On Gifts, Desires, and Judgment
Reading Moroni 7
Desire is the most important key to judging between good and evil. This is what Mormon and Moroni are trying to tell us in the beginning of Moroni Chapter 7. To explain how this works, Mormon sets up a really interesting way of understanding the world and how we are supposed to live in it, which centers around identifying the differences between what he calls good gifts and evil gifts. Thus, the purpose of life is to “lay hold upon every good thing” (Moroni 7:20).
Mormon recognizes that it isn’t that straightforward, though. In fact, the line I quoted is actually phrased as a question: “How is it possible that ye can lay hold upon every good thing?” And earlier Mormon warns: “Take heed, my beloved brethren, that ye do not judge that which is evil to be of God, or that which is good and of God to be of the devil” (Moroni 7:14).
And we can see what Mormon means here. Especially in the world today we are constantly barraged by stimuli, choices, opportunities. Scrolling through the dim glow of Facebook, Instagram, X, or other places it is difficult to comprehend what each thing is when it whizzes by, let alone clearly judge whether it is from God or the devil. And this steady stream of distraction can make it even more difficult to judge more consequential things like political candidates, job opportunities, or parenting techniques.
So, then, how do we judge between good and evil clearly in all these circumstances? For Mormon, this begins with recognizing what actually makes a person or thing good or evil. This is desire, or the intent of the person or thing. Mormon says: “A man being evil cannot do that which is good; for if he offereth a gift or prayeth unto God, except he shall do it with real intent it profiteth him nothing” (Moroni 7:6).
Here Mormon describes two actions usually associated with goodness (giving a gift and praying) and claims that unless they are done with “real intent” they are “counted evil before God” (Moroni 7:8). Thus it is our intent, our desires, that determine whether we and the things we do are good or evil. Desires are the fundamentally good or evil parts of us. They cannot point neutrally. They are either pointed toward God, or something that leads back to God, or pointed toward the devil, or something that leads back to the devil. This makes a lot of sense and even explains how I can do both good and evil all the time: my desires and intentions are changing. And I don’t know about you, but my desires change a lot.
One moment I will be totally focused and full of good intentions, the next, depending on how hungry I am or something like that, I will be self-centered, desiring evil things. Recognizing this fundamental instability of human desire is both depressing and liberating. On the one hand, I am just one self-indulgent wish away from becoming evil, but on the other hand, becoming good is only ever a matter of wanting it.
So, okay, Mormon, I’m following you so far. I am what I want, and I can tell whether I am good or evil based on what I desire. And then, whatever actions I carry out, or whatever gifts I give, will be good or evil according to those desires. But that still only solves half the problem. I can judge myself and my own desires, but I can’t directly feel the desires of others, so how do I go out and judge what is good and evil in the world? How do I actually avoid judging “that which is evil to be of God” (Moroni 7:14)?
This is where Mormon’s concept of the light of Christ comes in. Because we all have access to this light or “spirit of Christ,” “the way to judge is as plain, that ye may know with a perfect knowledge” (Moroni 7:16, 15). But how does this work? Mormon explains: “everything which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ” (7:16). Conversely, “whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil” (7:17).
In these declarations, Mormon is calling us to pay attention to what the things and people we interact with persuade us to do and want. If our desires are the measure of our own good and evil, then the effects of people and things on our desires should be how we judge them good or evil. The things that we allow into our lives are not just statically present. As we interact with them, they change us and sculpt our desires in particular directions. They “invite” or “entice” us toward other things or people. It is in recognizing these changes in ourselves and our desires that we can truly judge if something is turning us to God or to the devil. The light of Christ is the capacity to reflect on our desires and compare them against their own past, seeing how they have changed after being enticed by something else.
But this does still create some problems. As mortal humans, we are bound in a linear, forward-progressing time. Because of this we can only understand the effects of something on our desires after we have already experienced it. Thus, to truly understand whether a gift is good or evil, we have to touch the evil gift, despite repeated admonitions to not touch it (See Moroni 10:30). In essence, this position forces us to engage with evil to learn what it is, but also condemns us for doing so.
This is not at all surprising or strange. This tension is the central focus of Restoration accounts of creation, the fall, and mortality from Father Lehi to D&C 93 to the Book of Moses and the Endowment. This is the penetrating insight of the Restoration and one of our main breaks with traditional Christianity: our “fallen” natures, our capacity for and engagement with evil can actually bring us closer to God. And not just in some “the grace of Christ is greater than Eden” handwave (though that is true) but precisely because our ability to experience and reflect on good and evil, as well as—crucially—the fact that we have reflected and learned, make us like God.
But where does that leave Christ and the Atonement? If sin is necessary to be like God, how did Christ, with a sinless life, ascend to His throne? What is the role of the Atonement if evil actually brings us closer to God?
The second of these questions is easier to answer: the Atonement is the means by which evil can bring us closer to God. Evil does not become good automatically or naturally. Instead, it is through the atoning blood of Christ, His incomprehensible sacrifice, that this is possible. The true power of the Atonement is that it can transform the evil gift into a good gift if we let it. It has the power to turn our desires towards God no matter how they have already been enticed.
But I want to emphasize again that this is not natural. It requires massive effort on our part, and the literal death of a God. The more natural way is what Alma calls “restoration”: “to bring back again evil for evil,” which we might call the law of the harvest, or reaping what we sow (Alma 41:13). In the case of the Atonement, Christ is reaping what we sow (evil, sin, death) and we are able to reap what Christ sowed (goodness, righteousness, life eternal).
This recognition points toward the answer to the other question: if evil is necessary to become like God, how can a sinless Christ become like God? The answer is that it is not actually necessary to commit evil, just to experience evil. Christ’s life and Atonement have given him an unlimited supply of that experience. And, because the Atonement stands outside our mortal understanding of time (He is the “lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8)) He has always had that experience. He knows evil more intimately and completely than any of us and thus has overcome it.
From this we can see that the Atonement is the greatest of all the gifts of God, and that fully receiving it is the end and aim of our experience on earth. It is for this reason that Moroni’s final admonition is to “lay hold upon every good gift and touch not the evil gift” (Moroni 10:30). Of all the spiritual gifts Moroni lists, the chance to be made “perfect in Christ” is the greatest one. But it is the laying hold of those gifts, and the following their enticements, that lead us all the way back to God. This reveals again the centrality of gifts in our journey here on earth. We find so many things already here, given, as it were, and our job is to lay hold on the good ones. And then, eventually, have the chance to act as God, being the givers of good gifts.