“A Pattern for Unity in Jesus Christ,” Liahona, Oct. 2024.
A Pattern for Unity in Jesus Christ
As we unite in Jesus Christ like the people in 4 Nephi, our desire to be one supersedes our differences and leads to happiness.
We live in an age when a surging tide of discord and disputation is spreading across the globe. Aided by technology and abetted by people whose hearts have waxed cold, these divisive forces threaten to fill our hearts with contempt and corrupt our communication with contention. Communal ties are breaking. Wars are raging.
Against this backdrop, true followers of Jesus Christ yearn for peace and actively seek to build a different kind of society—one that is founded on the teachings of Jesus Christ. To this end, the Lord has charged us to “be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine” (Doctrine and Covenants 38:27). Indeed, unity is a hallmark of the true Church of Jesus Christ.
How do we work against the forces of division and contention? How do we achieve unity?
Fortunately, 4 Nephi in the Book of Mormon gives us an example. This chapter briefly records the way the people lived after the Savior had visited them, taught them, and established His Church among them. This account shows how these people achieved a blissful and peaceful unity, and it gives us a pattern we can follow to attain this same unity ourselves.
Conversion
In 4 Nephi 1:1, we read: “The disciples of Jesus had formed a church of Christ in all the lands round about. And [people] did come unto them, and did truly repent of their sins.”
We unite around the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As each person learns about Jesus Christ, His gospel, and His Church, the Holy Ghost witnesses of the truth to each person’s heart. Each of us can then accept the Savior’s invitation to have faith in Him and follow Him by repenting.
Thus begins an individual’s journey of conversion—away from selfish and sinful desires and toward the Savior. He is the foundation of our faith. And as each of us looks unto Him in every thought (see Doctrine and Covenants 6:36), He becomes a unifying force in our lives.
Covenants
The record in 4 Nephi goes on to state that those who came to the Church and repented of their sins “were baptized in the name of Jesus; and they did also receive the Holy Ghost” (4 Nephi 1:1). They had entered into a covenant—a special, binding relationship—with God.
When we make and keep covenants, we take the Lord’s name upon us as individuals. In addition, we take His name upon us as a people. All who make covenants and strive to keep them become the Lord’s people, His special treasure (see Exodus 19:5). Thus, we travel the covenant path both individually and collectively. Our covenant relationship with God gives us a common cause and a common identity. As we bind ourselves to the Lord, He helps us to have our “hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another” (Mosiah 18:21).
Fairness, Equality, and Helping the Poor
The account in 4 Nephi continues: “There were no contentions and disputations among them, and every man did deal justly one with another.
“And they had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift” (4 Nephi 1:2–3).
In our temporal dealings, the Lord wants us to be fair and just to one another and not to defraud or take advantage of one another (see 1 Thessalonians 4:6). As we grow closer to the Lord, we “will not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably, and to render to every man according to that which is his due” (Mosiah 4:13).
The Lord has also commanded us to care for the poor and needy. We should “impart of [our] substance” to help them, according to our ability to do so, without judging them (see Mosiah 4:21–27).
Each of us is to “esteem his brother as himself” (Doctrine and Covenants 38:24). If we are to be the Lord’s people and be unified, not only must we treat one another as equals, but we must also truly view one another as equals and feel in our hearts that we are equal—equal before God, of equal worth and equal potential.
Obedience
The next lesson from 4 Nephi comes in this simple expression: “They did walk after the commandments which they had received from their Lord and their God” (4 Nephi 1:12).
The Lord had taught these people His doctrine, given them commandments, and called servants to administer to them. One of His purposes in doing this was to ensure that there would be no disputations among them (see 3 Nephi 11:28–29; 18:34).
Our obedience to the teachings of the Lord and His servants is essential to our becoming unified. This includes our commitment to obey the commandment to repent whenever we fall short and to help one another as we strive to do better and be better every day.
Meeting Together
Next, we learn that the people in 4 Nephi “[continued] in fasting and prayer, and in meeting together oft both to pray and to hear the word of the Lord” (4 Nephi 1:12).
We need to meet together. Our weekly worship meetings are an important opportunity for us to find strength, both individually and collectively. We partake of the sacrament, learn, pray, sing together, and support one another. Other gatherings also help foster a sense of belonging, friendship, and shared purpose.
Love
The record in 4 Nephi then gives us what is perhaps the grand key to all of this—the thing without which real unity is not attainable: “There was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people” (4 Nephi 1:15).
Personal peace is reached when we, in humble submissiveness, truly love God. This is the first and great commandment. Loving God more than anyone or anything else is the condition that brings true peace, comfort, confidence, and joy. As we develop love of God and Jesus Christ, love of family and neighbor will naturally follow.
The greatest joy we will ever experience occurs when we are consumed with love for God and for all His children.
Charity, the pure love of Christ, is the antidote to contention. It is the principal characteristic of a true follower of Jesus Christ. When we humble ourselves before God and pray with all the energy of our hearts, He will grant us charity (see Moroni 7:48).
As we all seek to have the love of God dwelling in our hearts, the miracle of unity will seem completely natural to us.
Divine Identity
Finally, the people in 4 Nephi exhibited a sign of unity that deserves our attention: “There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God” (4 Nephi 1:17).
The labels that had divided the people for hundreds of years receded before a more enduring and ennobling identity. They viewed themselves—and everyone else—according to their relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
Diversity and differences can be good and significant to us. But our most important identities are those related to our divine origin and purpose.
First and foremost, each of us is a child of God. Second, as a member of the Church, each of us is a child of the covenant. And third, each of us is a disciple of Jesus Christ. I urge all of us not to allow any other identifier to “displace, replace, or take priority over these three enduring designations.”
Be One
God has invited all to come unto Him. There is room for everyone. We may differ in our cultures, politics, ethnicities, tastes, and many other ways. But as we unite in Jesus Christ, such differences fade in their significance and are superseded by our overriding desire to be one—so that we may be His.
Take to heart the lessons taught in 4 Nephi. As each of us strives to incorporate these essential elements of unity into our lives, it may be said of us, as it was of them, “Surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God” (4 Nephi 1:16).