Charity Strife - "Thinketh No Evil"

And charity suffereth long and is kind, envieth not and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, and is not easily provoked. Thinketh no evil and rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in truth. Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 

"Thinketh No Evil"

Mission Journal:

I love this one because it involves the deepest root of an action. Any action begins with a thought. No one will do something that he or she has not thought about. We have the ability to think so that we can (mentally) choose and then act on our thought-up choice. If this was not so agency would be nothing and we would all be, as Satan's plan wanted, robots, just actors - ALL ACT and not thought. Just pure act, and no ability to choose, learn of make mistakes so that we may know pain and loss - then joy and love. But this is not God's way, as it says in Moroni 7:15-16 "it is given unto you to judge; that ye may know good from evil, and the way to judge is plain, that ye may know with a perfect knowledge as the day light is from the dark night. For behold the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil." So if every man is given to know with a perfect knowledge (as day from night) what is good from evil, then also we are free to ACT for ourselves as it says in 2 Nephi 10:23, then we combine these principles and we are free to think evil or to think good - and likewise free to ACT according to those thoughts. We also know what is good and what is evil, so if we know what is good and what is evil, and we are free to choose either one - AND we choose to think no evil and in turn DO no evil...then we are automatically thinking and acting and doing good, and no evil. This shows that we love God because Moroni 7:17,22, and Alma 41:5. If a man desireth evil all the day long (thinketh evil) he shall have reward of evil. Like "as a man thinketh, so is he." So in thinking no evil, we indirectly do good, and therefore are following the ways of Christ. And most especially thinking no evil of others and of anything they do. For once again - they are free to act for themselves and as it says in Alma 30:7 - "for there was no law against a man's beilef; for it was strictly contrary to the commands of God..."

My thoughts now:

Thinking no evil. Evil is an interesting thing. I like what I said above and it is interesting in the context of agency, but incomplete (I am okay with that because 8 years have passed). From a worldly standpoint, evil is often seen as relative. The reason is because what some cultures and societies view as evil, others may not. And this is where I will say what I believe is the way that I see evil in my perception. Evil is the opposite of good. So dualistically evil is on the opposite side of good in a line:

This is probably the easiest way to grasp and define what evil is. Otherwise there are all kinds of dangling factors that would have to be defined. For example, Christ is usually the embodiment or personification of GOOD and Satan is the embodiment or personification of EVIL. But did good exist before Christ and did evil exist before Satan? Most definitely. What is the fundamental root source of good and the fundamental root source of evil? Satan was not always Satan - Lucifer was once fundamentally good before becoming Satan. So what was the evil force that crept into his heart and allowed him to think, and then become the personification of evil - or the antithesis of good. Likewise on the other end (the source of good that Jehovah partook of and consistently chose - to become finally "more intelligent than they all." (Abr 3:19)? For now I just want to talk about evil and good as opposites and not as a universal force (which I believe they are, but will not discuss now). 

We are commanded to become like God. And God is the epitome of good, the highest good and the ultimate personification of good. So we are to change our natures in such a way that we are the opposite of evil. Maybe we could include in this "thinketh no evil" segment that we are to "always think good." Because if we think evil we become evil, and likewise thinking good continually, we become good. 

Thinking of evil as a dualistic concept can be good though. I believe in order for us to understand the good, we also must have a concept of evil. So I think that if we think evil for the purpose of becoming evil or the conception of evil deeds, that is different than understanding evil for the purpose of knowing its opposite. For example, one of the best ways to appreciate life is to consider your death. Considering the dualistic opposite really helps to see the good from a different (and usually stronger perspective).

Here is the key: don't become evil. I know that sounds pretty elementary, but hear me out. We are here on earth to become something. Before we came to this earth, we already became what we are now, before we were born. I believe that even if evil thoughts lead to evil acts, we can still eventually become fundamentally good. Not if we consistently do evil acts and have evil thoughts, because then we will become evil - fundamentally. Elder Hafen said that a person whose character is essentially good won't be condemned for a life filled with sinful acts - if in the end they have become good through the atonement. And an person whose character is essentially evil cannot be saved, by their life filled with good acts - if in the end they desire evil and are essentially more evil then good.

So if you think evil to the point of actually carrying out an evil act (or many), all hope is not lost. We can still become good, even if we have done evil acts in the past. As long as our fundamental desire is good.

I refer to this quote all the time, but here it is again:

"We can have eternal life if we really want it. But only if there is nothing else we want more." (Bruce Hafen).

Evil character VS acts