3 Nephi 27

3 Nephi 27:8

...if it be called in my name then it is my church, if it so be that they are built on my gospel.

So it isn't enough to be called by Christ's name, which should be obvious to most of us. Each week we partake of the sacrament and we covenant to take Christ's name upon us, that doesn't mean anything unless we build ourselves upon Christ's gospel. Christ tells us about what his gospel is in versus 13-21. The first few versus explain teachings of the gospel but I find it difficult to understand exactly what it is that I should be doing to live the gospel. Even in verses 16 and 20 the only instructions are to repent, be baptized, and endure to the end, the only problem is that it doesn't go into detail about what to repent of or how to endure to the end. But I think that verse 21 holds the key for me.

3 Nephi 27:21

...ye know the things that ye must do in my church; for the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do; for that which ye have seen me do even that shall ye do;

He says it twice for emphasis. We learned in verse 13 that Christ came to do the will of the Father. So in essence this is the gospel. Christ came to do the will of the Father and we should do the things which we have seen him do. In this way, we learn to do the will of Christ and of the Father and become like them.

3 Nephi 27:27

...Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am.

So it is not just enough to call ourselves in the name of Christ, but we must strive to become like him. This is what is actually meant by taking upon us the name of Christ when we take of the sacrament. In St. John 6:56 and 57 we learn that when we partake of the sacrament correctly Christ will dwell in us and we will dwell in him and as Christ lives by the Father we should live by Christ. To take upon ourselves the name of Christ is to become his disciple, to do his works, to live as he would live, to become like him. It is a lifelong process, but that does not mean that we should not be striving for daily progress. And as we strive to become like the Savior we will find ourselves becoming more and more like our Father, that is what Christ came to show us how to become.

I also thought it was interesting that Christ said that those who are not built upon his gospel would have joy for a season. I think sometimes we think that just because people don't have the gospel then they can't be happy, apparently they can have joy for a season. I also think that this is more applicable to members of the church. This suggests that it is possible to be baptized into the church and take the sacrament every week (call ourselves in his name) and be very happy (have joy for a season) but never really become something more, never become like Christ, never really be built upon his gospel.

I think that people who stress out over being perfect in this life need to stop worrying and more importantly stop telling themselves that being like Christ means being perfect and start learning what it is that Christ is like and what it is that they should be. Christ was not a "perfect person", he was sinless because of the type of person he was. We worry about being perfect because we do not really know what it means. Our idea of perfection is different from God's and so our focus should not be perfection, it should be Christ. He said learn of me and take my yoke upon you, my yoke is light and my burden is easy (paraphrased of course). So essentially we need to stop telling ourselves we can't be like Christ in this life and start learning what Christ was really like so that we can start becoming what we were sent here to become.