Walking in Truth

I’m leaving Thursday to teach the Living in Truth seminar in Baltimore, Maryland. I’ve been working hard to revamp the format from four sessions to three sessions, and I think I like this new three session format even better. It is always interesting doing something like this because of how much I learn. It’s like taking a ball of clay and remolding it from a tree into fruit and in the process finding out all kinds of new things about the clay you are working with.

One of the new things I’ve discovered is found in Helaman 6:34. Usually when we hear the phrase “walk in truth” we just think it means to keep the commandments. But in this verse Mormon explains what is happening to the people: “And thus we see that the Nephites did begin to dwindle in unbelief, and grow in wickedness and abominations, while the Lamanites began to grow exceedingly in the knowledge of their God; yea, they did begin to keep his statues and commandments, and to walk in truth and uprightness before him.” If walking in truth simply means to keep the commandments this verse is redundant. But walking in truth means accepting “things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come” (D&C 93:24) without becoming vexed. 

Thus we learn that the change of heart that came to the Lamanites occurred because they lived the commandments AND they lived in truth.