April 2013 General Conference: We Believe in Being Chaste

Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles delivered the definitive address on the Lord's law governing chastity.

He asserts that this is a spiritual law, and that the eternal significance can only be understood within the context of Heavenly Father's Plan of Happiness for His children.  Human beings, male and female, are created in the image of God.  We each have a divine nature and destiny.  (The Family: A Proclamation to the World)

Our mortal life is to provide experience.  A physical body is part of that provision.  (1 Nephi 19:6; Alma 7:12–13).

Man and woman are intended to complement each other.  The unique spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional capacities of both males and females is necessary to fulfil Heavenly Father's plan.  “Neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11:11).
 
God's 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 covenant.

Rules that are part of God's plan are spiritual in nature, and are intended to guard from misuse of the procreative power that is entrusted to us by God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Quoting from Elder Dallin H. Oaks -

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. (“The Great Plan of Happiness").

The Church follows one uniform rule guarding this procreative power.  For every individual, man or woman, the standard for sexual morality dictates that sexual intimacy is proper only within legitimate marriage as provided 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.

To some extent, the 'natural man" characterized in the Book of Mormon is a part of each of us.  As President Spencer W. Kimball described, "...The ‘natural man’ is the ‘earthy man’ who has allowed rude animal passions to overshadow his spiritual inclinations".

As children of our Heavenly Father, we inherit divine capacities.  But we must also govern our natural passions and appetites in favor of our inclination toward selfless benevolence and temperance.

We live in a fallen world, and the very elements from which we came are corruptible, and leave us subject to sin and death.  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 devil, Lucifer, desires to frustrate God's "Plan of Happiness" and to make the sons and daughters of God confused and unhappy, to interfere with their eternal progression.  This constitutes rebellion and defiance against the plan of God.  Lucifer seeks to limit our progression by tempting us to use our bodies improperly.

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.

Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God (D&C 121:45).

Sin is as a "spiritual wound" that some need to repent of.   From the Atonement of the Savior arises the comforting power that can heal our spiritual wounds and remove guilt. However, this can only be applied through the principles of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, and consistent obedience.

The bishop holds the key to repentance to assuage our guilt.   The extent and intensity of your repentance must be equivalent to the severity of your sins. Serious spiritual wounds require sustained treatment and time to heal completely and fully.

The Prodigal Son

Who is the prodigal son, in the parable Jesus taught in Luke 15?

...wasted his substance with riotous living...

And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.

And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,

And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.

And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.

But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:

And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:

For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.

The mercy and compassion of this forgiving father is overwhelming. And the despondent hopelessness of the lost son is all too familiar.

It is always difficult for me to read the passage where the lost son rehearses his self-denigration and begging for help -- I can never get past it without bitter tears. How many times have I gone to Father in Heaven with the same thoughts.

The lost son plans to beg the father to make him as a servant. Yet the father is so overjoyed to have regained his lost one that he doesn't even seem to hear, and apparently no thoughts of restitution or justice even entered into his mind.

I wonder, on reflection, how can a father ever forgive such wilful wasting of his hard-earned wealth? And then the thought follows -- how could he not?

Heavenly Father has no desire to punish his children. He is not vindictive or capricious. His greatest joy is in bestowing gifts on his children. His work and glory is in bringing them to everlasting rewards.

Yet the Father's mercy is not unconditional. He does not owe us these favors. We are in the position of the lost son, hopeless to return to Father's house without his undeserved mercy.

How many of us yet vainly continue in hunger, when limitless bounty is within reach? Why fill our bellies with the husks of swine? Perhaps for some, the day of reckoning has not yet arrived, and we are still in the process of wasting our substance. How ironic, for those of us who, through our own willful choice, enter the mire to wallow with the swine.

I have been there myself, many times. As it seems, at the time it was the only alternative. Yet when I come to myself, as the son in the master's parable, I realize once again that the promise of forgiveness and being cleansed is open to all of us.

The fatted calf awaits. There is still time for us. Let us repent and return to the Father's house. He ever receives the prodigal son with open arms.