Gospel Doctrine Old Testament Lesson 27

I was asked in a comment of one of my videos if I published the references. I’ve decided to start having the videos transcribed. As I do this, I’ll post the transcription here of the videos as they are done. Hopefully this will help you. What follows is the transcript of the LDS Sunday School Lesson 27 in the Gospel Doctrine Class.

Transcript of the video on Old Testament Lesson 27 – Gospel Doctrine

Audio Title: Old Testament Lesson 27 – Gospel Doctrine

Duration Transcribed: 0:36:35

Transcript

Intro: Welcome to the Gospel Doctrine Helps Class where we provide you with insights, quotes, references, and help for your gospel doctrine class.

Welcome back to another episode of Gospel Doctrine Helps Class where we look to help you with your gospel doctrine class. Today, we are looking at Lesson #27 of the Old Testament. It’s officially titled The Influence of Wicked and Righteous Leaders.

The time that we’re looking at or at least the time period is right after Solomon’s death, King Solomon who was the son of David. So we are going to look at 1 Kings Chapter 12, 13, 14. And then there’s 2 Chronicles 17 and 20, a few verses out of there.

We’re going to not be able to cover all of this material. The last time I taught this lesson, I only was able to talk about 1 Kings Chapter 12 and that’s all I did. I didn’t even finish that chapter. And depending on how lively your class discussion is, you may not be able to talk about those things either. It really just depends on what type of questions you ask or what type of things people want to offer as you move forward in the material.

Now, one of the ways that I have taught this class in the past and I think it’s very effective, simply go very slowly through chapter 12. Start at the beginning and if you didn’t hit 1 Kings 11:41-43 where Solomon died, I would at least cover that material so they’re aware of it and then dig in with chapter 12, verse 1.

And the reason for this is because this type of information is somewhat archaic. It’s different. It’s hard to understand if you don’t go slow and you don’t talk about each verse. What happens is people, they disconnect or they don’t understand how Rehoboam took part of the kingdom and Jeroboam took another part of the kingdom and the 10 tribes separate and Judah stayed in Jerusalem. Those things are important to understand how the division of Israel occurred and then also the apostasy that ensued.

So I would start by just reading. If you got your scriptures, come with me. Chapter 12, 1 Kings, verse 1 says, “And Rehoboam went to Shechem and all Israel were come to Shechem to make him king.”

So very clear important part, Rehoboam, all the people are going there to Shechem to make him king. Why is it important that they’re going to Shechem?

There are some verses you can look at, Genesis 12:6-7, Genesis 33:18-20, and Joshua 24:21-24. There is something important about Shechem and that’s why they were there.

A question that I would ask is, why are they going to Shechem instead of Jerusalem? And then look at those verses if you want to dig deeper.

I would then look at verses 2-3, and it came to pass when Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who was yet in Egypt heard of it for he was fled from the presence of King Solomon and Jeroboam dwelt in Egypt that they sent and called him. And Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came and speak under Rehoboam saying, verse 4, “Thy Father made our yoke grievous; now therefore make thou the grievous service of Thy Father and his heavy yoke which He put upon us lighter and we will serve thee.”

Verse 5, “And he said into them, ‘Depart yet for three days then come again to me,’ and the people departed.”

OK. So I would just stop there. And then I talk about these verses. Jeroboam is an important character. Why does Jeroboam returned? It’s question for your audience.

Obviously, it is because he wants to lay claim on the kingdom as well. He is entitled or has a right to claim the king.

And what do the people want Rehoboam to do in those verses? Why is it that he comes back? What do the people want him to do?

And if you of course read verses 4 and 5, it’s very clear that the people don’t want to be taxed, don’t want to be burdened in a way they’ve been burdened before. They said, “Our yoke grievous. Thy Father made our yoke grievous.”

Yoke, you can talk about yokes and oxen. The one scripture that pops into my mind is found in Matthew chapter 11. You’ve all read it before. It’s where Christ said in Matthew 11:28, “Come on to me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for a meek and lowly heart and you shall find rest into your souls.”

Some other verses you could jump off of that if you want to. Moroni 7:44 talking about comfort, going to John 14:15-23, and there are some other verses you can look at there.

