When it comes down to obedience, there are three main reasons to obey. The first comes from fear – looming punishment frightens us. The second comes from reward – we seek the prize or present. The third comes from love – we want to please the person who has asked for our obedience. Which of these do you think the Lord wants to have motivate us?
We can choose to follow the commandments because of the looming fear of hell. Especially if you grew up outside of the church, you may have been exposed to images of evil pits and pitchforked demons prodding you while dancing flames tormented sinners. Come to think of it, when we studied early American literature from the Puritan era, I got a good dose of those ideas! As Latter-day Saints, we have a somewhat different view of ‘Hell’ than most Christians. Still, we can obey the Lord because we don’t want to be stuck in a lower, Earth-like degree of glory. I know I would rather move on to a better place. We might also decide that we fear the Old Testament wrath of God, and that obedience is better than becoming prisoners of war.
Similarly, we can be obedient because we seek the power and glory that comes with the celestial kingdom. Perhaps we long to become as gods and create worlds. Perhaps we just want to ensure that our family stands together for all of eternity. Maybe we just think it would be kind of cool to live with Heavenly Father. We might even be concerned with the here-and-now. Perhaps we pay our tithing solely to have the windows of Heaven pour out blessings. We might attend church expecting similar blessings. Either way, we are like donkeys, working for the carrot dangling just beyond our reach.
Finally, we can model our lives to follow Christ because of a sincere love for both Him and for Heavenly Father. We seek the reward of knowing that we have made Them happy. We take joy in drawing just a step closer each day (or, some days, a half a step). We strive to do the will of God because we know He loves us, and we want to demonstrate our love and gratitude to Him.
Each of these causes probably affects us to some degree. I will confess that a big part of my motivation in being ‘good’ is to make sure that I am with my husband and children for all eternity. I want to provide my kids with an example so that they can choose righteousness, as well. I will also confess that, in my pre-LDS despair, I decided that I was going to Hell so it didn’t matter; then I realized that Hell, by its very definition, was worse than life on earth, so I should get my act together (that actually didn’t help me much, other than keep me from suicide).
As I look at my young children, I want to try to motivate them to obey because they love me. I don’t want them to cower in fear each time I come in the room. I don’t want them to be good so they can have candy. I want them to love me so much that they seek to please me. I want them to love me so much that they trust me to know what is best for them.
Heavenly Father, I am sure, works by a similar principle. He wants us to obey Him from love. In fact, if you look at the gospel of Christ, much of it focuses on inward behavior, things that outward obedience cannot reveal. The Lord wants us to do our home and visiting teaching because we sincerely love our neighbors, not because we want to have a perfect record. The Lord wants us to serve in the temple because we love those who have passed on, not so we can flash our temple recommend when we get to the veil. The Lord wants us to serve Him with all of our hearts, souls, and minds, to give Him our all, because He wants us to love Him first and foremost.
As we do these things, we will feel His overwhelming love. We will feel the peace that comes with serving the One who cares most for us. We will draw closer to Him and become more like He who gave Himself to the world, both in life and in death.
Then and only then will we know true joy.
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