Your understanding of what Jesus would think, feel, or do in your place is the set of God’s commandments to you. Your idea of how Jesus would live in your place will differ from that of others in significant ways. Yours is the task of finding out what others believe about the Lord, why they believe it, and whether their beliefs are more supported than yours.
Every person’s understanding of God’s commandments will differ as much as their understanding and emulation of how God is. Those who invest more heed and diligence in learning more about and living like Jesus will be more like him and know more about him than those who invest less. Those who live as they sincerely believe Jesus would in their place will receive a greater understanding of his life through additional personal revelation.
With every commandment, God provides sufficient reasons for the recipient to believe that his contrary instructions are for a greater purpose than the original commandment.3 The improvement that comes from God’s commandments should be so obvious and dramatic that it becomes difficult to doubt where they came from.4 You should be learning, changing, and growing. You should find yourself with greater trust in God. You should find your character is more like his, and less like yours used to be.491 You should find yourself able to conquer things that previously challenged you492 and understand things that previously perplexed you.
As you follow God’s commandments to you, your understanding of how he is will merge to more closely resemble that of those who know him better than you.
Footnotes
- 1. And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood. And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten; he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust. For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off. (Leviticus 17:10-14) ↩
- 2. Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. (Matthew 15:11) ↩
- 3. Often, the explanation comes in the form of revealing a principle in place of a rule. For example, when the Lord commanded Nephi to kill Laban, the Spirit said: “Behold the Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes. It is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief. “(1 Nephi 4:13) ↩
- 4. For I say unto you that whatsoever is good cometh from God.... (Alma 5:40) ↩