Moroni 10:19-25 (Moroni 10:19-25)
This is scaffolding. The gifts of God or scaffolding, means by which faith is realized.
I am being drawn to consider that this conversation on Spiritual Gifts is in reality a witness of the gifts that come from Jesus Christ. So often the human condition causes me to pass over, to fail to understand that Jesus Christ, this Divine Being who intimately knows me, who has already walked many miles patiently with me, who has bridged many gaps in communication and many faults in action, who felt every difficult and painful thing that I have dealt within my own existence— I fail to understand that Jesus Christ transcends all this darkness and pulls me up into glorious realms of light and bestows upon me gifts of light, to the benefit of myself and others.
Verse 25, Moroni states that we cannot do good unless we operate under the power and by the gifts of God. We cannot do good otherwise.
Spiritual Gifts are never to be done away with, and will always be with us even until the end of the world (see vs. 19). This suggests, as we always have in Christ, a degree of stability and assurance and permanence. Their presence is only lessened by our lack of faith, or unbelief.
I’ve jumped back to the earlier part of this chapter and am reconsidering the spiritual gifts that come from Christ, and reflecting upon the “matrix” or array of manifestations that are in spiritual gifts. (I’ve added personal footnotes on verse 8.) It occurs to me that this can account for the dissonance between how Rachel and I work together spiritually, or that the same gift can operate differently in each of us, and still come from God! (This would have been profoundly helpful many years ago, but is still helpful today.)
This sparks the tendency or maybe even the temptation to say “If only I’d known what I know now!” But this is the great quest of life, to acquire knowledge so that we can make better, more informed decisions.
Returning to later verses, I’m wrestling with the bold statement that Moroni makes that “if there be one among you that doeth good, he shall work by the power and gifts of God.” (vs. 25) There is an interconnected-ness between faith, hope, and charity, and the gifts of the Spirit. Spiritual gifts are present among those who exercise faith.
I think what’s really sitting with me is that Moroni knows this is the end for him. These are his final words. And no where else in the Book of Mormon is there this list of spiritual gifts really discussed. They are featured in the New Testament and the Doctrine & Covenants, but the timing an placement here at the end of the Book of Mormon really has me pondering their significance. And for Moroni to make such bold statements as “you can only do good, if you work by the power and gifts of God,” why would I waste my time doing anything else?
I have concluded this study by reflecting further upon the power of God. I jumped back to verse 7, “deny not the power of God; for he worketh by power, according to the faith of the children of men…” I also reviewed the Topical Guide entry for Power of God.