Your understanding of what Jesus would think, feel, or do in your place is the set of God’s commandments to you. Your idea of how Jesus would live in your place will differ from that of others in significant ways. Yours is the task of finding out what others believe about the Lord, why they believe it, and whether their beliefs are more supported than yours.
Every person’s understanding of God’s commandments will differ as much as their understanding and emulation of how God is. Those who invest more heed and diligence in learning more about and living like Jesus will be more like him and know more about him than those who invest less. Those who live as they sincerely believe Jesus would in their place will receive a greater understanding of his life through additional personal revelation.
With every commandment, God provides sufficient reasons for the recipient to believe that his contrary instructions are for a greater purpose than the original commandment.1 The improvement that comes from God’s commandments should be so obvious and dramatic that it becomes difficult to doubt where they came from.2 You should be learning, changing, and growing. You should find yourself with greater trust in God. You should find your character is more like his, and less like yours used to be.3 You should find yourself able to conquer things that previously challenged you4 and understand things that previously perplexed you.
As you follow God’s commandments to you, your understanding of how he is will merge to more closely resemble that of those who know him better than you.
Footnotes
- 1. Often, the explanation comes in the form of revealing a principle in place of a rule. For example, when the Lord commanded Nephi to kill Laban, the Spirit said: “Behold the Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes. It is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief. “(1 Nephi 4:13) ↩
- 2. For I say unto you that whatsoever is good cometh from God.... (Alma 5:40) ↩
- 3. For you shall live by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God. For the word of the Lord is truth, and whatsoever is truth is light, and whatsoever is light is Spirit, even the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And the Spirit giveth light to every man that cometh into the world; and the Spirit enlighteneth every man through the world, that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit. And every one that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit cometh unto God, even the Father. And the whole world lieth in sin, and groaneth under darkness and under the bondage of sin. And by this you may know they are under the bondage of sin, because they come not unto me. For whoso cometh not unto me is under the bondage of sin. And whoso receiveth not my voice is not acquainted with my voice, and is not of me. (D&C 84:44-52) ↩
- 4. And again, verily I say unto you, and I say it that you may know the truth, that you may chase darkness from among you. (D&C 50:25) And by hearkening to observe all the words which I, the Lord their God, shall speak unto them, they shall never cease to prevail until the kingdoms of the world are subdued under my feet, and the earth is given unto the saints, to possess it forever and ever. But inasmuch as they keep not my commandments, and hearken not to observe all my words, the kingdoms of the world shall prevail against them. (D&C 103:7-8) ↩