Therefore, the keeping of the seventh commandment is such a vital shield! By lowering or losing that shield, the much-needed blessings of heaven are lost. No person or nation can prosper for long without those blessings.
Therefore, being good citizens includes being good, such as in knowing the clear difference between lusting after a neighbor and loving one’s neighbor
“Nature cares nothing [for] chastity, … human nature … cares about it a great deal” -Mathew Arnold
The influential tendencies of the natural man are unfriendly to the seventh commandment and these involve the self-damaging “carnal, sensual, [and] devilish” (Mosiah 16:3; see also Mosiah 3:19; Moses 5:13). If these three words sound too harsh, consider, brothers and sisters, the awful goal the adversary pursues: “that all men might be miserable like unto himself” (2 Ne. 2:27). Misery really does love company!
One of the best ways we can put “off the natural man” is to starve him (Mosiah 3:19). Weakened, he is more easily dislodged. Otherwise, he insists on getting his ticket punched at every stop on the temptation train. Sadly, corrective words do not usually help the natural man either, because lust chokes the word (see Mark 4:19).
The adversary has also artificially inflated the concept of privacy, further lubricating the slide away from individual accountability! After all, a few mouse clicks on a computer can take one, privately and quickly, into enemy territory without having to go through passport control, the only remaining restraint then being the checkpoint of dulled conscience.
God does not have two sets of Ten Commandments, one indoor and another outdoor! Nor are there two approved roads to repentance. True, a weekend of regret may produce some “sorrowing of the damned,” but not the “mighty change” which only godly sorrow produces (Morm. 2:13; Mosiah 5:2; Alma 5:13–14; see also 2 Cor. 7:10).
Yes, we mortals are still free to choose. Yes, a war was even fought in heaven to preserve our moral agency. Yet down here, the great gift of agency is often surrendered without so much as a mild whimper!
Stand ye in holy places” is to avoid indulgent tarrying (D&C 87:8)
Those who live “after the manner of happiness” (2 Ne. 5:27) also wisely develop protective, spiritual manners. These manners are reflected in their proper dress, language, humor, and music, thereby sending the signal of determined discipleship (see Prov. 23:7).
Husbands and wives can deliberately avoid drifting apart by refusing to relax their loyalties and by not being caught in the strong currents leading to the waterfalls. Equally to be avoided is the stagnant swamp of self-pity. Therein, individuals can easily rationalize any remaining sense of accountability by pushing aside the restraints of both conscience and covenants, seeking to “justify [themselves] before men” for that which is an “abomination [before] God” (Luke 16:15).
Ever wonder why the sensual scene so often features flashing but fading lights? Or why all the reinforcing glitz? Or why all the loudness masquerading as music? Because, fearful of the dawn, evil cannot stand the steady scrutiny of bright truth, nor can it endure the quiet reflections of soul-searching!
Lust is no substitute for love; actually, brothers and sisters, it chokes out the development of real love, causing “the love of many [to] wax cold” (Matt. 24:12).
Those who in various ways persistently foster and intensify this often drug-drenched drama of immorality—whether as promoters, enablers, facilitators, or profiteers—will also then face and then feel all the misery they have caused countless others!
If we hold aloft the shield of faith in God and faith in His commandments, His angels will be “round about [us], to bear [us] up” and “have charge over [us]” (D&C 84:88; D&C 109:22)
We so determine the degree of our happiness in this and the next world. I likewise testify that our compliance with God’s commandments, including the seventh, invites God to place His hand on ours as we set the dial. It is the hand of Him who desires to give us all that He hath (see D&C 84:38).
Here is the full talk: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2001/10/the-seventh-commandment-a-shield?lang=eng
-Sherri Jorgensen
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