Faith, hope and charity leading to good works

My last post is more or less an introduction to this one. I have tried to figure out what to make of some connections between Moroni 7 and Moroni 10 and will try to organize my thoughts in this post. My thoughts build on several previous posts. For instance, a lot has been written already on this blog about Moroni 7. See here, here, here and here, for instance. I know I usually link too many previous posts so the reader will have to read five when they are supposed to read one:) But this is optional. I think we can capture the essence briefly with a few points:

• Mormon admonishes to lay hold upon every good thing through faith
• My last post shows that the ancient understanding of faith is more related to covenant fidelity than our modern understanding
• "Every good thing", a term that Mormon repeats multiple times in Moroni 7, is related to covenants, miracles and the creation

In addition, Mormon makes it absolutely clear that:

• Christ is the source of all that is good
• Faith, hope and charity are inseparably connected. You cannot really have one without the other two

These preceding bullet points are useful as backdrop. This post will elaborate on the following two additional points.

• Faith, hope and charity is the gateway to every good thing, because it binds us to the source of all good (Christ). In this union with Christ, good works flow from us naturally. 
• This is also related to the gifts of the Spirit

Lord Wilmore has previously shown here, here and here that good works, holy works and works of righteousness are used interchangeably (Yes, I know, even more links) and postulated that they describe covenant making. I think this is correct but I also think that they describe covenant keeping or the good that naturally flows from us when we are in a covenant union with Christ. In my previous post I quoted Ether 12:4

Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.

A very similar verse is found in Alma 7:24

And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works.

Coupled with Mormon's reasoning in Moroni 7, this is very clear. All that is good comes from God. We need to lay hold upon it by faith, hope and charity. Doing so, we link to the source and the good naturally flows from us, or rather from Him through us. Later in Ether 12, we read

Behold, I will show unto the Gentiles their weakness, and I will show unto them that faith, hope and charity bringeth unto me—the fountain of all righteousness.

This is why faith, hope and charity makes us abound in good works or works of righteousness; it leads to the source. But what do these works look like? "Good" and "righteous" are very general terms and when "all things which are good cometh of God" (Moroni 7:12) that encompasses a great deal. Still, it seems that Moroni has a specific interpretation of his father's admonition to "lay hold upon every good thing". In Moroni 10, he discusses the gifts of the Spirit. After having mentioned several of them, he concludes

18 And I would exhort you, my beloved brethren, that ye remember that every good gift cometh of Christ.
19 And I would exhort you, my beloved brethren, that ye remember that he is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that all these gifts of which I have spoken, which are spiritual, never will be done away, even as long as the world shall stand, only according to the unbelief of the children of men.
20 Wherefore, there must be faith; and if there must be faith there must also be hope; and if there must be hope there must also be charity.

We get a sense here that Moroni is linking the gifts of the Spirit to his father's sermon in Moroni 7, discussing how we can lay hold upon every good thing through faith, hope and charity. This becomes even more clear in the following verses:

24 And now I speak unto all the ends of the earth—that if the day cometh that the power and gifts of God shall be done away among you, it shall be because of unbelief.
25 And wo be unto the children of men if this be the case; for there shall be none that doeth good among you, no not one. For if there be one among you that doeth good, he shall work by the power and gifts of God...
30 And again I would exhort you that ye would come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift, and touch not the evil gift, nor the unclean thing.

The message is clear and consistent with the other quotes. Through faith, hope and charity we have access to every good gift. We can lay hold upon it by coming unto Christ (the source of all good and righteous). When there is unbelief, these gifts are taken away and we are unable to do good. Moroni replaces "every good thing" with "every good gift" after having discussed the gifts of the Spirit. I am not sure if Moroni is clarifying what his father really meant by "every good thing" or if he is just using the gifts of the Spirit that he just discussed as an example that fits into a broader term.

In any case, the gifts of the spirit also fit into the covenant context discussed before. We know these are special gifts for baptized members who have received the gift of the Holy Ghost and entered into a covenant. When Paul writes about the gifts of the Spirit to the Corinthians, he compares it with "the body of Christ" (1 Cor 12:27). Becoming the body of Christ with various body parts/gifts is Paul's version of Moroni's "come unto Christ and lay hold upon every good gift". Paul also links this to faith, hope and charity. At the end of 1 Corinthians 12, after discussing the gifts of the Spirit, he writes:

But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. (1 Cor 12:31)

Bible commentaries who understand the underlying Greek interpret this as a way of introducing charity in the next chapter as the means to attain these gifts.

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts (1 Cor 13:13-14:1)

I hope this is not getting too messy yet, so let me try to summarize: Faith, hope and charity lead to the source of all good and righteous. In a covenant union with Him, good naturally and abundantly flows from us in the form of various spiritual gifts that we can use to build "the body of Christ".

We think of the gifts of the Spirit as something belonging to New Testament times. The Book of Mormon verses I have quoted so far almost exclusively come from Mormon and Moroni living 300-400 AD. But they seem to be expanding on more ancient and perhaps partly lost teachings. I already quoted Alma 7:24, being proclaimed more than 80 years BC. Several decades earlier, Amaleki in the Book of Omni is

exhorting all men to come unto God, the Holy One of Israel, and believe in prophesying, and in revelations, and in the ministering of angels, and in the gift of speaking with tongues, and in the gift of interpreting languages, and in all things which are good; for there is nothing which is good save it comes from the Lord: and that which is evil cometh from the devil.

After a great destruction among the Nephites, Amaleki fled the land of Nephi under Mosiah-1's lead to Zarahemla. Mormon and Moroni had also witnessed great destruction among the Nephites. I believe that this circumstance is related to their admonitions to believe in and lay hold upon spiritual gifts. Moroni was clear about this: When these gifts are gone, it is because of unbelief and then there is none that "doeth good". What follows is destruction. Amaleki and Moroni do not want their readers to make the same mistakes as their people.