I. Moving Performers are like Inspiring Men
Consider for a moment a moving and powerful character in a movie or a theatrical performance. What is it about that performance moved you? I have always loved J.R.R. Tolkien's classic, The Lord of the Rings. Watching the films with my father became a tradition of sorts during the holiday breaks from school at Thanksgiving or Christmas. The part that has always been most stirring and memorable from each experience of watching those movies was the portrayal of two youthful and innocent young men called hobbits who were entrusted with a seemingly impossible task of saving their world from the evils that threatened it. The struggle, the sorrow, the discouragement, the joy, and every emotion and action became real to me as I watched their journey. Those actors by their real names have little meaning to me, because I think of them as the characters that they played which were so real to me in my youth.
Contrast this to a poorly delivered performance, an actor who has probably learned to recite the lines word for word without flaw, but when delivered they stir no emotion in their audience except for maybe boredom or disgust. As I participated in musical theater productions throughout high school, I learned from an inspiring director about the necessity of not only the words, but every thought and emotion that must be communicated by the actor in order for the audience to really feel and understand the significance of the character and his experiences. We were required to write up every detail of our characters' past, family circumstances, current beliefs, and goals, desires, and vision for the future. We couldn't pretend to truly act - we had to become a real and progressing identity that thought and responded based upon specific past experiences. Anything less would not be an honest portrayal of who we had been cast to be.
Just as there is a fundamental difference between an accurate recitation of a theatrical work and true acting that moves and inspires audiences, so is there a clearly defined difference between a truthful statement and being honest. It is true that the principle of honesty is often applied merely to the words of a man, but I submit that for the saints it is really the difference between simply bearing witness of Christ and being a witness of Christ. The words uttered may be the same in both cases, but the power with which they are delivered and the emotion with which they leave the heart will be drastically different.
I will take this opportunity first to define honesty as I understand it with the scriptures as my source, then to outline some of the consequences for adherence and disobedience to this principle, and finally I will review the process of becoming an honest man or woman.
II. Honesty Defined
"If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" - 1 John 4:20
We see again that the principle of honesty is not in word in alone, but in our actions and also our very identity. Christ frequently condemned the hypocrites, those who delighted in speaking the words of truth publicly but in their hearts were far from the will of God. Confession of faults or weaknesses is only an initial and partial form of honesty. Often the wrongdoer who admits to fault is congratulated with words such as, "Well, at least he is honest," or, "We can at least give her credit for being honest." Honestly, such congratulatory phrases die out in the air into which they are spoken if that admission is given casually, indifferently, or without any real intent to let it be the catalyst of an honest life. They are not accurate felicitations, and if I dare say it, they are opposed to the truth; if a man or a woman has enough knowledge to admit truthfully that a deed is wrong, and then doesn't give every effort to put their lives in line with their knowledge, then they are rebelling against the light that is within them and continue lying to both God and the divine nature within us that urges all men to repent. Even worse, if we deny that our misdeeds are truly be wrong despite a knowledge to the contrary, John teaches that we may actually be placing ourselves in a position claiming God to be a liar. "If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." - 1 John 1:10
Another example of what honesty is not is frequently witnessed in what the world would try to call love. One of the highest human needs, and in today's society often the most deprived of human needs, is that of love - to be needed, accepted, loved, and to need, accept, and love others. This need is fulfilled by the greatest act of love, the Atonement of Christ, as we practice an honest lifestyle and allow the Spirit to reveal the way to receive of His love. Also essential, though, is human love, and its greatest fulfillment is found in the relationships of husband and wife and also parent and child. With this in mind, it surprises me as I listen to the conversations of fellow students on a university campus, or anywhere, and they reveal the deceit which they practice in their dating relationships. As it was intended to be, and as the pure and undefiled heart will respond, holding of hands, a kiss, or any such similar expression is a form of communication. It communicates sincere love toward another, it shows a willingness to be loyal, dependable, and committed; it communicates these things in a way more powerful than any flowery words alone could convey. So what should be our interpretation of the fact that so often do these simple, innocent expressions become slandered and turned into sport. Often a kiss, and frequently much more, is stolen on a first date for nothing more than the pleasure of it or for the right to brag to roommates about the night's accomplishments. Two people on a first or second date can often be confused by an unknowing onlooker with a couple who have made serious commitments to each other because they allow a physical familiarity to precede any sort of real courtship. This sort of behavior where pleasure and passion rule the actions rather than the true sentiments of the heart is a grave form of dishonesty - communicating commitment and love without having any intention to follow through. Even if both parties consent to the hollow expressions for their own benefits and a superficial fulfillment of their needs, their lie remains directed to God and themselves.