And at this point, the moment you go to yoke and then you talk about Christ and Christ to having an easy burden and a light burden and an easy yoke because he is meek and lowly of heart. Remember the theme or the idea they want is that there’s a different between righteous and wicked leaders. So when you read that, sometimes you’ll say to yourself, “OK, I need to talk about leadership, leadership, leadership, leadership.” We have leaders in our church, in our ward, in our state. We have general authorities.

Leadership is not something Joseph Smith ever addressed. I actually spent some time looking. He never talked about leadership. In fact, Christ never talks about leadership. Instead, they appeared to exemplify what that means. And of course, Christ right here tells us it means being meek and lowly in heart. And being meek is something that we don’t really hear much of anymore.

In fact, if you think about it, our government, our schools, our public discourse, the education we receive, I don’t see much meekness in that and I don’t know if you do. But at least at this point in time as this is being made, the opposite of meekness I think is what is the driving force. Confidence, commanding, yelling, screaming, a demand in your way or the high way, those tend to be more for the way we see things in the world rather than being meek.

I just want to bring up the fact that Elder Hales, a found a talk that he gave in the 2008 General Conference. I’ll read a quote from him. He defines meekness as, “To be meek as defined in Webster’s Dictionary is manifesting patience and long suffering, enduring injury without resentment. Meekness is not weakness. It is a badge of Christian courage.”

And I really like that quote. I think you can use it. I think meekness is one of the characteristics. It’s obviously outlined that Moses has meekness. It is an important characteristic. It’s one of the hallmark characteristics that if we do not possess meekness, we will not be able to be saved by Lord. We will not be able to continue up to Him. That is one of the Christian qualities, the qualities of Christ that we absolutely must possess in order to be like Christ.

One of the best scriptures is found in Helaman 10:4-11. And this is talking about the sealing power but at the same time, it’s telling us what kind of a person is meek. OK? So it says, “Blessed art thou Nephi for those things which thou hast done for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee and to these people. And thou hast not fear them and hast not sought thy own life but hast sought my will and to keep my commandments.”

So right there, you see one of the hallmarks in my mind of meekness. It means to not fear others, not seek your own life, but seek the will of God and to keep his commandments.

I’ll keep going. “And now because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold I will bless thee forever and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed and in faith and it works; yea even that all things shall be done unto thee according thy word for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will.”

Think about those words. Being meek means that you will not ask for anything that is contrary to the will of God. Think about that in all of its meaning. “Nephi,” God is saying, “you can be trusted because I know you’re not going to ask for anything that I would not do myself.”

This is why God can only trust the meek. Only the meek can be trusted because only the meek will not go out, rebel, and do whatever it is they want to do. They will follow Christ. That reminds of another verse. And it’s in doctrine – or not doctrine, it’s in Second Nephi, I think it’s in 28. It is, 28:14 where he is talking about – Nephi is talking about the hard days. It says, “They wear stiff necks and high heads, yea. And because of pride and wickedness and abomination and whoredoms, they have all gone astray. Save it be a few who are the humble followers of Christ.”

I’m just going to stop right there. Not even finishing the verse. It’s the phrase, “the humble followers of Christ,” this is what I want to focus on. We should be focusing on being humble followers of Christ. Humble followers of Christ are meek. They are lowly in heart.

All right. I’m going to jump back to Helaman here, chapter 10:4-11, “Behold are thou, Nephi, and I’m God. Behold I declare them thee in the presence of my angels that you shall have power over these people and shall smite the earth with famine, with pestilence destruction according to the wickedness of these people. Behold I give on to you power that whatsoever you shall seal on earth shall be sealed in heaven and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” And it goes on towards the end here, verse 11, “And now behold I command you that you shall go and declare unto this people and thus saith the Lord God who is the almighty, except you repent, you shall be smite even to destruction.”

That is meekness. First, you have Nephi leaving a meek life. He did not fear others. He was not afraid to lose his standing before men or even lose his life. He kept God’s commandments and because he did so, he lived by every word that proceeded forth from the mouth of God. And then he was able to show God over a period of time, not instantly, not in 24 hours, not in 48 hours, over probably many years, possibly even decades of doing this that the Lord trusted Nephi and was able to give him this great power.

