3 Nephi 13-14

Reading Assignment for class on Wednesday March 28: 3 Nephi 13-14

Learning Activities:

1) Complete the following self-assessment in your mind by choosing which phrase best describes your motivation for doing alms (giving to others), praying, and fasting:

I do alms because:
  • I am supposed to.
  • I love the Lord and enjoy helping other people.
  • I want others to think well of me.
I pray because:
  • I don’t want to say “no” in front of other people when I am called on to pray.
  • It is just part of my daily routine.
  • I want to communicate with my Heavenly Father.
I fast because:
  • Fasting helps me draw closer to the Lord.
  • Other people will think I’m bad if I don’t.
  • My parents don’t let me eat when I should be fasting.
2) Copy the following chart into your scripture study journal, and complete it by reading each scripture reference and answering the two questions. As you read, it may be helpful to know that a hypocrite is someone who puts on a false appearance of righteousness or who says one thing and does another.
  1. Activity
    What motive did the Lord warn against as we do this activity?
    How did the Lord say we should do the activity?

Consider the following questions:
How can our motives for doing righteous works affect the way we do them?
What are some righteous motives that might inspire a person to do alms, pray, or fast in secret?

3) Read 3 Ne. 13:33 and put this quote in your scriptures:
President Ezra Taft Benson testified of the blessings that come from putting God first in our lives 
President Ezra Taft Benson
“When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives. Our love of the Lord will govern the claims for our affection, the demands on our time, the interests we pursue, and the order of our priorities. …
“We should give God, the Father of our spirits, an exclusive preeminence in our lives” (“The Great Commandment—Love the Lord,” Ensign, May 1988, 4–5).
4) Read Hymn #220 and then read 3 Nephi 14.  What is the lesson for us?
5) Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles provided insight that helps us understand the Savior’s command to “judge not” in 3 Nephi 14:1. As you read it, underline the type of judgments he said we should avoid and why.
Elder Dallin H. Oaks
“There are two kinds of judging: final judgments, which we are forbidden to make, and intermediate judgments, which we are directed to make, but upon righteous principles. …
“The final judgment … is that future occasion in which all of us will stand before the judgment seat of Christ to be judged according to our works. … I believe that the scriptural command to ‘judge not’ refers most clearly to this final judgment. …
“… Why did the Savior command that we not judge final judgments? I believe this commandment was given because we presume to make final judgments whenever we proclaim that any particular person is going to hell (or to heaven) for a particular act or as of a particular time. When we do this—and there is great temptation to do so—we hurt ourselves and the person we pretend to judge. …
“… A righteous judgment must, by definition, be intermediate. It will refrain from declaring that a person has been assured of exaltation or from dismissing a person as being irrevocably bound for hellfire. It will refrain from declaring that a person has forfeited all opportunity for exaltation or even all opportunity for a useful role in the work of the Lord. The gospel is a gospel of hope, and none of us is authorized to deny the power of the Atonement to bring about a cleansing of individual sins, forgiveness, and a reformation of life on appropriate conditions” (“‘Judge Not’ and Judging,” Ensign, Aug. 1999, 7, 9).
“We all make judgments in choosing our friends, in choosing how we will spend our time and our money, and, of course, in choosing an eternal companion. …
“… A righteous judgment will be guided by the Spirit of the Lord, not by anger, revenge, jealousy, or self-interest” (“‘Judge Not’ and Judging,” 9).