“Hath Committed Adultery Already in His Heart”

Ed J. Pinegar, Richard J. Allen

The higher law requires purity of thought—which altogether precludes immoral actions. “A man does not come to the almshouse or the jail by the tyranny of fate or circumstance, but by the pathway of groveling thoughts and base desires. Nor does a pure-minded man fall suddenly into crime by stress of mere external force; the criminal thought had long been secretly fostered in the heart, and the hour of opportunity revealed its gathered power. Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself” (Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, Bookcraft, 1969, 105). We are to overcome any form of lust or immoral propensity. If we fail at this, we lose the Spirit and become a natural man—an enemy to God.

Commentaries and Insights on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 2

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