Summary: We’ve often been taught to be Christ-like, but the question is, how do we do that? There are typical answers given, but for some, these can become a to-do-list of things needed to be checked off. But when people take this kind of an attitude, they often wonder why they’re not developing Christ-like qualities. This article explains what it takes to truly become like Christ. 

 

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we’ve often been taught that we’re to be Christ-like in all we do. That means we’re to behave like Christ, which includes among other things, loving our enemies, as well as our neighbor, being righteous in our thoughts and actions, being patient, kind, and living all the principles of the gospel.

But the question is, how do we do all of that when that seems so hard to do?

The typical answer is to pray every day,  read the scriptures daily, keep the commandments, magnify our priesthood duties, and fulfill our church callings. Although those things are important, yet they’re merely means to an end. They are tools meant to help us achieve a goal.

It’s easy to get into the mindset that these are things we need to accomplish on our to-do list. For example, Did I say my morning prayers? Yep. check. Did I read my scriptures today? Yep. Check that off too. Did I do something nice to someone today? Not. sure. I did tell my wife I love her as I rushed off to work. I guess that counts. Check that off. Did I work on my Sunday School lesson? Not yet. I’ve got to find time to do that and then I can check that off as well. Oh, and I’ve got to figure out a time to go to the temple. Maybe I can squeeze in some time this coming Saturday morning, but I’ve got to be back home by noon because I have something important to take care of.

If this is how we look at what it takes to become more like Christ, we will never truly become like him. On the other hand, there are those who exhibit Christ-like qualities who also say their prayers every day, who read their scriptures daily, who keep the commandments, honor their priesthood, and fulfill their church callings. Then what is the difference between these two groups of people?

The first group are trying to make themselves behave like Christ through sheer will power. They’re trying to prove they love Jesus by showing him they can do everything he asks. Their view of God is of him sitting on his throne in heaven, looking down to see who’s really trying to be obedient to him and who isn’t. This is how they interpret the scripture that says “And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them” (Abraham 3:25)

The second group of people are not “trying” to be like Christ. Instead, they are gradually becoming like him as they morph from a natural man to a spiritual man. The apostle Paul likens this to us becoming a new creature in Christ where “old things are passed away [and] all things become new”(2 Corinthians 5:17). This is what it means to be born again. Alma made reference to this when he talked about “having the image of God engraven upon your countenances” (Alma 5:19).

This transition happens gradually and naturally, almost without any effort on our part, but obviously there is something we must do to make this transition occur. Fortunately, the scriptures give us the answer.

Jacob, the brother of Nephi and son of Lehi wrote. “Wherefore we labored diligently among our people, that we might persuade them to come unto Christ, and partake of the goodness of God, that they might enter into his rest” (Jacob 1:7).  Omni wrote, “And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and  partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him” (Omni 1:26).

Moroni told us, “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God” (Moroni 10:32).

In our day, the Lord outlined the duties of the priesthood, and one of them is to “teach and invite all to come unto Christ” (D&C 20:59).

The first thing we have to understand about how to become like Christ is that we don’t perfect ourselves. In fact, we can’t, no matter how hard we try. That is the job of Christ because he is the only one who can perfect us. Therefore, if we want to become like Christ, then we must “come unto Christ.”

But how do we do that?

Actually, that is the wrong question. The real question is, what does it mean to come unto Christ?

People have their own ideas of how to do that, but the scriptures tell us it’s to love God with all our might, mind, and strength. In fact, Jesus taught that this is the first and greatest commandment. It’s when people do that, then “by his grace ye may [become] perfect.” It is by the grace of God that he is able to save and perfect us, but the key to obtaining his grace is to “love God will all your [heart and] mind.”

That leads to the second question which is, what does it mean to love God with all our heart and mind?

Jesus explained “If ye love me, keep my commandments’ (John 14:15). In other words, we show our love to God by keeping his commandments, but do we keep them because we have to or because we want to? The difference has to do with our attitude toward God.

To come unto Christ means saying to him, “Teach me how to be like you.” When he replies, “If you do this, this, and this, you will become like me.” If we love the Lord with all our heart and mind, we’ll respond by saying, “Yes, I will do everything you say.” But when our answer is, “I’ll do this one thing, but I really don’t want to do the other things,” then we only love the Lord with part of our heart instead of with all of it.

However, none of us fully love the Lord with all our heart. There are things he asks us to do that we hesitate doing or don’t do at all. Some love the Lord with 90% of their heart, some with 80% ,some with 60% and some with 30%. Each of us are at a different level of commitment. If that is so, then the next question is, how do we increase our commitment and overcome our hesitancy to do more of what God asks of us?

The answer is to “come unto Christ” and he will help perfect what is lacking in us. But the question is, how do we do that, because there is a right way and a wrong way.