One of the other parts that we should read is found in teachings of the prophet, Joseph Smith, talks about this process that Nephi underwent, talks about – and this all does come to leadership because we are talking about meekness which is the hallmark of Christ-like leadership if there is such a thing. And I’m looking at page 150, Teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith, page 150, “After a person who has faith in Christ repents his sins is baptized for their omission of sins and receives the Holy Ghost by laying on of hands which is the first comforter, then let him continue to humble himself before God hungering and thirsting after righteousness and living by every word of God.”

You see how Nephi has met all of these things. Then continue hungering and thirsting after righteousness, living by every word of God. The Lord will say into him, “Son, thou shall not be exulted.” When the Lord has thoroughly proved him and finds that the man is determined to serve him at all hazards then the man will find his calling and election sure.”

Meekness is required for obtaining great power. And you now man is meek when having great power, he uses it strictly in conformity with the Lord’s will, never varying from the Lord’s command. Never pursuing his own ambitions, his own desires, or his own agenda. This kind of meekness is a very rare thing but it is essential to acquire. It is essential for you and it is essential for me because we need to be like Christ.

So, we go back to our original text here. In chapter 12 of 1 Kings, you could of course spend your whole talk on meekness for the whole lesson.

To keep going, verse 6, “And King Rehoboam consulted with the old man that stood before Solomon his father, while he yet lived, how do ye advise that I may answer this people?” He said, “I need three days to figure this out.”

So he goes to these people who consulted with his dad. So these are his dad’s advisers, right? They were advisers to King Solomon.

Verse 7, “And they speak unto him saying, ‘If thy will be a servant unto these people to stay and will serve them and answer them and speak good words to them then they will be thy servants forever.”

So what does he say? Be a servant unto these people to stay. Think about those words. They are telling this king, “You, be a servant unto the people.” Do you know of any kings that were servants to the people? That’s a great question to ask. And of course, your audience will say, “Sure! Of course! We remember, King Benjamin in the book of Mormon. He was a king and he gave a great speech.” And if you turn to Mosiah, I’d write this verse down, it’s worth, absolutely worth looking at, verses 11 and 12 in Mosiah chapter 2. This is when King Benjamin did his final discourse. He is bringing the tower. He is going to teach everybody. It’s great stuff.

OK. Verse 11, “But I am like as yourselves subject to all manner of infirmities in body and mind.” Think about that for a minute. He is talking. This isn’t the very, very, very beginning but it’s pretty close. Verse 9 is the very beginning. But he is saying, “I am like you. I’m just as vulnerable like you. I suffer from infirmities in both my body and my mind. We’re the same. I’m not better than you. I’m not elevated than you. We’re the same.” Think about the humility for a king to tell his people, “We’re the same.”

Let’s keep going. “Yet I have been chosen by these people and consecrated by my father and was suffered by the hand of Lord that I should be a ruler and king over these people and have been kept and preserved by his matchless power to serve you.” Listen to those words. I’ve been preserved by God to serve you. My job as king, if I have any job, it’s to serve you. And how does he serve them? With all the might, mind and strength which the Lord have granted unto to me.

King Benjamin didn’t just preach this. He lived it. And of course, verse 12, “I say unto you that as I have been suffered to spend my days in your service, even up to this time and have not sat gold nor silver nor any manner of riches from you.” So he’s not taxing them for gold or silver. He served them.

And I’m jumping to verse 14 and even I myself have labored with my own hands that I might serve you and that you should not be laden with taxes and there should be nothing come upon you which was greatest to be born.” And they are witnesses.

So you read those verses and what you realized is King Benjamin is the example. Now of course, back in Kings, I mean this was way before King Benjamin was even alive. King Benjamin didn’t even exist yet but he personified the savior and that he came to serve. How did the savior live his life? He was not an earthly king. He was a heavenly king. And he came to merely serve.

And of course, this is – we’re talking about Rehoboam, talking about him getting the kingdom that he was going to be making any – they want – the people don’t want to be grievously born of taxes. They’re sick of it. They’re fed up.

So he counsels with these older men. And in our vernacular, we would call them our elders because the term elder means wise one, right? Someone who has lived longer and has more experience and they can advise us. And what do they say? They say this is wisdom. Do this.

