Unspotted

James wrote:

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

James 1:27

It’s a good reminder to avoid hypocrisy and to focus our discipleship on practical considerations: serving others and avoiding inappropriate influences.

But it’s also a tall order. Have we ever served enough? There are so many needs in the world, and we all have finite time and resources. Are we ever truly unspotted? We live in a fallen world and are subjected to many negative influences — external and within our own minds and hearts. How can we hope to become unspotted, let alone keep ourselves unspotted?

It’s about our desires and efforts as much as results. When Isaiah saw God upon his throne surrounded by heavenly beings, his first thought was that he was unworthy to be there, both because of his own decisions and his associations. “Woe is me!” he said, “for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 6:5; 2 Nephi 16:5).

In response, a seraph touched his lips with a hot coal, saying, “Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged” (Isaiah 6:7; 2 Nephi 16:7). So the primary answer to the question, “How can I become unspotted?” is, “You can’t, but God can. You need His cleansing power.”

But there’s a little more to it than that. How do we access His cleansing power? Moroni described a process of intentionally eliminating ungodly things from our lives in order to invite His grace, then continuing until the process is complete:

Come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.

Moroni 10:32-33

Worship activities can help us in this process. In modern revelation, the Lord said:

That thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day;

Doctrine and Covenants 59:9

My wife and I are going to the temple this evening. I am grateful for the sanctifying effect of worshipping in the house of the Lord. I consistently feel more holy after spending time in that holy place.

But I’m also cognizant of the need to prepare myself. I want to make decisions throughout the day which will prepare me for that experience this evening.

President Russell M. Nelson taught:

Covenant-keeping men and women seek for ways to keep themselves unspotted from the world so there will be nothing blocking their access to the Savior’s power. One faithful wife and mother wrote this recently: “These are troubled and perilous times. How blessed we are to have the increased knowledge of the plan of salvation and the inspired guidance from loving prophets, apostles, and leaders to help us sail these stormy seas safely. We stopped our habit of turning on the radio in the morning. Instead, we now listen to a general conference talk on our mobile phones every morning as we prepare ourselves for another day.”

“Drawing the Power of Jesus Christ into Our Lives,” General Conference, April 2017

I’m confident that God will help me find ways to remove from my life any “spots” which are separating me from Him and from His power.

Today, I will strive to become and remain unspotted from the world. I will seek God’s help, knowing that He can not only help me make better choices but can also rid me of the stains I have acquired through my own and others’ unwise choices.