Sermon on the Mount: “A More Excellent Way” – Scriptures and Quotes

Lesson 8: The Sermon on the Mount: “A More Excellent Way” – Scriptures and Quotes

Reading 1 - President Joseph Fielding Smith said: “I believe the Lord meant just what he said: that we should be perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect. That will not come all at once, but line upon line, and precept upon precept, example upon example, and even then not as long as we live in this mortal life, for we will have to go even beyond the grave before we reach that perfection and shall be like God.

“But here we lay the foundation. Here is where we are taught these simple truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ, in this probationary state, to prepare us for that perfection. It is our duty to be better today than we were yesterday, and better tomorrow than we are today. … If we are keeping the commandments of the Lord, we are on that road to perfection” (Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols. [1954–56], 2:18–19.

Reading 2 - Elder Bruce R.  McConkie, speaking at the funeral of Elder S.  Dilworth Young, said:     If we die in the faith, that’s the same things as saying that our calling and election has been made sure and that we will go on to our eternal reward hereafter.  As far as faithful members of the church are concerned, they have charted a course leading to eternal life . . . [and] if they are in line of their duty, if they are doing what they ought to do, although they may not have been perfect in this sphere, their probation is ended . . . with their death, and they will not thereafter depart from the path.  It is true as the Prophet Joseph Smith said, that there are many things that have to be done “even beyond the grave” to work out our salvation, but we’ll stay in the course and we will not alter from it, if we have been faithful in this life.  (13 July 1981)

Elder David A. Bednar, when he was President of BYU-Idaho, said the following: I suspect that you and I are much more familiar with the nature of the redeeming power of the Atonement than we are with the enabling power of the Atonement. It is one thing to know that Jesus Christ came to earth to die for us. That is fundamental and foundational to the doctrine of Christ. But we also need to appreciate that the Lord desires, through His Atonement and by the power of the Holy Ghost, to live in us--not only to direct us but also to empower us. I think most of us know that when we do things wrong, when we need help to overcome the effects of sin in our lives, the Savior has paid the price and made it possible for us to be made clean through His redeeming power. Most of us clearly understand that the Atonement is for sinners. I am not so sure, however, that we know and understand that the Atonement is also for saints--for good men and women who are obedient and worthy and conscientious and who are striving to become better and serve more faithfully. I frankly do not think many of us "get it" concerning this enabling and strengthening aspect of the Atonement, and I wonder if we mistakenly believe we must make the journey from good to better and become a saint all by ourselves through sheer grit, willpower, and discipline, and with our obviously limited capacities.

Brothers and sisters, the gospel of the Savior is not simply about avoiding bad in our lives; it also is essentially about doing and becoming good. And the Atonement provides help for us to overcome and avoid bad and to do and become good. There is help from the Savior for the entire journey of life--from bad to good to better and to change our very nature. ("In the Strength of the Lord", David A. Bednar was the president of BYU-Idaho when this devotional address was given at Brigham Young University on 23 October 2001.)

Matthew 5:1-2

Reading 3 – Matthew 5:3 and footnote b

Reading 5 – Matthew 5:4

Reading 6 – John 14:26-27

Reading 7 – Mosiah 18:8-9

Matthew 5:5

Reading 8 – Elder Robert E. Wells said: I was visiting a huge estancia (ranch) in Argentina with over 100,000 acres of lush pampa. They had 20,000 head of cattle on the ranch and over a thousand head of beautiful horses–some for the gauchos to ride, but most were thoroughbred polo ponies that they trained and sold all over the world.

In the course of the afternoon’s conversation I asked the distinguished estanciero (owner) if we would see a rodeo where the gauchos would be breaking wild horses like our western cowboys. The owner was aghast. “Not on this ranch you won’t,” was his emphatic answer. “We would never break a horse. We don’t want to break his spirit. We love them and work patiently with them and train them until they are meek or ‘manso.’” He said, “Our meek (or ‘manso’) horses are still full of fire and spirit, but they are obedient and well trained. They lose nothing of their speed or maneuverability. A polo pony has to be the finest horseflesh on the face of the earth. They are lightning fast and superbly maneuverable to follow the run-and-gun type of game that world-class polo is. The horse cannot be timid or afraid of anything, but must be obedient and superbly well trained.”

I can see a great spiritual application now to the meaning “manso” or “meek.” I don’t feel the Savior wanted us to be doormats to be walked on. I prefer to think he meant that we should be obedient and well trained. You can be strong, enthusiastic, talented, spirited, zealous, and still be “meek” by being obedient and well trained. I can seek to be that kind of a meek person and be proud to have that as my goal–obedient and well trained–and still coexist in the success-oriented world in which we live. (Elder Robert E. Wells, The Christ-Focused Beatitudes, a devotional address given at Brigham Young University on 20 May 1986.)

Matthew 5:8

Reading 9 – Doctrine and Covenants 97:16

Reading 10 - Elder McConkie quoted the Prophet Joseph Smith when he taught that, "After a man so devotes himself to righteousness that his calling and election is made sure, 'then it will be his privilege to receive the other Comforter,' the Prophet says. 'Now what is this other Comforter? It is no more nor less than the Lord Jesus Christ himself; and this is the sum and substance of the whole matter; that when any man obtains this last Comforter, he will have the personage of Jesus Christ to attend him, or appear unto him from time to time, and even he will manifest the Father unto him, and they will take up their abode with him, and the visions of the heavens will be opened unto him, and the Lord will teach him face to face, and he may have a perfect knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of God'." (Mormon Doctrine, p687)

Reading 11 – Matthew 5:13-16

Leviticus 2:13

Matthew 5:17-18

Mosiah 13:29-30

2 Nephi 25:24-25

Alma 34:14

Reading 12 – Matthew 5:21-24

Matthew 5:43-45

Moroni 7:47-48