Michael Williams has an interesting blog entry: Difficult Teachings of Jesus. He points out, quite rightly, that Jesus taught some hard principles, too, not just the “love your neighbor” type teachings that have largely been reduced to platitudes. That reminds me of an article from the September Ensign that I’d been meaning to blog, “The Surety of a Better Testament“. Here’s an excerpt:
The New Testament is “a better testament” because the intent of a person alone becomes part of the rightness or wrongness of human action. So our intent to do evil or our desire to do good will be a freestanding element of consideration of our actions. We are told we will be judged in part by the intent of our hearts (see D&C 88:109). An example of being convicted by freestanding intent is found in Matthew:
“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matt. 5:27-28).
This New Testament is harder doctrine.
Because of the formality and rigidity developed in the administration of the old English common law, in order to obtain justice the law of equity was developed. One of my favorite maxims in equity is “Equity does what ought to be done.” The New Testament takes the concept of law even farther. In a large measure we will be judged not only by what we have done but what we should have done in a given situation.
This raises the bar a lot, since it’s no longer sufficient to do right actions. Instead, we have to govern ourselves to do right actions for the right reasons– and that’s a lot harder.
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