Similarly, a failure to pay our full tithes and offerings is a breach of this virtue of honesty. Paul said to the couple, Ananias and Sapphira who held back on what was due to The Lord, "thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God," - Acts 5:4. I would mention that The Lord has revealed that any trespass against his ordained servants is also a trespass against God himself. "Whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same," - D&C 1:38
So, what then is honesty? Honesty is the harmony of our words, thoughts, and actions with the divine ideals communicated to us by our Father in Heaven through his prophets and by personal revelation. Honesty is not between two men alone, but rather between a man, himself, and God, or a woman, herself, and God. When this true level of honesty is attained, no false witness can be borne to our neighbor, for it would contradict who we are and the balance we have so worked to establish within our hearts would be thrown off. We will eventually develop this Christlike attribute to the point that it will be said of us as it is said of God in Hebrews 6:18 - "it was impossible for God to lie."
III. Consequences
Honesty is an attribute and perfection of God. When we understand this, we have no doubt that every one of his words is indeed true and will be fulfilled - be it for our blessing or our condemnation! Because we know that God cannot lie, we can place faith in all of His words and His promises. We will have an increased motivation to obey His words, because we will know that the blessings will be forthcoming just as He has said. As soon as we are convinced of this truth, the need to repent is also magnified because we know that the Lord cannot retract the consequences of our sins on any other conditions -for that is what He has said.
"For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." -Isaiah 55:10-11
In order for us to know this truth of God's character, we must prayerfully request a personal witness of whether or not He truly embodies these attributes and then seek to emulate it in our own lives. John 7:17 states, "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." When we develop honesty we become as our Father in Heaven and are prepared to receive eternal life. "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent," John 17:3. In this life, others will also be able to place confidence in our words because we always fulfill that which we say we will do - we keep our covenants. In other words, the consequence of adherence to this principle is that we will be trusted of both God and man, and we will receive all that the Father has.
With such glorious blessings for obedience, we can only imagine that the consequences of disobedience would inspire similar awe for their complete and devastating nature. I will allow the scriptures to do most of the talking on this matter.
"And wo unto the deaf that will not hear; for they shall perish.
Wo unto the blind that will not see; for they shall perish also.
Wo unto the uncircumcised of heart, for a knowledge of their iniquities shall smite them at the last day.
Wo unto the liar, for he shall be thrust down to hell.
Wo unto the murderer who deliberately killeth, for he shall die.
Wo unto them who commit whoredoms, for they shall be thrust down to hell.
Yea wo unto those that worship idols, for the devil of all devils delighteth in them.
And in fine, wo unto all those who die in their sins; for they shall return to God, and behold his face, and remain in their sins.
O, my beloved brethren, remember the awfulness in transgressing against that Holy God, and also the awfulness of yielding to the enticings of that cunning one. Remember, to be carnally-minded is death, and to be spiritually-minded is life eternal." 2 Nephi 9:31-39
I included such a large passage of scripture here to allow for a comparison to be made between the consequences for all of the sins listed here, and also to allow the full magnitude of God's abhorrence of sin to settle in more fully. It will be noted that the sentence for the liar is repeated only for the grave sins of fornication, adultery, and other related sins. Thus it is clear that the liar is not well with God, and the following might give some insight as to why.
"And I, Lehi,. . .must needs suppose that an angel of God. . .had fallen from heaven; wherefore, he became a devil, having sought that which was evil before God. And because he had fallen from heaven, and had become miserable forever, he sought also the misery of all mankind. Wherefore, he said unto Eve, yea, even that old serpent, who is the devil, who is the father of all lies, wherefore he said: Partake of the forbidden fruit, and ye shall not die, but ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil." - 2 Nephi 2:17-18
Just as the pursuit of becoming an honest man is part of the pursuit of emulating and becoming like our perfectly honest father, the opposite course of action places us in a pursuit (or a retreat) into emulating and becoming like him whom we then choose to take as our father - he was named in Nephi's record as the father of all lies, and I rephrase it to say the father of all liars. (Further reference to consequences of dishonesty can be found in Psalms 101:7, Psalms 119:163, Prov. 19:5, Prov. 19:22, Jacob 7:19.)
