I love this quote by President Ezra Taft Benson:
The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of the people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.
President Benson quoted President David O. McKay saying:
Christ called for “an entire revolution” of Nicodemus’s “inner man.” “His manner of thinking, feeling, and acting with reference to spiritual things would have to undergo a fundamental and permanent change.”
I love how Christ focused on fundamentally changing the inner man. The Lord told Samuel:
The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.
Judging people based on outward things is easy to do because those things are seen but do they even matter? Will it matter in heaven if I smoked, or drank, or had pre-marital sex on earth? Probably not. Does my body size, education or upbringing say who I am? No, because *I* determine who I am not my circumstances.
Why is there such a focus on outer things about me when what truly matters is the condition of my heart; my inner qualities?
- Do I love the Lord?
- Do I love my fellow man?
- Am I a true friend?
- Am I like my Savior in word and in deed?
- Do I give people the freedom to act for themselves without concern for my business or my church?
- Do I have faith in people, that they can make good decisions?
- Do I help people in their lives, without any thought for myself, knowing that when I’m helping them I’m doing it for the Lord? (Lord, when saw we thee a stranger and took thee in?)
- Am I patient, kind, loving, merciful, virtuous, honest, trustworthy, faithful, and thousands of other good qualities? Maybe not completely all of the time but when I mess up I repent and try again, and I strive for working on myself instead of getting involved in what doesn’t matter.
I love that President Harold B. Lee said:
[Changed men] set fire in others because they are on fire.
President Benson added to the statement about “changed men” and further said:
- Their will is swallowed up in His will. (See John 5:30.)
- They do always those things that please the Lord. (See John 8:29.)
- Not only would they die for the Lord, but more important they want to live for Him.
- Enter their homes, and the pictures on their walls, the books on their shelves, the music in the air, their words and acts reveal them as Christians.
- They stand as witnesses of God at all times, and in all things, and in all places. (See Mosiah 18:9.)
- They have Christ on their minds, as they look unto Him in every thought. (See D&C 6:36.)
- They have Christ in their hearts as their affections are placed on Him forever. (See Alma 37:36.)
- Almost every week they partake of the sacrament and witness anew to their Eternal Father that they are willing to take upon them the name of His Son, always remember Him, and keep His commandments. (See Moro. 4:3.)
- In Book of Mormon language, they “feast upon the words of Christ” (2 Ne. 32:3), “talk of Christ” (2 Ne. 25:26), “rejoice in Christ” (2 Ne. 25:26), “are made alive in Christ” (2 Ne. 25:25), and “glory in [their] Jesus” (2 Ne. 33:6.)
- In short, they lose themselves in the Lord, and find eternal life. (See Luke 17:33.)
What more can be said about being born again than that? Back to my first quote:
The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of the people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.
The question is: Will I be changed from the inside out or from the outside in?