Mormon Teaches About Faith, Hope, and Charity
I, Moroni, will now write some words from my father Mormon. He spoke about faith, hope, and charity. This is what he said to the people when he taught them at their place of worship. I, Mormon, now speak to you, my dear brothers and sisters. God the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, and his holy will have called me to do this. So I can speak to you now. I want to speak to you who are part of the church. You follow Christ in peace. You have enough hope to enter God’s rest. You will rest with him in Heaven. I think these things about you because you get along well with people.
Knowing Good From Evil
I remember what God said: You will know people by what they do. If their actions are good, then they are good too. God said that an evil person cannot do good things. If he gives a gift or prays to God but doesn’t really mean it, it doesn’t help him. God doesn’t count it as doing what is right. If an evil person gives a gift, he gives it in a bad way. So it’s the same as if he kept the gift. God sees him as evil. It’s also evil if someone prays without really meaning it in his heart. It doesn’t help him. God doesn’t listen to prayers like that. So an evil person cannot do good things. He won’t give a good gift. A dirty fountain cannot make clean water. A clean fountain cannot make dirty water. So someone who serves the Devil cannot follow Christ. If he follows Christ, he cannot serve the Devil. So all good things come from God. Evil things come from the Devil. The Devil is God’s enemy. He always fights against God. He invites and leads people to sin and do evil all the time. But what comes from God invites and leads people to do good all the time. So everything that invites and leads you to do good, love God, and serve him comes from God.
How to Judge Right and Wrong
So be careful, my dear brothers and sisters. Don’t think that evil is from God. And don’t think that good things from God are from the Devil. You can judge between good and evil. The way to judge is as clear as the difference between daytime and dark night. The Spirit of Christ is given to every person. It helps them know good from evil. So I will show you how to judge. Everything that invites you to do good and believe in Christ comes from Christ’s power and gift. So you can know for sure it is from God. But anything that tells people to do evil, not believe in Christ, deny him, and not serve God—you can know for sure it is from the Devil. This is how the Devil works. He doesn’t tell anyone to do good. Not even one person. His angels don’t either. Neither do the people who obey him. Now that you know the light you can use to judge—which is Christ’s light—make sure you don’t judge wrongly. You will be judged the same way you judge others. So I ask you to search hard using Christ’s light. Then you can know good from evil. If you hold on to every good thing and don’t reject it, you will be a child of Christ.
Faith in Christ
How can you hold on to every good thing? Now I come to faith, which I said I would talk about. I will tell you how you can hold on to every good thing.
God knows everything. He has always existed and will always exist. He sent angels to help people. They told people that Christ would come. Every good thing would come through Christ. God also told prophets with his own voice that Christ would come. He showed good things to people in different ways. All good things come from Christ. Without Christ, people were fallen. No good thing could come to them. So through angels helping and through every word from God’s mouth, people started to have faith in Christ. Through this faith, they held on to every good thing. This happened until Christ came. After he came, people were also saved by having faith in his name. Through faith, they became God’s children. As sure as Christ lives, he spoke these words to our ancestors. He said: Whatever good thing you ask the Father for in my name—if you believe with faith that you will get it—it will be done for you.
Miracles and Angels Still Come
So have miracles stopped just because Christ went up to heaven? He sits at God the Father’s right hand. There he asks the Father to show mercy to people. He did what the law required. He claims all people who have faith in him. People who have faith in him will hold on to every good thing. So he speaks up for people. He lives forever in heaven. Because he did this, have miracles stopped? I tell you, no. Angels have not stopped helping people either.
Angels obey Christ. They help people when he tells them to. They show themselves to people who have strong faith and a firm mind. They come in every form of godly service. Their job is to call people to be sorry for their sins. They do the work of the Father’s promises that he made to people. They prepare the way by telling Christ’s message to the people the Lord chooses. Those people can then tell others about him. By doing this, the Lord God prepares the way. Then other people can have faith in Christ. The Holy Spirit can then find a place in their hearts. This is how the Father keeps the promises he made to people.
Christ said: If you have faith in me, you will have power to do whatever I need you to do. He also said: Everyone everywhere, be sorry for your sins. Come to me and be baptized in my name. Have faith in me so you can be saved.
If these things I have told you are true—and God will show you they are true with power and great glory at the last day—then have miracles stopped? Have angels stopped appearing to people? Has God kept the Holy Spirit’s power from them? Will he do this as long as time lasts or the earth exists or there is one person on earth to be saved? I tell you, no. It is through faith that miracles happen. It is through faith that angels appear and help people. So if these things have stopped, it will be very bad for people. It will be because they don’t believe. Everything will be useless. No one can be saved without faith in Christ’s name. That’s what Christ said. So if these things have stopped, then faith has also stopped. The state of people would be terrible. It would be as if Christ never saved anyone.
But I think better things about you. I think you have faith in Christ because you are humble. If you don’t have faith in him, you don’t belong to his church.
Hope in Christ
I want to talk to you about hope. How can you have faith if you don’t have hope? What should you hope for? You should hope that Christ’s payment for sins and his power to come back to life will raise you to live forever. This is because of your faith in him and his promise. So if someone has faith, he must have hope. Without faith, there cannot be any hope. Also, he cannot have faith and hope if he is not humble and gentle.
Charity—Christ’s Pure Love
If not, his faith and hope are useless. No one is acceptable to God except those who are humble and gentle. If someone is humble and gentle and says by the Holy Spirit’s power that Jesus is the Christ, he must have charity. If he doesn’t have charity, he is nothing. So he must have charity. Charity is patient and kind. It doesn’t get jealous. It’s not proud. It doesn’t think only of itself. It doesn’t get mad easily. It doesn’t think bad thoughts. It doesn’t feel happy when people do wrong. It feels happy about truth. It handles all things. It believes all things. It hopes for all things. It keeps going through all things. So if you don’t have charity, you are nothing. Charity never fails. So hold on to charity. It is the greatest of all. All other things will fail. But charity is Christ’s pure love. It lasts forever. Whoever has it at the last day will be blessed. So pray to the Father with all your heart’s energy. Ask to be filled with this love. He has given it to all true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ. Then you can become God’s children. When he appears, we will be like him. We will see him as he is. We can have this hope. We can be made pure just as he is pure. Amen.