One breaks his priesthood covenant by transgressing commandments, but also by leaving undone his duties. Accordingly, to break this covenant one needs only to do nothing.
Could I ask Millennial Star readers to respectfully to discuss this quotation from President Kimball?
Source: “The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball.”
I’m not a good home teacher. That’s undoubtedly my duty, and I frequently fail at doing it. Does that break my covenants? How much nothing do we need to do before covenants are broken? SWK doesn’t seem to qualify his statement, so presumably, in his estimation, even not doing some duties some duties some of the time would be breaking covenants. Is that a fair assessment? If it is, I need to start looking into how to reestablish those broken covenants, and I’m not sure sacrament would do it.
Jimbob, I have no ability to know whether you are doing your duty. I miss some Church meetings I should go to, and I don’t watch all of the General Conference sessions — does that mean I’m not doing my duty? I don’t think so. I try to take my calling seriously. I would venture to guess that all of us know if our hearts if our effort is enough or not. I feel my effort is enough, even though I don’t go to all the Church meetings.
It seems to me this is a classic vertical (between you and God) issue rather than a horizontal (between you and other people).
“I feel my effort is enough, even though I don’t go to all the Church meetings.”
How in the heck did you, an artist at heart, ever find such balance in your brain? I envy you.
First off–as it relates to the post–it would be nice for one such as I to understand these covenants that we enter into so naively.
My old SP and Bishop had cases where they denied Temple Recommends based on the person being a complete slacker when it came to HT.
Geoff,
Your comment mirrors my personal opinion on “doing my duty,” which is that I have a lot of duties, which means that I have to prioritize them, which means, invariably, some don’t get done. And I’m okay with that, particularly where my family is involved. I can recall a wise stake president once giving training once where he said that if a bishop actually did everything he was asked to do in the handbook (would have been the old handbook then), he would have to spend 80 hours a week minimum to do his job. (I think the SP was quoting Maxwell, but I can’t remember.) His advice to the bishops was to pick the really important issues facing the ward, and prioritize his time accordingly. I think it was a revolutionary idea to the bishop I was working with at the time.
But I’m not sure SWK’s quote allows for that view. It seems much less accomodating: you have your duty, you do your duty or you break covenants. Or am I possibly reading him out of context?
Jimbob, yeah, probably, but that’s why I posted it, to get some comments. Based on what I’ve read about SWK, it seems to me he would be incredibly understanding and accepting of any effort you give at all to do your duty, which is how I like to think the Savior would be as well. Jack, you know me too well. I am an artist at heart stuck in a practical man’s body. But aren’t we all?
Strictly speaking, the quote says that “doing nothing” is what means you’ve broken your covenats.
If you’re doing “something” (noticeably not everything), that is NOT equivalent with NOTHING.
So “do the best you can” as Pres. Hinckley says appears to be compatible with Pres. Kimball’s quote.
This quote would be in reference to the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood (D&C 84:33-41). If you break down the covenant into two parts– “what we covenant” and “what the Lord promises”, you will note that we promise to “receive” the priesthood through faithfulness and “magnify” our callings. The Lord promises sanctification, renewal of our bodies, to become part of a special heritage (sons of Moses, seed of Abraham, etc.), and ultimately receive “all that the Father hath”.
Thus, what we really promise to do in the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood is to magnify our calling. If we do not magnify our calling, we are “breaking” the covenant.
However, the penalty in verse 41 (no forgiveness in this world nor the next) only applies to those who “altogether turneth therefrom”, suggesting more than just mere laziness.
But why not take the covenant to heart? If you have covenanted to magnify your calling, is that such a large price to pay for “all that the Father hath”?
Webslinger (are you related to Bookslinger?), great comment. Thanks.
While I may be a bookworm, I am not related (so far as I know) to Bookslinger. But I appreciate the compliment.
Thanks GeoffB…