Just prior to the introduction of ministering at April conference in 2018, I was privileged to attend a training meeting of General Officers and General Authorities of the Church. As you can imagine, there was great interest and excitement as we listened to a full morning of training on the new ministering effort. We pondered on familiar and powerful scriptures such as the second great commandment that “thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” [1] and on Christ’s teaching: “For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: . . . I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me . . . . Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” [2] At the end of the meeting, President Russell M. Nelson stood, commented on the wonderful instruction we had received on the second commandment and then, as I distinctly recall, said: “But don’t forget the first commandment.”
Now, you all know the first commandment. As the Savior gave it to the Pharisees: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” [3]
As I remember, President Nelson did not elaborate on his plea for us to remember the first commandment, but it’s been on my mind since. What was he trying to teach us?
You can contemplate your own answer, but here are a couple that I’ve considered. If we truly want to love, support, and lift our neighbors, don’t we want to discern the will of a loving Heavenly Father for them? If we remember the first commandment, our desire will be to serve consistent with His perfect love. We will also remember that loving our neighbor includes helping our neighbor find, return to, or progress along the covenant path.
Don’t misunderstand me. Service of almost any sort is a great gift. Indeed, the Savior emphasized that the second commandment was “like unto” the first. [4] And President Nelson taught in his conference address last October that “living that second great commandment is the key to becoming a true disciple of Jesus Christ.” [5] Thus, the injunction to remember the first commandment is not in any way intended to devalue the second commandment. Instead, it is an invitation to love our neighbor with increased wisdom and greater impact. When our service is connected to the love of God, when our service is connected to the Savior, it has greater power—indeed, the power to save.
I am convinced that the encouragement to remember the first commandment is a manifestation of a key principle on which the Lord has been trying to refocus us in ways both small and large—all that we do needs to be centered on the Savior, Jesus Christ. In a way, this focus should be obvious to us. Each week, when we partake of the sacrament, we promise that we “are willing to take upon [us] the name of [the Savior]” and that we will “always remember him.” [6] Moreover, every prayer we utter is “in the name of Jesus Christ.” [7] Despite all the places in our life where the Savior’s name is prominent, we still sometimes seem to forget Him in our gospel vocabulary.
Today, I want to identify a few examples where our gospel language sometimes develops patterns that can inadvertently distract or distance us from the Savior and the real source of power. In focusing on the language we use, I want to be clear that my goal is not to make anyone “an offender for a word.” [8] The idea is not to create a list of words and phrases that will allow us to “snare” others in a verbal misstep. The truth is that all of us use some of the vocabulary I will describe. Instead, my hope is to extend an invitation to consider how our gospel vocabulary can help or hinder our ability to always remember Him.
As I raise this issue, the example that probably springs to your mind first is President Nelson urging us to use the full and correct name of the Church—The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. [9] As he emphasized:
- It is not a name change.
- It is not
- And it is not
So, why is a refocusing on the correct name of the Church “consequential”? I hope you have personally felt this is true as you have made the effort. I know I have. Consciously striving to adjust my vocabulary has been a reminder that the Savior must be at the center of my worship, that it is He unto whom I must be converted. [10]
One of my current stewardships is for members of the Church incarcerated in correctional institutions in Utah. Just before Christmas, my wife, Mary, and I attended a training seminar required by the state for those who volunteer at prisons. At the beginning of the session, the prison chaplain asked the 40 or so volunteers present to identify the church or other non-profit organization with which they were affiliated. About half of the volunteers were from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As we went around the room, the first few volunteers stated their affiliation and used the full name of the Church. Then, row by row, person by person, other members simply stated their affiliation as “The Church of Jesus Christ.” As individuals whom I had not previously met repeated “The Church of Jesus Christ,” “The Church of Jesus Christ,” it felt to me like a series of small but powerful testimonies. These faithful volunteers were identifying themselves as followers of Christ, committed to His admonition to come unto those in prison. [11]
Is using the correct name of the Church “consequential”? That is surely my experience, both as I have listened to others and in my own conversations with those of different faiths, as I have felt the testifying power of using the full name of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. President Nelson has promised that “if we will do our best to restore the correct name of the Lord’s Church, He whose Church this is will pour down His power and blessings upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints, the likes of which we have never seen.” [12] Part of this blessing is collective for the Church as a whole, but I hope you are also feeling some individual blessings from your own efforts.
I use the word “effort” here intentionally. As President Nelson emphasized, we need “to be courteous and patient in our efforts to correct” [13] the names others might use when referring to the Church. And this includes members of the Church who are learning to refocus their vocabulary. The project is not to eagerly call out mistaken usage in social media posts; nor is the project to signal our own virtue because we know and use the correct verbiage. Instead, the prophet’s urging to use the correct name of the Church is an invitation to center ourselves and our faith more fully in Jesus Christ, and, by our example, joyfully invite others to do the same.
