Moroni 10

A friend of mine once remarked at how surprised she was at the family she was a nanny for. She said that they were totally atheist but that they were still really good people. This is an idea that we hear often, and it has always bugged me. I don't hate atheists, I just don't see what "good" they think can possibly come from welding their mind shut to the idea of God. Recently another friend of mine told me that she thought that a belief in God would make absolutely no difference in her life, that she would be just as good of a person either way. I told her that for me, the purpose of life is to change, to become not just a good person, but a perfect one, to become like Christ, to love and serve as he did. I told her that I do not believe that a person with no belief in God could be as inspired to change their life as a person with a firm belief in God. I still believe that.

While it's true that there are often no differences between the lifestyles of believers and atheists that doesn't mean that either of them are "good". In fact I realized the other day that when you say something like "He is an atheist, but he is still a good person" you are making a lot of assumptions about what it means to be "good". I asked myself what God's definition of "good" is. Then this morning I read the following scriptures in Moroni 10.

Moroni 10:24, 25

And now I speak unto all the ends of the earth- that if the day cometh that the power and gifts of God shall be done away among you, it shall be because of unbelief. And wo be unto the children of men if this be the case; for there shall be none that doeth good among you, no not one. For if there be one among you that doeth good, he shall work by the power and gifts of God.

No not one. An interesting thing to note about these scriptures is that Moroni does not talk about being good, he talks about DOING good. After reading this another scripture came to mind which I looked up with the help of google.

Matthew 19:16, 17

And behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?

And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

I got to thinking that maybe according to God there are no "good people" whether or not they believe in him. As Jesus said, there is none good but God. And we cannot even do anything good unless we work by the power and gifts of God. (Conversely if we do anything by the power and gifts of God than that thing is a good thing.)

But as I said before, to me life is about more than what we do. It's about what we become. The purpose is to become perfect like Christ, to become perfect through Christ. As Jesus said to the young man in Matthew 19.

Matthew 19:21

Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come follow me.

And Moroni gives us this challenge which I think is one of the greatest scriptures of the Book of Mormon.

Moroni 10:32

Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.