President Russell M. Nelson has said, “The question for each of us, regardless of race, is the same. Are you willing to let God prevail in your life? Are you willing to let God be the most important influence in your life? Will you allow His words, His commandments, and His covenants to influence what you do each day? Will you allow His voice to take priority over any other? Are you willing to let whatever He needs you to do take precedence over every other ambition? Are you willing to have your will swallowed up in His?” (2020 October. GC)

Coming unto Christ means having a desire to keep his commandments as a way to demonstrate our love for him. It’s loving what he loves and hating what he hates. If he loves righteousness, then our desire is to love righteousness. If he hates wickedness, then we too hate doing wicked things. To love the Lord with all our heart and mind means aligning our will to his.

President Nelson went on to say, “I plead with you today to counter the lure of the world by making time for the Lord in your life—each and every day. If you are not also seeking the Lord through daily prayer and gospel study, you leave yourself vulnerable to philosophies that may be intriguing but are not true. My brothers and sisters, I plead with you to make time for the Lord by doing those things that allow the Holy Ghost to be with you always. Nothing invites the Spirit more than fixing your focus on Jesus Christ. Feast upon the words of Christ, and press forward with steadfastness in Christ. Make your Sabbath a delight and keep His day holy.” (2021 October GC)

At another time he said, “I plead with you to let God prevail in your life. Give Him a fair share of your time. As you do, notice what happens to your positive spiritual momentum. (2022 April GC)”

Elder Ronald A. Rasband has said: “Whatever is on your to-do list, give equal time, not spare time, to the Lord in personal scripture study, family study of Come, Follow Me, prayer, Church callings, ministering, partaking of the sacrament, worshipping in the temple, and pondering the things of God. Our Lord and Savior has said, “Learn of me … and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Take Him at His word. And give Him equal time.” (2025 April GC)

Coming unto Christ means spending quality time with him. The reason we pray, the reason we read the scriptures, the reason we magnify our callings and the reason we go to church and the temple is because it allows us time to spend with Christ. But if doing these things doesn’t bring us closer to him, it’s like turning the television on to the evening news but then going off to do something else. The broadcaster may be telling us the news, but we’re not learning anything because we’re not listening to him.

As we spend time with Christ, we begin to feel his influence in our life. To illustrate this, when camping during a cold winter night, we build a fire and huddle close to it. In this way we’re able to stay warm. But when we move away from the fire, we become exposed to the cold night air and the further we get from the fire, the less we feel its warmth and the more we feel the cold.

In the same way, the closer we get to Christ, the more we feel his influence in our life, but the less time we spend with him the more the coldness of the world is able to influence us.

When we sit by a campfire, its heat gets transferred to us. Our clothes, face, and hands become hot and when that happens, we ourselves radiate the heat we received from the fire. In the same way, the closer we come to Christ, the more we absorb his influence, and when that happens, the more our attitudes, words, and actions begin to mirror his. Thus, t he closer we come to Christ the more we radiate his character in our life.

Another way of illustrating this principle is suppose you had someone you greatly admired and wanted to be like. The more time you spend being around them, gradually you’d find yourself talking and behaving just like them. Without any effort on your part, you would find yourself thinking like they think and doing the things they do. We call this kind of behavior imitation, and it happens without any conscious effort.

We see this in children. Very often they mimic their parents in the way they talk, walk, and behave. The scriptures tell us “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6), and the most effective way parents train their children is by the example they set.

When we pray from our heart, we are taking time to have a personal conversation with our Father in heaven and that draws us closer to him. When we take time to study the scriptures, we come to learn the character of God and it registers in our subconscious, which then influences the way we think and behave. When we magnify our calling, we’re engaged in doing God’s work, which helps us learn how to do what  he does. This is how we come to have the image of God engraven upon our countenance.

The way we come unto Christ is by spending quality time with him, and the more time we spend with him, the more we find ourselves becoming transformed from a natural man to being a spiritual man. It will happen gradually and almost imperceptibly, with little or any effort on our part.

But with so many things placing demands on our time, how do we spend more time with Christ?

It comes down to priorities. It’s a matter of what’s most important to us. Throughout the day, we do many things that are not important, such as listening to the radio as we drive to work. Perhaps we could change that to listening to the scriptures. Most people spend hours watching television. Perhaps we could forego a one-hour show to spend extra time each day studying the scriptures. Most people think of prayer as something we do on our knees, but praying is nothing more than talking with God, and we can take time to “chat” with our Father in heaven any time and anywhere. It can be done while driving, jogging, washing the dishes or anything else.

But for our time with Christ to be effective requires a desire on our part to be with him. It has to be something we want to do. To paraphrase what Alma told the Zoramites, even if we have just a particle of a desire, if we nourish it, it will begin to grow, and as it does, the more we will desire to come unto Christ. As we do that, the more we will become transformed into the likeness of Christ.

 

Related articles can be found at The Nature of Salvation