Partakers of the Divine Nature: A Selfless Religion

A thought occurred to me the other day: I spend a lot of time on here talking about things that really bring me a lot of happiness, but they're mostly things like movies and TV shows. And I really think those things are great: given the right level of engagement from the viewer, a person can learn a lot of really good things from entertainment. That said, I don't spend as much time talking about my faith. Well, not to get too preachy or proselytizy, but I've had a few thoughts on my mind recently that I'd like to share.

"Recent" might be the wrong word. I've been thinking about the subject I'm writing here for months. I gave an address in church a little while back, using the text of 2 Peter Chapter 1 as the foundation of my address. Starting in verse 5, it reads:

Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

What struck me the most about this passage (at least, at the time that I gave my address) was the way the development of these virtues seemed to progress from "selfish" to "selfless."

Let me explain: The list of attributes starts with "faith," or a personal connection to God. From there, it goes through "virtue" (which is a standard of personal behavior), "knowledge" (the accumulation of knowledge within an individual), and "temperance" (a sense of moderation and restraint). All of these attributes focus on a single person - the self. A person could theoretically develop all of these traits without ever venturing out from his or her house. A cynic would probably say it is easier to do so.

However, we live in a world which requires us to interact with others, and so the apostle Peter continues to show how we can develop virtues which help us to deal with others. So he admonishes us to "patience," which helps us to bear with shortcomings both within ourselves and others.

And, from there, we move to "godliness" (or we might also say "piety" or "reverence"). "Godliness" is a virtue easy to feign. If we are now discussing virtues that look beyond ourselves, then "godliness" must be more than a facade we adopt to satisfy our desire to appear to be "good people." "Godliness" thus must involve a true acknowledgement that there is one higher than us.

And then, to godliness, we add "brotherly kindness" and "charity," defined in the scriptures as the "pure love of Christ." Charity is the ultimate "selfless" virtue - it can't be built just by professing it. After all, Christ did not simply profess his love. He demonstrated it.

Christ performed many miracles which seem beyond the scope of our ability. We may not feel we can heal lepers, or cure blindness, or feed thousands with a few scraps of food. But we can easily emulate the kind deeds those miracles represent, like caring for the sick and afflicted, lifting up the broken-hearted, and comforting those who stand in need of comfort. We do more to develop Christlike attributes by doing good for others than we could ever do by reading about them over and over.

Sometimes, when I talk about my religion - and here I speak solely of myself rather than others who share my faith - I lose sight of the social implications, especially since I'm not really much for... people. I believe that mine is a religion which invites us all to live in the world and do good to others, not out of a desire for recognition or praise, but out of a true, abiding love for our fellow men and for Christ. The Savior loved the world enough to die for it. We should live our lives in such a way that we make this world which Christ loved better.