Prophets' Commentary on NT#14

Lesson 14:  “Love Thy Neighbor”

Regarding Mark 9:30-31 & Matthew 18:1,

The Prophet Joseph Smith said: “Some seek to excel. And this was the case with Lucifer when he fell…. [Let us] not seek to excel one above another, but [to] act for each other’s good.” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, 213, 344; see also D&C 58:41, “[H]e hath need to repent … for he seeketh to excel.”

Elder Lorenzo Snow said, “It is more pleasant and agreeable [to] build up Zion [through cooperation] than to build up ourselves [through] competition”(Journal of Discourses 19:351).

Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, “[C]ompetition will make the second commandment seem like an increasingly remote requirement” (We Will Prove Them Herewith, 69).

President Marion G. Romney said, “There should be no feelings of competition … nothing but love toward our fellow men” (Melchizedek Priesthood Manual 1988: 161).

Regarding Matthew 18:2-3 & Mosiah 3:19,  

President Brigham Young said “[It is in his] nature for the child to be influenced by the Spirit of God [and to] naturally love and admire righteousness, justice and truth more than they do evil. [Many believe] that man is naturally opposed to God.  This is not so….  [W]hen we do an evil, we do it in opposition to the promptings within us [for] the love of all good was incorporated in [our] nature…. The natural man is contracted in his views, faith, and desires [because he], for many years, has argued himself into the belief that [he] is no more [than] his body.” (See Journal of Discourses 6:330; 9:305; Discourses of Brigham Young, 95, 260.)  

Elder Parley P. Pratt said “the natural man … judges by the things present before his eyes” (Journal of Discourses 1: 258).  Elder Orson F. Whitney said, “The supernatural is nearly always discounted, if not derided, by ‘the natural man’”(Oct 1917 Conf. Report).  

Elder Joseph Fielding Smith said: “Little children have no sin … are not conceived in sin [and have] no taint of any kind … from which they must be cleansed” (Answers to Gospel Questions 3:16; The Restoration of All Things, 225).

Elder Hugh B. Brown said, “We refuse to believe that the biblical account of the fall of man records the corruption of human nature. For us the so-called fall of man placed the human spirit in a world of experience … where choices, freely made, determine the condition of the soul.” (April 1964 Conference Report.)

Elder Bruce R. McConkie explained, “Children are born into a world where sin is present so that they can be tried and tested and use their agency, yet it is a false and unholy doctrine to suppose that children come into the world with any taint or original sin” (see Mormon Doctrine, 154).

President Harold B. Lee said, [T]he sacred scripture . . . removes all question as to the author and the beginning of sin.  The record tells us that Satan came among the children of Adam and Eve and said unto them [of the Gospel which their parents had taught them]: ‘Believe it not; and they believed it not [and] began from that time forth to be carnal, sensual, and devilish.’” (Stand Ye In Holy Places, 362-363.)

Elder Spencer J. Condie said that “to put off the natural man” means “to reject unholy traditions”(August 2001 Ensign).  Elder Robert D. Hales has said that “when our outlook is dominated by skepticism, cynicism [or] criticism” we “then act in a way that the prophets describe as the natural man” (October 2009 Conference Report). 

President Boyd K. Packer has said that (1) “behavior begins with belief,” (2) the belief “that man is, by his very nature, inclined to be bad is not only false, but also very destructive,” (3) “we have inherited the tendency to be good, not evil,” and (4) while “there are individuals whose basic motivation seems to be contrary and disruptive and evil … it is against their nature” (Oct 1986 CR; July 1977 Liahona, 35).

Regarding Matthew 18:6,

Elder M. Russell Ballard has said: “We hear disturbing reports of parents or guardians who are so far removed from the Spirit of Christ that they abuse children. Whether this abuse is physical, verbal, or the less evident but equally severe emotional abuse, it is an abomination and a serious offense to God.” (April 1991 CR; quoted in New Testament: Gospel Doctrine Teacher’s Manual, 57.)

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland has said:  “Be constructive in your comments to children --always. Never tell them, even in whimsy, that they are fat or dumb or lazy or homely. You would never do that maliciously, but they remember and may struggle for years trying to forget… And try not to compare your children ... You may say most positively that ‘Susan is pretty and Sandra is bright,’ but all Susan will remember is that she isn’t bright and Sandra that she isn’t pretty. Praise each child individually for what that child is, and help him or her to escape our culture’s obsession with comparing [and] competing.” (April 2007 Conference Report.)

Bishop H. Burke Peterson said, “Few of us realize how very pliable and teachable children are… How quick they are to pick up parental habits and traits and teachings.” (October 1972 Conference Report.)

Regarding Luke 10:29–37, 

“According to the Jews, one’s neighbor was any member of the Hebrew race and commonwealth” (Biblical Greek and Hebrew Lexicon, LDS INFOBASES).

President Howard W. Hunter said: “[T]hough we make our friends, God has made our neighbors--everywhere. Love should have no boundary; we should have no narrow loyalties.” (Oct 1986 CR; in New Testament: Gospel Doctrine Teacher’s Manual, 57.)