IV. Beholding ourselves - becoming honest
In his essay As a Man Thinketh, James Allen said, "Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself." C.S. Lewis expressed similar sentiments in his book, Mere Christianity, with an analogy of rats in a cellar. If you are to open the cellar slowly and delay to turn on the lights, you likely will not see the rats. If you instead rush in and instantly turn on the lights, you will see all of the rats before they scurry off into the darkness. Rushing in quickly did not create the rats; it simply allowed us to see what was already there. The same is true of man, stress and unexpected events do not create the profanity or or any other vice; they simply reveal the rats within his cellar that had theretofore escaped without being seen. The scriptures teach us that we must allow ourselves to see these rats in the cellars without denying them or justifying their presence in order to initiate the process of true repentance. We must allow ourselves to feel the weight of our sins as did Nephi, when he cried out, "O wretched man that I am!" - 2 Nephi 4:17.
"For the Spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not. Wherefore, it speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be; wherefore, these things are manifested unto us plainly, for the salvation of our souls," - Jacob 4:13, italics added. "For the salvation of our souls," The Lord will show us ourselves as we really are and as we really may become - He will show us the rats in the cellar if we will have eyes to see, and He will also give us a glimpse of the exalted potential that awaits us to motivate us to clean out the cellar. This process is highlighted in Ether 12:27:
"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness, I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."
In light of these ideas, consider the following words of the prophet Lehi, "And it came to pass that as I followed him [The Holy Ghost] I beheld myself that I was in a dark and dreary waste. . .after. . . many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto The Lord that he would have mercy upon me. . .and it came to pass that I beheld a tree, whose fruit was desirable to make one happy," 1 Nephi 8:7-10, italics added. Lehi allowed the Spirit to show him the rats in the cellar - the dark and dreary waste he was in - and it motivated him to begin the repentance process and empowered him to receive a view of eternal life.
Victor Hugo illustrated this masterfully through the experiences of his character of a lifelong convict, Jean Valjean, in the epic novel, Les Miserables. I will splice together some of the key descriptions from his prose:
[The Bishop of Digne]: (to Jean Valjean) "Do not forget, ever, that you have promised me to use this silver to become an honest man."
[Later that evening]: (narration) . . . [Jean Valjean] had just passed through the decisive hour of his destiny, . . .there was no longer a middle course for him, . . . if, thereafter, he were not the best of men, he would be the worst, that he must now, so to speak, climb higher than the bishop or fall lower than the convict; that, if he wanted to become good, he must become an angel; that, if he wanted to remain evil, he must become a monster. . . .
At the very moment when he exclaimed, "I'm such a miserable man!" he saw himself as he was . . . with his set and gloomy face and his thoughts full of abominable projects, the hideous convict Jean Valjean . . . This then was like a vision. He truly saw this Jean Valjean, this ominous face, in front of him. He was on the point of asking himself who the man was, and he was horrified at the idea of asking himself such a question. . . .
(As a tangent from the prose, Elder Bednar has taught that this practice of asking God to show us ourselves as we really are can be one of the most humbling, terrifying, and difficult experiences. Nonetheless, it is a necessary one if we are to truly become honest, upright, and pure before God.)
. . . .He saw himself then, so to speak, face to face, and at the same time through that hallucination he saw, . . . a sort of light. . . .[It] filled the whole soul of this miserable man with a magnificent radiance. Jean Valjean wept for a long time. He shed hot tears, he wept bitterly, more powerless than a woman, more terrified than a child.
While he wept, the light grew brighter and brighter in his mind--an extraordinary light, a light at once entrancing and terrible. His past life, . . . all . . . returned and appeared to him, clearly, but in a light he had never seen before. He could see his life, and it seemed horrible; his soul, and it seemed frightful. There was, however, a gentler light shining on that life and soul. It seemed to him that he was looking at Satan by the light of Paradise.
Jean Valjean then becomes the hero of the plot, and has a character of such perfect honesty, that one can only conclude that it was a gift of God to a man that had eyes to see and ears to hear when the decisive moment of his destiny came, and he submitted to the will of God.
You might argue that Jean Valjean was simply a child of a creative writer's imagination- a man cannot really change so drastically and perfectly. To such a protest we must answer with the example of Alma the younger.