It’s one thing to keep it in that context where it’s away from us. It’s a king. We’re not kings, right? We’re just – we’re not queens. We are just lowly people. But everyone of us is a leader in some capacity whether we’re leading a discussion in class, whether we are a teacher, whether we are trying to lead our families or even just ourselves. How are we to live our lives? Are we not be like King Benjamin and serve others? Are we not be like Nephi and Helaman that we read about earlier who was meek? Or like Christ who is also personified n meekness and lowliness of heart?

And if we follow the Lord then we acquire that meekness because we don’t need to show off. We don’t need to engage in any type of vanity. We simply need to serve and bless others. That is what it means to be a heavenly king and to be endowed with the power of God.

The reason Joseph Smith never talked about leadership is because true leadership is simply to be like Christ. That is the essence of leadership. It is to be meek. It is to be a servant. And that is what these old men were teaching to Rehoboam. And let’s keep reading in this great story about what’s going on.

So they told him that and verse 8, “But he forsook the counsel of the old men which they have given him and consulted with the young men that we’re growing up with him and which stood before him.”

Verse 9 of 1 Kings, chapter 12, “And he said into them, what counsel give ye that we may answer this people have spoken to me saying, “Make the yoke which thy Father put upon us lighter.” So he says, “What’s your opinion, guys?” The guys who grew up with him, who went to elementary school with him and high school and probably did some pranks.

Verse 10, “And the young men that were growing up with him speak on him saying, ‘Thus shall thou speak into this people.’ Thus speak into thee saying, ‘Thy Father made our yoke heavy but make it thy lighter unto us. Thus shall thou say into them, ‘My little fingers shall be thicker than my father’s loins.’”

Now, think about that. What does that mean? My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s loins. Well, in the old days, to be wealthy was to be hefty, to be fat, to have lots of meat on our bones. That’s what he is talking about. My little finger, it’s going to be as fat as my dad’s loins. It’s going to be huge because I’m going to sit on the throne and get heavy.” That’s the imagery he is conveying.

Verse 11, “Now whereas my father did lay with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke and my father has chastised you with whips, I will chastise you with scorpions.”

All right. So now, we have the advice of the young men. What is the advice asked the class. They would tell you if you read it nice and slow. Everyone will know that their advice is essentially the opposite of what the elders or the old men’s advice was. And he said that he would add to their yoke which is the opposite of being like Christ. And he says he will chastise them with whips or his dad did with whips. He is going to use scorpions. Great discussion about scorpions if you didn’t know this, a scorpion is a type of whip that has nails, rocks, and bones sewn into it so when you’re whipped with it, it actually – it’s multithreaded and it rips flesh out of you so it’s much more aggressive.

That’s one interpretation. Another interpretation of scorpion is that it actually is scorpions that they will put the actual scorpions. It could sting you. It could poison you and you could die. Those are the two different versions of that.

And of course, what did Rehoboam do? Keep reading. Read slowly through here.

Verses 12, 13, 14, 15 and then you get to 16. What happens in essence is that he tells the people that he follows the young men’s advice. There’s a division in the kingdom. I mean really go through and read it slow. I’m not going to have the time to do this and this that helps class. I would separate 12 – I would read 12 through 15 then I’d read 16 through 19. Read 20 by itself. And then you want to read 21 through 24 and then 25 through 33.

I do want to bring up some important parts. After this division because this division happens because Rehoboam always makes a bad choice here. But Jeroboam, he takes the ten tribes. They go up North. Rehoboam stays down in Jerusalem. That’s in verse 20.

All right. So what happens when Jeroboam gets up there is he built an altar. And if you read in verse 28 of Kings 12, he says, “Whereupon the king took counsel and made two calves of gold and said unto them, ‘It is too much for you to go to Jerusalem. Behold thy gods oh Israel which brought thee out of the land of Egypt.’”

So we have Jeroboam doing something crazy. He knows that you can’t do idol worship so he makes two calves of gold and he tells them to worship, “These are the gods that got you out of Egypt. These two golden calves.” Crazy, right? But that’s what he did. So falls into apostasy and Rehoboam does this well. Both kingdoms fall into apostasy.

But reference this verse if you’re going to talk about this verse. If you haven’t already talked about idol worship, it’s a great time to talk about idol worship. Go back. Read Exodus 20:4. Actually read – there are more verses that are, “I the Lord thy God, but thou shall not made any idol, anything by thy hands is idol worship.” We want to stay away from idol worship.

