Commenting on the topic of “repentance” and “perfection,” Lowell L. Bennion wrote the following:
The Meaning of Repentance
Repentance has several related meanings in scripture. Most often it means to have "a change of mind," or to have "another mind." It calls for a new outlook on life, a "turning back" on old ways, freeing oneself of desires no longer deemed worthy to entertain. Repentance means action. Error, wrongdoing, and shallow living give place to truth, right-doing, and wholesome living. The old gives way to the new. Life is lived on a higher plane. Belief and action become identical. The exact steps in repentance may vary somewhat from person to person and from time to time, but they usually include the following:
1. A recognition or recollection of the right and the wrong. The evil we do is usually brought forcibly to our attention when we gain a vision of the good, of something better. Shadows are recognized most clearly in the full light of day. Sometimes our shallow living reveals its own emptiness to us; more often than not it is made evident to us by some higher revelation of life. Repentance begins when we acknowledge the wrong we have done.
2. Feelings of regret and genuine sorrow for the wrong done, the life lived. This does not mean that to repent we must sink into the depths of despair and pine away our lives in remorse. It does mean that we have "a broken heart and a contrite spirit," that we feel our spiritual need and have a sense of obligation toward those whom we have wronged, both God and man. David's plea to the Lord following a realization of his gross sinfulness expresses this feeling of regret and of a broken heart but in a constructive way.
"Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit." (Psalm 51:10-12.)
3. Regret is followed by a firm resolution to forsake sin. Action begins in desire and is fortified in thought. A firm resolve is an essential step in repentance. Ezekiel makes a plea for such a change of heart: "Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord God. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves and live ye." (Ezekiel 18:30-32.)
4. Whenever possible, amends are made for the wrong done. Repentance is not complete if we have not tried to make good the wrong done. Stolen goods are returned; lies are acknowledged to those concerned; confession is made to those whom we have wronged and who will be helped by it.
5. Finally, the wrongdoing is done no more but is replaced with right-doing, bad habits with good habits, good habits with better habits, culminating in a whole-souled devotion to one's new conception of the right. Repentance takes time. To Latter-day Saints there is no such thing as death-bed repentance. There can be death-bed confession, but this is only one step in repentance and leaves the principle incomplete and unfulfilled . . .
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The Strength to Repent
Repentance is not easy. Often in life we take the first few steps; we recognize our wrongdoing, feel remorse, resolve to do right, and then fail to do the right. Our need is to find genuine motivation which will give us the power to repent wholly of single evils and which will help us to increase in the fine quality of our total living. Where is such strength to be found? The strength to repent does not come from the evil done. There is no positive strength in evil. To preoccupy oneself with wrongdoing is to succumb to it more often than not. A person whose sin is covetousness does not surmount it while preoccupied with desire for other men's goods.
Repentance is more than a rational consideration. It is good to look at our mistakes and shortcomings with the cold, appraising eye of reason. Often help comes from a knowledge of habit-formation, from a vision of the consequences of behavior, and from other reasonable means of understanding ourselves. But reason alone is an inadequate weapon against the strength of such powerful forces as habit and desire. Reason is a necessary and essential guide in life, but by itself it is not the best source of motivation to act.
Jesus Christ came to earth to bring about "means unto men that they may have faith unto repentance," and "only unto him that has faith unto repentance is brought about the great and eternal plan of redemption." (Alma 34:15, 16.) Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ can bring us both the desire and the power to overcome our sins and our sense of failure. He can inspire us to overcome that which is evil and shallow and mean in life . . . 4. Christ has promised us complete forgiveness on conditions of repentance. As we read the life of Christ in the New Testament and in Third Nephi in the Book of Mormon, we are impressed with the Savior's love for the sinner. In Luke, chapter 15, are recorded three beautiful parables which bear witness to this love. If we only knew how much Christ loves us, even in our weakness and sin, and how much he suffers because of our wrongdoings, we would be moved to repent and thereby give joy to him.
Christ's love for us is expressed in his willingness to forgive. Even on the cross, he said of those who had so unmercifully nailed him there, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." The meaning of forgiveness and the conditions under which we may receive it will be developed in a subsequent chapter. Let it be noted here that the assurance of complete forgiveness gives us faith to repent. That assurance has been proclaimed again and again.
Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:6-7.)
But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live? (Ezekiel 18:21-23.)
For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance; nevertheless, he that repents and does the commandments of the Lord shall be forgiven. (D&C 1:31-32.)
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Perfection
I find that a lot of Latter-day Saints are trying to be perfect, and I hear a lot of preaching about perfection. Sometimes a stake conference is built around the theme, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." I have a high priests quorum I attend every Sunday, and they talk sometimes as though they were near perfection. Even if you'd like to be perfect, I suggest that seeking perfection is not a wise way to go about it. It is not a good way to live a Christian life.
I have five reasons why I think it is foolish, unwise, un-Christian almost, to seek perfection as a goal in this life.
The first reason is, I don't think we know what perfection is. I associate perfection with God and with Christ, but I don't understand them fully—their character, their thinking, their understanding of life and the universe, and so I really don't know what overall perfection is or what perfection in anything is.
Secondly, I think you are bound to fail if you try to be perfect as a human being, and you will have a sense of guilt, a sense of shame. You will be burdened with failure.
Thirdly, you might think you are succeeding. Jesus, in the eighteenth chapter of Luke, tells a parable about two men who went out to pray, a publican and a Pharisee. The Pharisee said, "I thank thee, God, that I am not as other men are. . . . or even as this publican here." And the publican would not as much as look unto heaven, and beat upon his chest and said, "God be merciful to me a sinner." Jesus said the latter was justified, and that he that exalteth himself shall be abased and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. (Luke 18:10-13.)
The fourth reason I have for not seeking perfection is that wonderful Mormon doctrine that I love—eternal progression. Progression means the act of stepping forward, eternally. I think that is the vision of Mormonism, that we may grow eternally under the tutelage of our Father in heaven and Christ, and enlarge our lives forever more—certainly in this life, and I hope in the life to come.
Finally, people who strive to be perfect, in my observation, put themselves at the center of things. They are conscious of themselves too much. I had a fine freshman student who spent half of his time keeping track of himself. He had three big looseleaf notebooks, and he jotted down every thought he had and every feeling and every word. He reduced his life to his own parameters. I am very fond of Jesus' wisdom when he said, "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." (Matthew 10:39.)
I think the only time you experience life as a whole, in all its potentiality, is when you give yourself to a cause that is greater than yourself, one that is outside of yourself. (The Best of Lowell L. Bennion: Selected Writings 1928-1998, ed. Eugene England [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1988], 103-4, 105, 107, 276-77)
