28 For I, the Lord God, delight in the chastity of women. And whoredoms are an abomination before me; thus saith the Lord of Hosts.
(Jacob 2:28)
Notice the active verb the Lord chooses in the first sentence: “delight.” Not “I am satisfied” or “I approve” or even “I am pleased,” but “I delight in the chastity of women.” Since His desire is for us to be happy, it must follow that the chaste life is the happy life, and that true joy comes from a life of virtue.
We tend to think of the law of chastity in terms of prohibitions, and the scriptures do usually talk about it in negative terms: “Thou shalt not…commit adultery…nor do anything like unto it” (D&C 59:6). However, viewed in its broadest perspective, the chaste life is a life of positive action, not merely a life of abnegation. Chaste people respect and honor the bodies they have been blessed with and the bodies of those around them. They also care about the feelings and opinions of others and see beyond the outward appearance to the heart of the individual.
In the verses that follow, the Lord repeatedly describes the consequence of immorality by drawing attention to the sensitive feelings of the women among them: “For behold, I, the Lord, have seen the sorrow, and heard the mourning of the daughters of my people,” and “Ye have broken the hearts of your tender wives.” Our Heavenly Father cares deeply about His daughters and wants His sons to treat them with honor and respect: in word, in thought, and in deed.
In this modern world, where virtue is either mocked or dismissed as naive and outdated, I will delight in chastity. I will defend the standards the Lord has set and will remember that obedience to this law is an essential part of a joyful life.
We tend to think of the law of chastity in terms of prohibitions, and the scriptures do usually talk about it in negative terms: “Thou shalt not…commit adultery…nor do anything like unto it” (D&C 59:6). However, viewed in its broadest perspective, the chaste life is a life of positive action, not merely a life of abnegation. Chaste people respect and honor the bodies they have been blessed with and the bodies of those around them. They also care about the feelings and opinions of others and see beyond the outward appearance to the heart of the individual.
In the verses that follow, the Lord repeatedly describes the consequence of immorality by drawing attention to the sensitive feelings of the women among them: “For behold, I, the Lord, have seen the sorrow, and heard the mourning of the daughters of my people,” and “Ye have broken the hearts of your tender wives.” Our Heavenly Father cares deeply about His daughters and wants His sons to treat them with honor and respect: in word, in thought, and in deed.
In this modern world, where virtue is either mocked or dismissed as naive and outdated, I will delight in chastity. I will defend the standards the Lord has set and will remember that obedience to this law is an essential part of a joyful life.