There is also something important in idol worship that I want to bring up and that is that we have the tendency in our day and time to worship idols. And I think it’s a good discussion you can have. Ask that question to your audience. What are our modern day idols? I don’t see people with golden calves that they’re probably worshiping.

Well, are they worshiping cars? Are they worshiping their houses? Are they worshiping their job their profession? Are they worshiping their family? So families are wonderful.

I would look at another verse, a couple of verses to look up if you’re going to talk about idol worship. Doctrine and Covenants 76, I’d read 99 through 103 where it specifically says that if you worship anyone other than Christ, other than God, that you will be damned.

That’s section 76 is the revelation about the three degrees of glory, and it’s very clear that worship of God alone is correct. And how do you worship something? Where do you spend your time? Are you following the savior? Are you a humble follower of Christ or are you an arrogant follower of some current leadership principle? Christ is the one to follow. Follow no one else. Follow him.

Even be willing as Nephi to sacrifice your reputation among men. Christism, even your own life, follow the Lord. He alone is worthy to be saved. Don’t look for answers from me or from anybody else. Look to them from God. Use the scriptures as a tool, as a Urim and Thummin, you can come back to the presence of God. That’s really what it’s about. Don’t make anything.

Now remember, this idol worship where he is making calves, that commandment in Exodus 20:4-5 extends to the likeness of anything that is in heaven. That would include the Lord. This is why those who have seen the Lord, they don’t make pictures of the Lord because it’s improper. It’s wrong. It’s not something that we should be doing because those pictures are just guesses. They’re not him. We shouldn’t put a picture of Christ and kneel down before and worship that image. We shouldn’t do that. We should instead of look up to heaven or bow our heads in prayers and pray to him and not engage in idol worship.

Well, those are the things that I wanted to bring out in this lesson. You know what? There are a few more. We have time, right? You don’t want to get rid of me so quickly. Well, shoot. Let’s look at a couple other verses. Let’s look at, if you want to go back with me, let’s look at, I’m talking about idol worship, this is a quote you can use from the Journal Discourses, this is Journal Discourses volume 1. It might set somewhat old. I think it was produced in the ‘50s. But this is a talk that was given by President Brigham Young, February 28, 1853 that was delivered in the Tabernacle. This was not a General Conference but it was delivered in the Tabernacle.

So, the talk is entitled The Privileges and Blessings of the Gospel. And I am quoting from page 312 of volume 1 of Journal Discourses. It says, “Now those men or those women who know no more about the power of God and the influences of the Holy Spirit than to be led entirely by another person suspending their own understanding and pinning their faith upon another sleeve will never be capable of entering into celestial glory to be crowned as they anticipate.

They will never be capable of becoming gods. They cannot rule themselves to say nothing of ruling others but they must be dictated to in every trifle like a child. They cannot control themselves in least but James, Peter, or somebody else must control them. They never can become gods nor be crowned as rulers with glory, immortality, and eternal lives. They never can hold scepters of glory, majesty, and power in the celestial kingdom. Who will?

Those who are valiant and inspired with the true independence of heaven, who will go forth boldly in the service of their God leaving others to do as they please, determined to do right. Though all men kind of beside, she take up the opposite course.”

Think about what Brigham Young is teaching. He is teaching that you have to connect to heaven. You have to know what God wants you to do. You cannot rely on someone else. No man on earth can be trusted, myself included. You ought to not trust a thing that I say. You want to look up everything. You want to pray about it. You are to connect to heaven.

You can use that in your class. It’s a great quote. Think about how deep that goods that you when you become an adult, you need to acquire the virtues of Christ. Whatever virtue of Christ you’re missing or lacking, if you don’t know, ask God. I have heard, you probably have heard too, if you ask with real intent, having faith in Christ, he’ll tell you what you lack.

You can know these things. James 1:5 comes to mind, right? Ask God and he will help you and he will guide. If you already know that you lack, you don’t need to ask because you already know. So go work on that. If you know meekness is that attribute you need to acquire, go work on that. Go acquire meekness because if you can’t be like Christ, you can’t rule. You can’t have glory added upon you according to Brigham Young.

