What I Believe

Chapter 12

I believe in the doctrine of Christ, and the articles of my belief are as follows.

I believe that true happiness will only be possible when all men begin to follow Christ’s doctrine.

I believe that the fulfillment of this doctrine is easy, possible, and conducive to happiness.

I believe that, even if it is left unfulfilled by all around me, if I have to stand alone among men, I cannot do otherwise than to follow it in order to save my own life from inevitable destruction.

I believe that, while I followed the teaching of the world, my life was a life of suffering, and that it is only by living according to the doctrine of Christ that I can attain the happiness that the Father of life destined me to enjoy in this world.

‘The law is given through Moses; but happiness and truth are given through Jesus Christ’ (John 1:17).  The doctrine of Christ is happiness and truth.  When I did not know the truth I did not know true happiness.  Thinking that evil was happiness, I fell into evil, and I doubted my right to long for happiness.  Now, I have understood and believed that the happiness for which I long is the will of the Father, and is the lawful basis of my life.  Christ says to me, ‘Live for your happiness and for that of others, but do not believe in the snares – temptations (σκανδαλος) – that attract you by a semblance of happiness, while they, in reality, deprive you of it and entice you into evil.  Your happiness is in your unity with all men.  Do not deprive yourself of the happiness given to you.’

Christ has revealed to me that love toward all men is not only a duty that we must all strive after, but that in it lies true happiness – a happiness as natural to men as it is to children, as He says; and it is innate in all men until it is destroyed by deceit, error, and temptation.

Christ has not only revealed this to me, but has enumerated in His commandments all the temptations that draw me away from the state of unity, love, and happiness natural to man, and entice me into the snares of wickedness.  The commandments of Christ show me how to escape the temptations that led me away from true happiness.

Happiness was given to me, and I have destroyed it.  Christ’s commandments reveal the snares that have destroyed my happiness, and therefore I cannot help endeavoring to avoid them.  My creed is in this, and in this alone.

Christ has shown me that the first snare is enmity – anger.  I believe this, and can, therefore, no longer harbor a feeling of enmity against any man.  I can no longer pride myself upon my anger as I used to do, nor justify it to myself by thinking myself great and clever, and others insignificant and foolish.  As soon as I remember that I am giving way to anger I can no longer refuse to acknowledge myself in the wrong, nor can I help seeking to be reconciled to those who are at enmity with me.

Nor is that all.  If I know that my anger is unnatural and wicked, I likewise know the snare that led me into …