We learn this week that the duty to warn belongs to more than prophets. We are all called to warn our neighbor. We’ll undoubtedly stumble as we learn to do this well. Anything that matters this much takes time, practice, humility and courage.
Right in the middle of Babylon, Ezekiel showed such courage as he accepted the call to warn the Israelites of their sin and need for repentance. In the middle of trying times in our day, prophets do the same. Their calling is not to pacify us, but to preach truth and repentance. Prophets have always, and continue today, to receive ridicule, criticism, and anger for the messages they are commanded to teach us. “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” is an example of such.
When trying to share the most vital of truths–those that make all the difference here and in eternity, and right in the midst of our own “Babylons”–how can we do it in a way that those we love will hopefully hear?
Elder Christofferson offers instructive wisdom, “The motivation for raising the warning voice is love—love of God and love of fellowman. To warn is to care. The Lord instructs that it is to be done “in mildness and in meekness” and “by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness … , and by love unfeigned.” He adds, “the warning voice is generally not only civil, but in the Psalmist’s phrase, it is a “joyful noise.”
How can we make some joyful noise today? Let’s do it!