Follow Christ

Follow the Son with all your heart — without being hypocritical or deceptive before God but acting with pure intent, repenting of your sins, showing to the Father you are willing to take upon yourselves the name of Christ by baptism (2 Nephi 13:2 CE).¹ To “follow Christ” is not merely an action; it requires the underlying intent of the action to include full purpose of heart, acting without hypocrisy or deception before God, having real intent, seeking to repent of one’s sins, and witnessing unto the Father that one is willing to take upon him or her the name of Christ.²

The Father declares: Yes, the words of My Beloved are true and faithful (2 Nephi 13:3 CE). The reason Christ is the Father’s “Beloved” is directly related to His words being “true and faithful.” That is, Christ only does and says what He knows represents the Father’s will. He has done this from the beginning (3 Nephi 5:4). He represents the “Word” of the Father because one can find in Christ’s words and deeds the very word of the Father (see T&C 93:2). It is this that qualified Christ to be the Redeemer. His words are faithful and true. So are Nephi’s words — his words are the Lord’s, though they were delivered by a man. Nephi, having been true and faithful in all things, was able to converse with the Father and the Son through the veil and receive from them further instruction, counsel, warning, and comfort because of the things he learned. This is the pattern for all. This is the culminating message of the Gospel of Christ.³ “What does the idea of following Christ imply, if it were taken to its fullest extent? Why would that require someone to go from one small degree to another? What would be involved for someone to pass from exaltation to exaltation as Joseph mentions in his discourse in April, 1844?⁴ How fully must we follow Christ?”⁵