The importance of centering our gospel vocabulary on the Savior is not limited to the name of the Church. President Nelson, when he was the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, suggested another critical example. In general conference in April 2017, he taught:
It is doctrinally incomplete to speak of the Lord’s atoning sacrifice by shortcut phrases, such as “the Atonement” or “the enabling power of the Atonement” or “applying the Atonement” or “being strengthened by the Atonement.” These expressions present a real risk of misdirecting faith by treating the event as if it had living existence and capabilities independent of our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
Under the Father’s great eternal plan, it is the Savior who suffered. It is the Savior who broke the bands of death. It is the Savior who paid the price for our sins and transgressions and blots them out on condition of our repentance. It is the Savior who delivers us from physical and spiritual death.
There is no amorphous entity called “the Atonement” upon which we may call for succor, healing, forgiveness, or power. Jesus Christ is the source. . . . The Savior’s atoning sacrifice—the central act of all human history—is best understood and appreciated when we expressly and clearly connect it to Him.” [14]
President Nelson’s encouragement for us not to separate the Savior from His Atonement shares a similar goal to using the correct name of the Church and remembering that living the first great commandment is integral to living the second commandment. In each case, the name or doctrine is best understood and appreciated when connected to the Savior.
Your faculty in psychology, linguistics, and neuroscience would be better able to explore with you why the language we use can matter so much. My understanding is that, while there is significant debate about the nature and extent of its effects, more and more research has suggested that the language we use influences the way we think. [15] Of course, we don’t need to resolve the academic debate to trust in prophetic counsel. To whatever extent our vocabulary affects our thinking, surely using the name of the Savior is an effective way to remind us of our decision to take His name upon us and our covenant to always remember Him.
Our words are also the means by which we communicate and testify. When we use the name of the Savior, we are testifying of Him. Even if we know the Christ-centered antecedent of our short-form references to “Atonement” or “Mormon,” others may not. To use a homely example that may take you back to your high school English teacher correcting you for using “an ambiguous antecedent,” imagine you are listening to the following story about the backpacking experience of two young women who we will call Jane and Mary:
Jane, brand new to young women’s, and Mary, her 17-year-old sister, were excited to go backpacking with the other young women in their ward, but things went horribly wrong. During the hike, she became separated from the group and got lost. She spent a very cold night without food or shelter. She was frost-bitten and ultimately lost two fingers. Miraculously, she continues to play the violin like a virtuoso.
I won’t continue, but are you getting a little frustrated? Who is “she”? Am I talking about Jane, the younger sister, or Mary, the older, more experienced sister? If I’m telling the story in the home ward where everyone has heard the story before or knows Jane plays the violin, it may be clear enough. But those who don’t know the backstory will not understand what really happened and could be quite frustrated. My basic point is that even if we, as members of the Church, understand that our use of the term “Atonement” refers to the Savior’s sacrifice, and even if we know that “Mormon” belief is centered on a resurrected and glorified Christ who died for our sins, others not of our faith may not. They will be left wondering about the antecedents behind our abridged vocabulary.
Last October, the Pew Research Center reported that, based on a survey conducted in 2018 and 2019, 65% of American adults identify as Christians, which is down 12% from 2009. By contrast, over that same period, the number of religiously unaffiliated—which consists of atheists, agnostics, or those who list “nothing in particular”—has increased from 17% to 26%. Happily, the percentage of Americans who identify as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has held steady. [16]
If fewer and fewer people believe in the existence of God or the divinity of Jesus Christ, can you see why it is important not to disguise or dilute our focus on the Savior? Even if we imagine that 20 years ago most people understood Christ as the critical antecedent in our peculiar Latter-day Saint vocabulary, that hope is increasingly less true. We need others to know. And we need to remind ourselves.
Let me now mention two more examples where our truncated vocabulary can inadvertently distract or mislead us. Parenthetically, may I say how impressed I was with your comments on the discussion board. You thought of wonderful examples I hadn’t considered. Thank you for being willing to participate in the discussion. I learned a lot from following it.
We often talk about the importance of having “faith.” But as we know from the fourth article of faith, the first principle of the gospel is not faith unmodified but “faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.” [17] The difference is subtle but crucial. If we decouple faith from the Savior, we run the risk of thinking of faith as something like the power of positive thinking—we just need enough “faith,” enough wanting it, and then we can control our circumstances. The risk of this separation of faith from Christ is that we can subtly change faith from a doctrine of submission, where we humbly seek to understand and align our will with the will of God, to a doctrine of coercion, where we seek to require God to do our will or to control the behavior of others. And we know from section 121 of the Doctrine and Covenants that coercion is incompatible with godly power. [18] I love how Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf taught this principle:
Some might ask, “If faith is so powerful, why can’t I receive an answer to a heartfelt prayer? I don’t need a sea to part or a mountain to move. I just need my illness to go away or my parents to forgive each other or an eternal companion to appear on my doorstep with a bouquet of flowers in one hand and an engagement ring in the other. Why can’t my faith accomplish that?”
Faith is powerful, and often it does result in miracles. But no matter how much faith we have, there are two things faith cannot do. For one, it cannot violate another person’s agency. . . .
