08 June 2011

Apathy

Topics without scriptures: Anxiety.

In the scriptures, the theme of "apathy" is most often addressed in two ways. The first of which is our general concern for God and for His commandments. The second is our apathy for the poor. Or in other words, for being lax in our love for God and our love for our neighbor (Matthew 22:37-40).

Focusing on the first one, what it means to have apathy towards God and His commandments is summed pretty well in 2 Nephi 28:21:

21And others will he apacify, and lull them away into carnal bsecurity, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the cdevil dcheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.

In other words, one of Satan's most effective methods is to convince people that everything is fine and that they do not need to be paying attention or working hard. God's reaction to these type of people can be found in Revelations 3:16:

16So then because thou art alukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I willbspue thee out of my mouth.

Note that God is not saying that we are not of worth or that He does not love us, He is saying that in all honesty when we become slacker we really are not useful. To bring it home, have you ever been assigned to a project group or committee where there is that one person who really just does not care? How frustrating is it when you know how useful that person could be, but instead they really are just holding everyone else back?

God's call to us is simple, to wake up (Romans 13:11) and get moving (Alma 34:33) with special emphasis on taking care of the poor (Alma 34:28). God does not want a little bit of who we are, He wants our "heart, might, mind and strength" (D&C 4:2) because anything less won't be enough to face the trials that come to us.

Remember, the opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is apathy.

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