nephi 12:30; Luke 9:23). Actually, to cease sinning is to begin living. True repentance involves turning away from those things which are wrong and turning fully to God (Ezekiel 28:30), an act impossible without faith. Though such obedience is voluntary, it is obedience still.
Such obedience is not blind, however, but instead flows comprehendingly from faith: “Repentance, the second principle of the gospel, follows naturally in the life of one who had faith in Jesus Christ. One who learns about the gospel, who receives a testimony and develops faith in it, soon recognizes that their manner of living does not meet the conditions upon which the promised blessings are predicated. Such a realization creates in them a godly sorrow and a desire to reform their life and be forgiven of former sins and transgressions. Repentance is the means by which such a person qualifies for the cleansing power of forgiveness, which heals the soul.1
For a person to take up their cross means “to deny . . . all ungodliness, and every worldly lust, and keep my commandments” (JST, Matthew 16:26). Such daily discipline would be impossible without faith unto both avoidance and repentance. ~Neal A. Maxwell, Not My Will, but Thine (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2008), 65-67 (language modernized)
