My message addresses a fundamental question of great
spiritual consequence: Why is the law
of chastity so important?
I pray the Holy Ghost will confirm the truthfulness of
the principles I now emphasize.
The eternal importance of chastity can only be
understood within the overarching context of our
Heavenly Father's plan of happiness for His children.
"All human beings--male and female--are created in the
image of God.
Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly
parents, and ... has a divine nature and destiny." All men
and women lived with God as His spirit children before
coming to the earth as mortal beings.
The Father's plan enables His spirit sons and daughters to
obtain physical bodies, to gain mortal experience, and to
progress toward exaltation.
Our physical bodies make possible a breadth, a depth,
and an intensity of experience that simply could not be
obtained in our premortal existence.
Thus, our relationships with other people, our capacity to
recognize and act in accordance with truth, and our
ability to obey the principles and ordinances of the gospel
of Jesus Christ are amplified through our physical bodies.
In the school of mortality, we experience tenderness, love,
kindness, happiness, sorrow, disappointment, pain, and even
the challenges of physical limitations in ways that
prepare us for eternity.
Simply stated, there are lessons we must learn and
experiences we must have, as the scriptures describe,
"according to the flesh."
After the earth was created, Adam was placed in
the Garden of Eden.
Importantly, however, God said "it was not good that the man
should be alone," and Eve became
Adam's wife and helpmeet.
The unique combination of spiritual, physical, mental,
and emotional capacities of both males and females was
needed to enact the plan of happiness.
"Neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman
without the man, in the Lord." The man and the woman are
intended to learn from, strengthen, bless, and
complete each other.
The means by which mortal life is
created is divinely appointed.
"The first commandment ...
God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential
for parenthood as husband wife." The commandment to
multiply and replenish the earth remains in force today.
Thus, marriage between a man and a woman is the authorized
channel through which premortal
spirits enter mortality.
Complete sexual abstinence before marriage and total
fidelity within marriage protect the sanctity of this
sacred channel.
The power of procreation is spiritually significant.
Misuse of this power subverts the purposes of the Father's
plan and of our mortal existence.
Our Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son are creators and
have entrusted each of us with a portion of
their creative power.
Specific guidelines for the proper use of the ability to
create life are vital elements in the Father's plan.
How we feel about and use that supernal power will determine
in large measure our happiness in mortality and our destiny
in eternity.
Elder Dallin H. Oaks explained (quote): "The power to create
mortal life is the most exalted power God has given
his children.
Its use was mandated in the first commandment, but another
important commandment was given to forbid its misuse.
The emphasis we place on the law of chastity is explained
by our understanding of the purpose of our procreative
powers in the accomplishment of God's plan.
...
Outside the bonds of marriage, all uses of the procreative
power are to one degree or another a sinful degrading and
perversion of the most divine attribute of men and women."
(Close quote.)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a
single, undeviating standard of sexual morality: intimate
relations are proper only between a man and a woman in
the marriage relationship prescribed in God's plan.
Such relations are not merely a curiosity to be explored, an
appetite to be satisfied, or a type of recreation or
entertainment to be pursued selfishly.
They are not a conquest to be achieved or simply an act to
be performed.
Rather, they are in mortality one of the ultimate
expressions of our divine nature and potential and a way
of strengthening emotional and spiritual bonds between
husband and wife.
We are agents blessed with moral agency and are defined
by our divine heritage as children of God--and not by
sexual behaviors, contemporary attitudes, or secular
philosophies.
To some degree, the natural man described by King Benjamin
is alive and well in each of us.
The natural man or woman is unrepentant, is carnal and
sensual, is indulgent and excessive, and is
prideful and selfish.
As President Spencer W. Kimball taught (quote), "The
'natural man' is the 'earthy man' who has allowed rude
animal passions to overshadow his spiritual inclinations."
(Close quote.) In contrast, "the man [or woman] of Christ"
is spiritual and bridles all passions, is temperate and
restrained, and is benevolent and selfless.
Men and women of Christ lay hold upon the word of God,
deny themselves and take up His cross, and press forward
along a strait and narrow course of faithfulness,
obedience, and devotion to the Savior and His gospel.
As sons and daughters of God, we have inherited divine
capacities from Him.
But we presently live in a fallen world.
The very elements out of which our bodies were created are by
nature fallen and ever subject to the full of sin,
corruption, and death.
Consequently, the Fall of Adam and its spiritual and temporal
consequences affect us most directly through
our physical bodies.
And yet we are dual beings, for our spirit that is the
eternal part of us is tabernacled in a physical body
that is subject to the Fall.
As Jesus emphasized to the Apostle Peter, "The spirit
indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
The precise nature of the test of mortality, then, can be
summarized in the following question: Will I respond to
the inclinations of the natural man, or will I yield
to the enticings of the Holy Spirit and put off the natural
man and become a saint through the Atonement
of Christ the Lord?
