When I was a little girl, we sang a song at church called Keep the Commandments.
Keep
the commandments; keep the commandments!
In
this there is safety; in this there is peace.
He
will send blessings;
He
will send blessings.
Words
of a prophet:
Keep
the commandments.
In
this there is safety and peace.
~LDS
Children’s Songbook
Except
this is what I heard in my mind as I sang those words:
Always
be perfect; always be perfect!
If
you don't you'll be in danger; if you don't bad things will happen.
Perfection
brings blessings;
Mistakes
brings punishment.
Listen
to the prophet:
Always
be perfect.
In
this there is safety and peace.
I
guess it comes as no surprise I didn't like that song very much. And by
"didn't like" I mean I hated it. So much so that I usually
wouldn’t sing it but just mouthed the words.
Fortunately,
as I got older I came to realize that God didn’t expect me to be perfect while
here on earth. This is our time to learn
and grow. To do that, we need to make mistakes.
Failure is a part of our mortality.
But
despite all my years of scripture study, I have never been able to fully grasp
what keeping the commandments really means.
For the past year I have had one question on my mind that has consumed
my thoughts as I study the word of God.
What
is the difference between obeying and keeping the commandments?
In
the New Testament we read the phrase “keep the commandments” three times like in
Matthew.
“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.” ~ Matthew 19:17 KJV
And
also in Revelations.
“Here
is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and faith of Jesus.” ~Revelations 14:12 KJV
When
you look for the phrase in the Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ,
you’ll think you hit the lottery. By my
count the phrase shows up more than 60 times.
Before
Abinadi was burned at the stake he taught the 10 Commandments that Moses
brought down from Mt. Sinai and said,
“I
know if ye keep the commandments of
God ye shall be saved; yea, if ye keep
the commandments which the Lord delivered unto Moses in the mount of Sinai…”
~Mosiah 12:33
Note: The
phrase “obey the commandments” only shows up twice in the Book of Mormon and
you won’t find it in the New Testament at all.
So
the question I’ve been mulling around in my brain space for over a year is why. Why are we told way more often to keep the
commandments instead of obey the commandments?
Is there any difference between the two?
I
have observed that in my church, many of the members use the words “obey” and
“keep” interchangeably when talking about the commandments. But the more I study, the more I think those
two words don’t mean the same thing. I’ll
save my thoughts on what it means to obey for another time, but for now I’d
like to focus on what it means to KEEP the commandments.
Whenever
I want to learn more about a word found in the scriptures, particularly the Book
of Mormon, I turn to the 1828 Webster Dictionary. The reason is because that tells us what
words meant when Joseph Smith was translating the Book of Mormon from reformed
Egyptian into English. The English words
he choose back then might have a different meaning than our dictionaries
today. When we apply modern-day meanings
to these words it can alter the meaning of the verse. So let’s just say the 1828 Dictionary and I
have become great friends.
When
I look up the word “keep” in the 1828 Webster Dictionary, I get 21 different
definitions. Whew! That’s a lot of definitions. But there are two definitions I’d like to
focus on.
The
first is definition #12-
To practice; to do or perform; to obey; to
observe in practice; not to neglect or violate; as, to keep the laws,
statutes or commandments of God.
The second is definition #16-
To observe or solemnize.
There
is a lot of information in those definitions, so let me try to break it
down.
PRACTICE
The
word practice in 1828 meant to perform something frequently or habitually. When I think of the word practice, I think of
the years I spent learning to play the piano or the flute. I rarely had a perfect practice or rehearsal,
but over time I got better and better at it and made fewer mistakes.
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| Source |
If
we will just try to do what it is God has asked us to do, eventually we will get better at it.
One way we keep
the commandments is by making them a frequent habit in our lives.
NOT TO NEGLECT
After years of practicing the piano and the flute, I stopped once
I got to high school. I had other
demands on my time. After neglecting to
practice, I eventually forgot how to play.
 |
| Source I realize this represents neglecting to eat not practice, but it makes me laugh. |
We need to practice so we don’t forget how. When we neglect something long enough, we are
telling our brains that information isn’t important anymore and it gets dumped
from our long-term memory. My brain dumped
my flute fingering long ago.
One way we keep
the commandments is by not neglecting them or else we might forget them
altogether.
OBSERVE
Right now I live really close to the One World Trade Center also known as the Freedom Tower. It has an observation
deck. When you are up high, you notice things that you otherwise might not see
from the ground level. Observation decks
give you a new perspective.
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| Source |
Observing the commandments can also give you a different perspective. It’s really easy to get caught up in the “rules”
of the commandments and forget why we are asked to keep them in the first
place.
For instance, consider Keep the Sabbath Day Holy, one of the 10
commandments. We are asked to observe the
seventh day of the week and dedicate it to the Lord. But how are we to do that? What does that look like?
The children of Israel during the time of Moses had some pretty
strict rules about what you could and could not do on the Sabbath. When Christ apparently “broke” one of those
rules, the Pharisees were not happy.
Christ taught a higher law where individuals must choose for themselves
how they will keep the commandments.
One way to keep
the commandments is by observing them or noticing why it is we are asked to
obey them.
SOLEMNIZE
To solemnize something means to perform it with respect or with
reverence. Our religion has an open
communion every Sunday that we call the Sacrament. This is why we call our Sunday service where
we worship, listen to sermons, sing, and participate in the open communion,
Sacrament Meeting.
During the Sacrament portion of our Sacrament Meeting, we are
given an opportunity to recommit ourselves to keeping the commandments and the
covenants we made at baptism. As members
of the congregation we participate in this silently. There is no talking and no music played
during this time. Each member can choose
how they want to observe the Sacrament.
We can do it in silent prayer, reading the scriptures, or playing Candy
Crush on our smart phone.
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| Source |
Even if we don’t perfectly obey the commandments that God has given
us, we can still keep them with solemnity.
We can show respect and reverence for the commandments by how we talk
about them to others. We can say, “My
Church won’t let me drink.” Or we can
say, “In our religion we have been asked to refrain from alcohol, and I have
chosen to obey.” (Or something less weird
and pious than that.) My point is, our attitude can make all the difference in
whether we are keeping the commandments or just grudgingly obeying them.
One way we can
keep the commandments is by treating them with respect and reverence.
As I think about all the ways that we can keep the commandments,
and there are many more, I find that I am filled with hope and optimism. We aren’t being asked to be perfect in order
to gain the Lord’s blessings or favors.
We are simply just asked to try. I
can be mindful of what I have been asked to do, and then do my best.
Now when I hear the words to the song, this is what I think:
Practice
the commandments; don’t neglect the commandments!
They
keep you from danger; they keep you from turmoil.
Observing
them brings blessings;
Respecting
them brings blessings.
Words
of a prophet:
Keep
the commandments.
In
this there is safety and peace.
If you would like to watch the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing this children’s
song, watch this video.
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The opinions shared in this article are my own and do not necessarily reflect the official doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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