Power or Influence
No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile—43 Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;
There’s a puzzle. The conventional interpretation is pretty straightforward and never to be despised. But it doesn’t seem to fit the actual church very well. In fact, priesthood is everywhere a form of power or influence.
I do things solely because the Bishop has asked, not because he happens to be the most persuasive and loving person in my ward. People went on missions when Joseph Smith told them to because he was the mouthpiece of the Lord, not because of his extraordinary gentleness. Priesthood authority is fundamental to the Church. Sometimes with teeth. Excommunication, for example. Withholding a temple recommend. Joseph Smith cursed people. God does also.
I don’t think our priesthood leaders are all doing it wrong. We could try to save the appearances by making a distinction between how authority is acquired and how it is maintained. Worth thinking about.
But maybe what we are describing here is an ideal and to the extent that we aren’t at that ideal, we are all responsible. There is as much a duty in these verses to follow where led by persuasion, long suffering, gentleness, meekness, etc., as there is to lead by it. But authority is basic to the mortal experience, I don’t think it can be removed. The ideal here may be an ultimate, eternal ideal. The last verse in this section, one of the most beautiful verses in all scripture, suggests so:
The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever.
We want that, we move toward it, but we should not expect that kind of purely loving divine family relationship in its pure form until we have reached the sum of all our infinities.
Let’s look at D&C 121 from a different angle. The priesthood isn’t supposed to be itself the source of authority. Where does the authority come from? There is such a thing as natural authority, and in the human species at the biological level males are the ones who have it. Maybe the priesthood is male precisely because we want to keep down the extent to which the priesthood is the prop of authority. There are different kinds of natural authority. If we would please God, we should cultivate those kinds of authority that can be done with love and kindness.
Bookslinger
January 11, 2019
Either I’m missing your point, or it’s simpler than you let on.
Your bishop _asked_ you to do something. He didn’t _order_ you to do it.
Tone of voice comes into play, too.
Some (thankfully rare) priesthood leaders’ idea of long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, love unfeigned, and kindness, actually crosses the line into brow-beating and verbal/emotional abuse.
Love and justice/fairness come into play. Re-read verse 46 substituting authority for dominion. Then look at the pre-reqs in 45 and 46. Do those things, be full of charity (love) and virtue, have the companionship of the Holy Ghost, and then good people _willingly_ submit to your authority.
_That_ is where it flows from; from the people over whom you have authority, or even mere influence, because they _give_ it to you, when they sense your love (that you care about them) and your virtue, and sense that the Holy Ghost is with you.
Another stumbling block is when leaders confuse the above with psychological/verbal tricks of persuasion. Tone and spirit always trump both the literal meaning of words and their connotations.
MStephens
January 11, 2019
Amen to Bookslinger’s comment. To me, these verses are about preventing spiritual and emotional abuse using priesthood authority.
JRL in AZ
January 11, 2019
Perhaps the answer is more boring – just read “only” to mean “except” as it sometimes is used, and we see that power or influence can be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, as long as it is done by persuasion, longsuffering, etc. At least that’s how I’ve always read it. I may be wrong.
seriouslypleasedropit
January 11, 2019
Sun Tzu said (something like): attack is defense, defense is attack.
In the same way that some nonmember family members are offended that they cannot attend their daughter/son’s sealing in the temple, so are some hungry for the guidance of rebuke.
The ancient conquerors offered a choice: surrender or perish.
The modern conqueror offers the same: surrender or perish.
seriouslypleasedropit
January 11, 2019
Also, since it ought to be said, this is excellent and will bear re-reading and thought.
Kyle Reese
January 11, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6z4yiq4_K8
G.
January 14, 2019
Thanks for the comments, everyone.
@JRLinAZ, I don’t know how I overlooked that obvious answer. Sounds right. If so, it either implies the existence of legitimate non-priesthood authority that is carried on by coercive means, or it requires us to accept that occasionally authoritarian methods can be done lovingly.
Bookslinger
January 14, 2019
I’ve always parsed it as JRL does, too. Only = except.
If you (G) weren’t parsing it in that way, that’s why I didn’t see your point.
(Though I admit that my parsing of vv 45-46, that the authority flows to you from the people whom you are seeking to influence as a result of you doing the pre-reqs, is not widely taught in lessons covering thst section.)
Marilyn
January 15, 2019
I think there’s also a suggestion of “no TRUE/lasting influence” will be maintained without those good characteristics. Like, you might obey your mean bishop (if he were mean and too authoritative) but he won’t ha e “an influence” on you where you are trying to be like him and wanting to follow his counsel because you trust him. That’s the kind of influence Christ “maintains” over us, by virtue of his priesthood. We WANT to follow. (Maybe this comment is obvious and already what you were saying??)
G.
January 16, 2019
Not obvious. Good stuff.