We all recognize the first two great commandments of the Lord: (Matt. 22: 37-40)
37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shat love thy neighbor as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
These two commandments define what can be called the Divine Order. This Divine Order can be found all over the scriptures.
If you look at the 10 Commandments (Ex. 20) you will find that the first four commandments talk about how to love the Lord. The fifth commandment teaches us to honor parents (a transition commandment), but the rest of the commandments, six to ten, teach us how to treat our neighbors.
The Articles of Faith follow the same pattern: Articles 1-10 teach us how to worship, honor and love God. Articles 11-13 show us how to conduct ourselves toward one another; our neighbors.
The Beatitudes are interesting. We find them first in Matt. 5, then again in 3 Nephi 12, but something is different. The first commandment has been left out of Matt. 5; it starts with dealing with one another. 3 Ne 12 acknowledges the first commandment in the first two verses. God explains how we can come unto Him, through his servants, with the authority to be baptized, and to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. This is a clear example of how the Bible has been manipulated and changed over the years.
In Moses 5 we see another example of the Divine Order. Starting in verse 10 we hear Adam say that through“my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God.”
I used to think that proved that men had a selfish streak in them. But while teaching this one day (the passage, not the selfish part) it finally hit me what it really was. Adam was concerned how God viewed him and wanted to love Him totally and perfectly—as we should all aspire.
Eve goes on to say in verse 11, “Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.”
That is such an unselfish statement. I used to revel in that as a far superior attitude, but have now come to realize it is merely part two of the Divine Order of things. Eve is concerned for her children, her neighbors, the world’s inhabitants.
Our goals should all center around these two commandments. We should all love the Lord with all our hearts. I love the image of first turning our face up toward God, then reaching our hand behind us to bring up someone else.