. . . He will not force anyone to choose the path of righteousness. God did not force His own children to follow Him in the premortal world. How much less will He force us now as we journey through this mortal life?
God will invite, persuade. God will reach out tirelessly with love and inspiration and encouragement. But God will never compel—that would undermine His great plan for our eternal growth.
The second thing faith cannot do is force our will upon God. We cannot force God to comply with our desires—no matter how right we think we are or how sincerely we pray. . . .
. . . No, the purpose of faith is not to change God’s will but to empower us to act on God’s will. Faith is trust—trust that God sees what we cannot and that He knows what we do not. Sometimes, trusting our own vision and judgment is not enough. [19]
President Henry B. Eyring beautifully expressed a similar idea: “I have had prayers answered. Those answers were most clear when what I wanted was silenced by an overpowering need to know what God wanted. It is then that the answer from a loving Heavenly Father can be spoken to the mind by the still, small voice and can be written on the heart.” [20]
Please understand that my effort is not to criticize positive thinking or call out as wrongful or benighted the use of the single word “faith” without an accompanying recitation of “in the Lord Jesus Christ.” Faith—meaning our “hope for things which are not seen, which are true” [21]—is, as the Lectures on Faith observe, “the principle of action in all intelligent beings” and “without it, both mind and body would be in a state of inactivity.” [22] My effort instead is to point out how often our linguistic shortcuts seem to leave out the Savior. My desire is that we will remember that the most important object of our faith—and the first principle of the gospel—is faith in the Savior. When we have faith in Him and align our will to His, our faith will be truly fruitful and our joy will be full. [23]
Let me conclude with a final example of a linguistic shortcut that can risk distraction or misunderstanding. Many of you have served missions or may shortly choose to serve. On your mission, you may hear phrases or questions like “How many baptisms this month?” or “How many people do you have ‘on date’ for baptism?” By now, you know the drill. It is not that these references are necessarily inappropriate or misguided. The Savior’s last great commission to His disciples was to “go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” [24] However, it is critical to remember and reinforce baptism’s antecedent connection to the Savior. Our purpose is not to “get baptisms” per se, but to invite people to take upon themselves the name of Jesus Christ and to receive a remission of their sins through the His atoning sacrifice, which is symbolized by the ordinance of baptism. [25]
When we connect baptism to its sacred blessings and covenants, when we connect it to the Savior, being challenged to increase baptisms or to invite more people to be baptized will take on a less stressful cast. Rather than thinking about baptism as an abstract target required for “success,” if we consider baptism’s Christ-centered antecedent, we will be eager to invite all to receive the concrete, real, and powerful blessings associated with taking His name upon them and being washed clean through His sacrifice.
Brothers and sisters, it is my prayer that, as part of keeping our covenants to take His name upon us and to always remember Him, we will heed the counsel of our prophet and strive to connect our gospel vocabulary to the Savior. As we do, our testimony of Him will grow and blessings will flow into our lives. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
[1] Matthew 22:39.
[2] Matthew 25:35–40.
[3] Matthew 22:37.
[4] Matthew 22:39.
[5] Russell M. Nelson, “The Second Great Commandment,” Ensign, Nov. 2019.
[6] Doctrine and Covenants 20:77.
[7] 3 Nephi 19:6–8; see also Colossians 3:17 (“And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, [do] all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”).
[8] 2 Nephi 27:32.
[9] See Russell M. Nelson, “The Correct Name of the Church,” Ensign, Nov. 2018.
[10] See Alma 23:6 (“As many of the Lamanites as believed in their preaching, and were converted unto the Lord, never did fall away.”).
[11] See Matthew 25:39.
[12] Russell M. Nelson, “The Correct Name of the Church,” Ensign, Nov. 2018.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Russell M. Nelson, “Drawing the Power of Jesus Christ into Our Lives,” Ensign, May 2017.
[15]See Lera Boroditsky, “How Language Shapes Thought,” Scientific American, 2011. To say that language influences thought is different than suggesting that language determines thought, an idea that I understand has received less scholarly support.
[16] See “In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace,” Pew Research Center, Oct. 17, 2019; pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace.
[17] The Articles of Faith 1:4.
[18] See Doctrine and Covenants 121:36–38.
[19] Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Fourth Floor, Last Door,” Ensign, Nov. 2016.
[20] Henry B. Eyring, “Write upon My Heart,” Ensign, Nov. 2000.
[21] Alma 32:21; see also Hebrews 11:1.
[22]Lectures on Faith, “Lecture First.”
[23] See Lectures on Faith, “Lecture Third.” “Three things are necessary, in order that any rational and intelligent being may exercise faith in God unto life and salvation. First, the idea that he actually exists. Secondly, A correct idea of is character, perfections and attributes. Thirdly, An actual knowledge that the course of life which he is pursuing, is according to his will.”
[24] Matthew 28:19.
[25] See Romans 6:4 (“Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”); see also Colossians 2:12.