Alma was a man in much worse standing before God than was the ignorant convict of Hugo's narration that began with no knowledge of God. Alma was the son of the living prophet of his day, and had been taught in the ways of God. Nonetheless he chose to rebel against God and the Church. When he finally beheld himself and saw the rats in the cellar, he expressed his anguish in vivid terms, "I was racked with eternal torment, for my soul was harrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all my sins . . . Oh, though I , that I could be banished and become extinct both soul and body, that I might not be brought to stand in the presence of my God, to be judged of my deeds. And now, for three days and for three nights was I racked, even with the pains of a damned soul," - Alma 3612, 15-16.
Then he describes the powerful change wrought by his repentance, "I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world. Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death. And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more. And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain! Yea, I say unto you, . . . that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. yea, and again i say unto you, . . . that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy," Alma 36:17-21.
This illustrates a real example of a man that beheld himself, and then was changed by the light and power available through repentance and the Atonement of Christ. The most important phrase in his description of his change, though, still follows: "Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance," Alma 36:24. The change in both Jean Valjean and Alma the Younger is significant because it was lasting - it was a change that led to a full life of honesty before God, and eventually prepared them to enter into eternal life with God. If we are to become honest, we too must behold ourselves as we really are and allow the Atonement to fill our lives, change our hearts, and empower us to cast out all darkness from within us.
V. Walking as the Son of Man
The ultimate exemplar of honesty is found in the Savior Jesus Christ. In the pre-mortal councils, He made a covenant and a promise with God and each of us as witnesses that He would submit to the will of the Father and fulfill the Atonement. The attribute of honesty was one that He had already so fully developed and proven, that from the moment that He gave his word, the Atonement was in effect and men could repent of their sins. For 4,000 years before the coming of Christ to this earth, men could call upon the power of the Atonement and repent of their sins because they had faith that Christ would come exactly as He had said, and the Father honored that faith by allowing mercy to be extended to them. Christ then came and fulfilled His word - proved yet again His perfect honesty - and the Atonement was then in effect from all eternity to all eternity.
As Christ suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane and continued until it was finished upon the Cross of Calvary, we can ask ourselves why he chose to go through so much when He didn't have any wrongs of His own to suffer for. Yes it was necessary for us, but what filled His soul with that unconquerable courage to take up the bitter cup when He pled with the Father to remove it from Him. He went through agony that would have killed any human being long before leaving the Garden of Gethsemane - the Cross and everything else preceding it aside. Inheriting the attributes of God from His Father, Christ had the power to choose to continue living when any full-mortal would have succumbed to that release from suffering called death. He could have easily chosen to let Himself die rather than partake of the bitter cup to its full extent; His suffering could have ended long before it did. He chose to submit to all the humiliation, to all of the pain, and to all of the soul-crushing weight of our sins and afflictions because He was honest. He was describing who He was when He taught that, "greater love hath no man than this, that he giveth his life for his friends," - John 15:13. He loved us selflessly, and He was committed to keep the word that He had given before this world was created. He had made a solemn covenant, and He was not going to break it.
Is it any wonder that such a God of honesty - that knows how to give His word and keep it - would require His people to be a covenant people? The covenants we make with progressive levels of responsibility are the Lord's way of teaching us to become as He is. We become honest when we give our word to Him and keep it. We do this before authorized priesthood holders in ordinances, and we can make a practice of making covenants to God in our personal prayers. No eloquence in word is sufficient to express the significance of the Atonement of Christ or my gratitude for it, but I know that as we make and keep covenants those truths will be "distilled upon our souls as the dews from heaven," - D&C 121:45, and we shall know "the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom [He] has sent," - John 17:3.
"These things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And in any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
But whoso keepth his word, in him verily is the ove of God perfected: herby know we that we are in him.
He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." - 1 John 2:1-6
I know that God lives, and that He is a God of perfect honesty who cannot lie. I testify that every word which He has spoken to His prophets and to each of us individually by way of personal revelation shall be fulfilled. I know that the Church and Kingdom of God were restored to the earth by the Prophet Joseph Smith, and the keys of that Kingdom today rest upon President Thomas S. Monson. I know that The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ teaches us the truths of greatest value that direct us back to eternal life. I know that Jesus Christ lives. He came to earth and He fulfilled His word with exactness, and because of His perfect emulation of a covenant keeping Father, mercy is extended to every one of us that we might repent and also become as He is. I bear my witness of Christ, and as one who has experienced the weight of sin and the marvelous light of repentance proffered by the Atonement, I am a witness of Christ. In the sacred name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