That is the test.
Every appetite, desire, propensity, and impulse of the
natural man may be overcome by and through the Atonement of
Jesus Christ.
We are here on the earth to develop Godlike qualities and
to bridle all of the passions of the flesh.
The Father's plan is designed to provide direction for His
children, to help them become happy, and to bring them
safely home to Him with resurrected, exalted bodies.
Heavenly Father desires us to be together in the light and
filled with hope.
In contrast, Lucifer labors to make the sons and daughters of
God confused and unhappy and to hinder their eternal
progression.
The overarching intent of the father of lies is that all of
us would become "miserable like unto himself." Lucifer
wants us ultimately to be alone in the
dark and without hope.
Satan relentlessly works to distort the most important
elements of the Father's plan.
He does not have a body, and his eternal
progress has been halted.
Just as water flowing in a riverbed is stopped by a dam,
so the adversary's eternal progress is thwarted because
he does not have a physical body.
Because of his rebellion, Lucifer has denied himself all
of the mortal blessings and experiences made possible
through a body of flesh and bones.
He cannot learn the lessons that only an
embodied spirit can learn.
He resents the reality of a literal and universal
resurrection of all mankind.
One of the potent scriptural meanings of the word damned is
illustrated in his inability to continue developing and
becoming like our Heavenly Father.
Because the physical body is so central to the Father's
plan of happiness and our spiritual development, Lucifer
seeks to frustrate our progression by tempting us to
use our bodies improperly.
One of the ultimate ironies of eternity is that the
adversary, who is miserable precisely because he has no
physical body, entices us to share in his misery through
the improper use of our bodies.
The very tool he does not have is thus the primary target of
his attempts to lure us to spiritual destruction.
Violating the law of chastity is a grievous sin and a misuse
of our physical tabernacles.
To those who know and understand the plan of
salvation, defiling the body is an act of rebellion and a
denial of our true identity as sons and daughters of God.
As we look beyond mortality and into eternity, it is easy
to discern that the counterfeit companionship
advocated by the adversary is temporary and empty.
Alma counseled his son Shiblon to "bridle all [of his]
passions, that [he] may be filled with love."
Significantly, disciplining the natural man in each of us
makes possible a richer, a deeper, and a more enduring
love of God and of His children.
Love increases through righteous restraint and
decreases through impulsive indulgence.
President Marion G. Romney declared (quote): "I can think
of no blessings to be more fervently desired than those
promised to the pure and the virtuous.
Jesus spoke of specific rewards for different virtues
but reserved the greatest ... for the pure in heart, 'for
they,' said he, 'shall see God.' And not only show they
see the Lord, but they shall feel at home in his presence.
Here is ... the Savior's promise: 'Let virtue garnish
thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax
strong in the presence of God.'" (Close quote.) We also
were promised that, as we pursue the pathway of virtue,
"the Holy Ghost shall be [our]
constant companion." Thus, living the law of chastity
invites some of the greatest blessings men and women can
receive in mortality--appropriate
spiritual confidence in the presence of family, friends,
Church associates, and, ultimately, the Savior.
Our innate longing to belong is fulfilled in righteousness
as we walk in the light with hope.
Some of you who receive this message need to repent of
sexual or other sins.
The Savior is often referred to as the Great Physician, and
this title has both symbolic and literal significance.
All of us have experienced the pain associated with a
physical injury or wound.
When we are in pain, we typically seek relief and are
grateful for the medication and treatments that help to
alleviate our suffering.
Consider sin as a spiritual wound that causes guilt or, as
described by Alma, "remorse of conscience." Guilt is to our
spirit what pain is to our body--a warning of danger and
a protection from additional damage.
From the Atonement of the Savior flows the soothing
salve that can heal our spiritual
wounds and remove guilt.
However, this salve can only be applied through the
principles of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance,
and consistent obedience.
The results of sincere repentance are peace of
conscience, comfort, and spiritual healing and renewal.
Your bishop or branch president is the spiritual
physician's assistant who is authorized to help
you repent and heal.
Please remember, however, that the extent and intensity of
your repentance must match the nature and severity of your
sins--especially for Latter-day Saints who are
under sacred covenant.
Serious spiritual wounds require sustained treatment
and time to heal completely and fully.
The doctrine I have described will seem to be archaic and
outdated to many people in a world that increasingly mocks
the sanctity of procreation and minimizes the worth of
human life.
But the Lord's truth is not altered by fads, popularity,
or public opinion polls.
I promise that obedience to the law of chastity will
increase our happiness in mortality and make possible
our progress in eternity.
Chastity and virtue are now, always have been, and always
will be "most dear and precious above all things." I
so testify in the sacred name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, amen.