The Cost and Blessings of Discipleship

Elder Holland's entire talk is so profound and relevant that I don't know what I could say about it without being incredibly disjointed. First, it's important to note the title. Discipleship has a cost. I think we are going to experience more of the costs of discipleship in the coming years. Elder Holland begins with a warning that we need to gird up our loins and prepare for more opposition.

...if you haven’t already, you will one day find yourself called upon to defend your faith or perhaps even endure some personal abuse simply because you are a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Such moments will require both courage and courtesy on your part.

Many of us have been blessed with a comparative lack of opposition in the past several decades. I won't be surprised if days are coming in which members who aren't 100% devoted to the Gospel will not weather the storm. We are commanded to be like our Savior, Jesus Christ. There is so much that he went through that I've never experienced anything akin to, but I have to be ready for whatever comes.

Indeed, of Jesus Himself, Jacob's brother Nephi wrote: "And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men.

How much am I really willing to follow the example of the Savior and persevere through these trials? One of the things Elder Holland said that really struck home to me was his discussion of Abinadi:

As he said to King Noah: "Because I have told you the truth ye are angry with me. ...Because I have spoken the word of God ye have judged me that I am mad" or, we might add, provincial, patriarchal, bigoted, unkind, narrow, outmoded, and elderly.

Those are certainly words we've heard a lot lately in political and societal discourse, and the accusations show no sign of abating, only getting more intense.

Christlike love is the greatest need we have on this planet in part because righteousness was always supposed to accompany it. So if love is to be our watchword, as it must be, then by the word of Him who is love personified, we must forsake transgression and any hint of advocacy for it in others. Jesus clearly understood what many in our modern culture seem to forget: that there is a crucial difference between the commandment to forgive sin (which He had an infinite capacity to do) and the warning against condoning it (which He never ever did even once).

Satan has so twisted moral judgement in our society that disapproval equates with hate and condemnation. Advocates of lifestyle choices against the Lord's commandments won't rest until they are universally condoned by everyone, it seems. However, love doesn't, and never has meant unreserved approval.

Elder Holland of course concludes on a positive note of the blessings and the strength that come from a sure foundation in Christ:

Be strong. Live the gospel faithfully even if others around you don’t live it at all. Defend your beliefs with courtesy and with compassion, but defend them. A long history of inspired voices, including those you will hear in this conference and the voice you just heard in the person of President Thomas S. Monson, point you toward the path of Christian discipleship. It is a strait path, and it is a narrow path without a great deal of latitude at some points, but it can be thrillingly and successfully traveled, “with … steadfastness in Christ, … a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men.” In courageously pursuing such a course, you will forge unshakable faith, you will find safety against ill winds that blow, even shafts in the whirlwind, and you will feel the rock-like strength of our Redeemer, upon whom if you build your unflagging discipleship, you cannot fall.

This is so crucial. This talk, and others, have renewed my testimony of our Prophet and Apostles as our watchmen on the tower.