So, that’s a great quote. There is another one. It’s found in the Teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith. This is on page 231 and it goes to 232. This talk was given by Joseph Smith in the Relief Society. It was remarks that he gave to the Relief Society and it’s in 1842. So let’s – all right. Sorry. This is not remarks that were given to the Relief Society. That was somewhere else. This is also found in History of the Church volume 4, page 608 to 610, May 2, 1842.

He says, “The building up of Zion as a cause to these interested people of God in every age is a theme upon which prophets, priest, and kings have dealt with particular delight. They look forward with joyful anticipation to the day in which we live.”

Now, think about that. It’s 1842. We’re a lot farther down the road than that. So if they’ve looked forward to the light towards that time, maybe they’re even more happy now. I’m not sure.

They have looked for a joyful anticipation to the day in which we live and fire with heavenly and joyful anticipations. They have sung and written and prophesize of this, our day, but they died without the sight. We are the favorite people of God and has made choice to bring about latter day glory. Think about that. Who are the people? You, me, we must rise up. Your class, those you teach, we must rise up. We are the people God has chosen to receive latter day glory.

The dispensation of the fullness of times when God will gather together all things that are in heaven and all things that are on earth even and one, when the saints of God will be gathered in one from every nation and kindred and people and tongue, when the Jews will be gathered together into one.

The wicked will also be gathered together or to be destroyed as spoken up by the prophets. The spirit of God will also dwell with his people and be with and will – and be withdrawn from the rest of the nations. And all things whether in heaven or on earth will be in one even in Christ.

I’m going to stop right there for a second because this is so profound and so deep. If you think about it, when Zion will be created, there will be a gathering. People will gather together into Zion and the wicked will also be gathered.

That’s why if you read D and C 46, it talks about if you are righteous, if you will not kill another person, if you will not take arms to kill your neighbor, you must need – flee to Zion at that time because Zion will be the only place where you will be safe at some point. And it’s not today. It may not be tomorrow but some time.

When this happens, as things continue to evolve and the wickedness grows and the righteousness grows because as righteousness grows, there needs being equal and opposite, right? There’s an oppositional thing. So the amount of wickedness in the world will rise to the mount of righteousness. And as that happens, the righteous will need to be separated from the wicked because you can’t leave the sermon on the mount to the best of your ability when other people will take advantage of you and hurt and harm you.

I mean you can. Christ did it, right? But he was ultimately killed because of it. And we don’t really want you to die. We want you to gather to Zion, right? Those who are righteous will gather to Zion.

Let’s keep going. The blessings of the most high will rest upon our tabernacles and our name will be handed down to future ages. Our children will rise up and call us blessed. And generation of Jeroboam will dwell with particular delight upon the scenes that we have passed through, deprivations that have endured, the untiring zeal that we have manifested, the all but insurmountable difficulties that we have outcome and laying the foundation of a work that brought about the glory and blessing which they will realize a work that God and angels have contemplated with the light for generations past that fired the souls of the ancient patriarchs and prophets, a work that is destined to bring about the destruction of the power of darkness, the renovation of the earth, the glory of God and the salvation of the human family. Those words are profound and they are deep.

And the more you ponder them, the more you realize that Joseph knew in May of 1842 that he was just laying the foundation. We have overcome in laying the foundation of a work. We, you and I, stand on the foundation that Joseph built.

Our job is to become like Christ. We need to become pure vessels so that we can commune. It is not the amount of study that you and I do that truly matters. Unless that study changed who we are, it is the quality of our connection with heaven that matters. We need to have the spirit and we need to operate by it.

There’s one more passage that I’d like to read that I think is relevant and it talks about Joseph Smith and the lectured on faith. He explains that it’s important to be able to – it’s important and to be willing to sacrifice all things. If you’re not willing to sacrifice all things then you’re never going to have the faith necessary to the enjoyment of life and salvation.

This is what he says, this is found in Lectures on Faith, Lecture 6, verse 5, “For a man to lay down his all, his character and reputation, his honor and applause. He is good name among men, his houses, his lands, his brothers and sisters, his wife and children, and even his own life also. Counting all things but filth and draws for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ requires more than mere belief or supposition that he is doing the will of God but actual knowledge.

Realizing that when these sufferings are ended, he will enter into eternal rest and be a partaker of the glory of God. You see, it is necessary that we acquire the virtues of Christ. It is necessary that we put the things of Christ first in our lives and all other things will fall into their proper places or they’ll drop out of our lives.