Law of Chastity

The doctrine of the Law of Chastity can be summed up in just a few verses. The first is in Exodus 20: 14, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” This scripture compounded with the second one in Matthew 5: 27-28, words spoken by Christ, “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” I love these verses because they so clearly set forth the law. Fornication outside the bonds of marriage is against the Law of Chastity and to even look at women to lust after her is in effect the same.

This doctrine can seem quite confusing at times, why give two laws both of which are at the opposite ends of the Law of Chastity Spectrum? On the one side we have actual physical sin of fornication and on the other side we have thoughts. What about everything else, all the stuff in-between. Why can’t everything be simple and clean cut, like kissing is good but making out is bad. Wouldn’t things be so much easier if were all put out there so simply. You would think so, but the truth is that if all the answers were there then we wouldn’t ever have to make any decisions and our agency wouldn’t be able to be properly expressed. That combined with the fact that since we are all different we all have different needs and limitations.

You might wonder what I mean by that. Well let me tell you. Let’s say that there is someone who has had problems with looking at pornography in the past, now we both know that that is against the Law of Chastity. Anyways, say that someone had that problem and that the mere idea of kissing a girl brought to mind images that if dwelt on could cause him to want to break the Law of Chastity again. Should he in all honesty kiss the girl? Probably not. We wouldn’t want to put someone in a position that would cause him to sin. So why then do we not just ban kissing altogether if has the potential to cause someone to sin? Because kissing is an intricate part to a developing relationship. There are plenty of people who don’t have the problem previously described and they shouldn’t be punished for the sake of others.

This is why there are so few rules in the Law of Chastity, the things that we have are guidelines and principles to help us to develop our own personal sets of rules. Why is this important; for the reasons stated above. We are all different and we all have our own trials and temptations. Because of this we need to be aware of and set limitations on our own. These limitations that we self-impose are our opportunities to use our agency wisely. It is for this reason that we do not have a strict list of rules but instead a set of principles. As the Prophet Joseph Smith said in response to a question of the civility of the Mormon settlers in Nauvoo, “I teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves.”