In Excess, Every Virtue Becomes a Weakness

 

“Practice Virtue … Continually”

By Elder Lynn G. Robbins

Emeritus General Authority Seventy

“Ye Must Practice Virtue … Continually” (Doctrine and Covenants 46:33)

Virtue is “integrity and moral excellence.”¹ To practice virtue continually requires steady effort with an inspired to-do list. The verbs be and do are a doctrinal pair. Be without do—like faith without works or charity without ministering—“is dead, being alone” (James 2:17). Likewise, do without be describes those who “honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” (Mark 7:6). The Savior condemns do without be as hypocrisy (see Matthew 23:23; Mark 7:6).

People often have to-do lists and give themselves a checkmark after completing a task on the list. But you can’t earn checkmarks with be. For example, when can you check parenting off your list as done? You’re never through being a mother or a father, which is a lifelong effort.

We practice each virtue (be) through an inspired to-do list of corresponding actions. If I want to become more loving, what ministering actions can I do today to help me become more loving? If I want to become more patient, what can I do today to improve?

When we are at a moral crossroad in life, we often ask ourselves, What would Jesus do? When we do what He would do, we are practicing virtue and becoming like Him. If we go “about doing good” (Acts 10:38), as He did, with each additional good deed, we grow in love and compassion, and they become a part of our nature....

In Excess, Every Virtue Becomes a Weakness

In excess, appetites become corrupt and need to be “[controlled] with judgment, not to excess” (Doctrine and Covenants 59:20). Passions can become compulsive; therefore, “bridle all your passions” (Alma 38:12). Desires can become erratic and fanatical, so be “temperate in all things” (1 Corinthians 9:25; Alma 7:23; 38:10; Doctrine and Covenants 12:8).

To further illustrate, here are a few virtues taken to an extreme:

• Boldness in excess becomes overbearing (see Alma 38:12).

• Diligence becomes burnout or running faster than you are able (see Mosiah 4:27).

• Honesty in excess becomes crass and tactless. This is excusable with children but not with adults who lack the virtues of being thoughtful, kind, and empathetic.

• Frugality in excess becomes selfish, stingy, miserly.

• Tolerance in excess becomes permissive, lax, laissez-faire.

• Love in excess becomes pampering, stifling, crippling, enabling.

Every virtue needs a complementary virtue or virtues, a divine check and balance, to keep it from becoming excessive. Just as the scales of justice symbolize the need for balance between justice and mercy, all virtues need a wise balance with their complementary virtues.

President Ezra Taft Benson (1899–1994) shared this insight about the Savior: “In his life, all the virtues were lived and kept in perfect balance.”³

When people sense their life is out of balance or they are behaving in a fanatical or extreme way, it would be wise to consider what virtues are missing and needed in order to restore balance in their life. Otherwise, a virtue may become corrupted and a strength “can become our downfall,” as President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor in the First Presidency, has taught....

The Power and Importance of And

As the “father of contention” (3 Nephi 11:29), Satan cunningly stirs up anger by pitting virtues against one another with a “versus” mentality, such as justice versus mercy. But the Lord “counseleth … in justice, and in great mercy” (Jacob 4:10; emphasis added). These two virtues are not opposites but complementary. To achieve a perfect balance, it is doctrinally more accurate and wiser to say:

• Justice and mercy (as opposed to justice versus injustice)

• Agency and responsibility

• Faith and works

• Religious/covenant keeping (outward) and spiritual/discipleship (inward)

• Uniformity and flexibility

• Unity and diversity

• Letter of the law and spirit of the law

• Reverence/solemnity and joy/sociality

• Boldness and meekness

• Valor and discretion

• Discipline and lovingkindness

• Fairness for all and uncompromising

• Gentleness and firmness

• “Let your light so shine before men” (Matthew 5:16) and not “aspir[ing] to the honors of men” (Doctrine and Covenants 121:35)

• And so forth