"Line Upon LIne"

There are many reasons for not being able to understand gospel principles. As Nephi explains to his brothers, and as is evident with Corianton, sin can often keep us from understanding. When our lives are cluttered with sin the ways of God just don’t make sense. But sin isn’t always the problem. Sometimes we don’t understand because we haven’t been taught the principle yet. In that case we need to study and search and pray until we do understand. Other times the reason we don’t understand is that what we are questioning is dependent upon principles that come before it and if we didn’t understand those correctly, we can’t understand the new principle. 

As 2 Nephi 28:30 explains:  “For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom.”

We’ve all heard this and understand that we learn one precept at a time. But inherent in this principle is an unstated concept that is also important. If learning is done one principle at a time “precept upon precept” like a mason building a brick wall, then one of the reasons we might not understand is that the first brick is misplaced or not plumb or crooked, so that succeeding bricks won’t fit right. In other words, if a basic principle is not understood, the principles that build on that one won’t be comprehensible. They won’t fit.

But through repentance, study, and humbly analyzing our present understandings we can grow “line upon line,” and “precept upon precept,” and make for ourselves a very firm, straight, enduring brick wall of gospel understanding.

New Words for Important Thoughts

Sometimes we hear things so often that we don’t really hear them at all. This often happens with definitions of gospel principles. For example, we’ve heard Paul’s definition of faith (Hebrews 11:1) so often that we don’t even stop to think about what the words mean. So when we hear “the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” we think “Oh, that’s faith,” and it doesn’t mean anything to us.

But let’s word the first part of that sentence differently. “Assurance of things hope for” could be worded, “Knowing that God will provide what is necessary for you at exactly the right moment.” When thought of in this way it triggers new insights and feelings.

One practice that will fuel your faith and gospel learning is to take the scriptural phrases you’ve heard all your life and restate them in your own words. It is a good way to meditate on the gospel because it keeps the thoughts and feelings alive within us rather than dulled because they are so familiar. It also keeps us from taking the marvelous principles of the gospel for granted. But the greatest blessing of doing this is that as we make an effort to renew the teachings of the gospel in our lives, the gospel will renew us.