Paul’s admonition of recognizing sins and then doing something about overcoming them is a basic principle found in the bible and in Judeo-Christian teachings.

"SIN AND REPENTANCE - The very fact that Judaism has a doctrine of mitzvot means that it must also take sin into consideration. Performing a mitzvah is doing God's will; sin is doing something which is against God's will. In biblical Hebrew there are about 20 different words which denote sin which range from a deliberate act in defiance of what God has forbidden to accidental, unwilling transgression. The Bible is therefore very much aware of sin."

"Sins can be divided into two categories --- those of commission and those of omission. The former are more serious insofar as they involve a positive action -- doing something which is forbidden. The latter consist of the failure to perform mitzvot. As far as the rabbis were concerned, the three most serious sins are murder, idolatry, and adultery or incest. They ruled that rather than commit these, a person must give up his life. In order to save his life, a person is allowed to commit the other sins."

"In rabbinic theology, every person has in him a yezer ha-tov and a yezer ha-ra -- a good inclination and an evil one. The yezer ha-tov urges man to do God's will, whereas the yezer ha-ra entices man to sin. Thus life is seen as a constant struggle between these two elements. The rabbis, with great psychological insight, also understood that the first time a person sins, he does feel bad about it, but as he performs that sin again and again, it no longer seems to him to be forbidden. As a result of their view of sin, the rabbis tried to give advice on how to avoid it. A person should always realize that there is a Seeing Eye and a Hearing Ear above him, and that all his sins are recorded. A person should reflect on the destiny of all human beings and realize that ultimately he will have to give account for his sins. Above all, the best protection against the evil inclination is the study of Torah."

"Although Judaism sees sin as a most serious matter, even the sinner is not without hope. One of the most important theological doctrines of both the Bible and the Talmud is that if a sinner repents his bad deeds, God will forgive him. Repentance consists of several stages --- firstly the sinner must reflect on his actions and realize that he has indeed done the wrong thing. He must then make up his mind never to do it again, and confess his sin. This confession is not made to any other human being but is made by the sinner directly to God. On this basis the two confessions Ashamnu and Al-Het were introduced into the prayers for the Day of Atonement which is a special occasion for repentance and forgiveness. However, even when a sinner has done all these things, his repentance is still not final until he has been exposed to the same temptation and withstood it. Of course he should not deliberately put himself on that spot again."

"Repentance in Hebrew is known as teshuvah, which literally means "return," and signifies a return to God. A person who repents his sins is known as a ba'al teshuvah. Many rabbis of the Talmud believed that the real ba'al teshuvah is greater even than a person who has never sinned and they furthermore said that when a person repents out of love of God (and not just out of fear of divine punishment), all the sins he had committed are considered to be mitzvot. This is perhaps the most comforting doctrine that Judaism has given to the world." (Encyclopedia Judaica Jr.)

One thing that Judaism seems to be lacking is the threshold or ordinance that provides knowing that sins are forgiven. Immersions are done with purification in mind, but immersion for forgiveness of sin is unknown in today’s Judaism. Yet, immersions for the Jews and for the Latter-day Saints is similar in form at least. The Jews prefer immersions in "Living Water," from a spring source. The water must be flowing in and out of the font and it should be below ground level.

The sacrifice of a red calf, as discussed in Lesson Number 25 - "Not My Will, But Thine, Be Done" and in last year’s Lesson Number 40 - "Enlarge the Place of Thy Tent" indicates the Biblical ordinance in a "water of separation" (separate font?) known to the Jews for forgiveness of sins.

Through repentance comes peace, also known as grace. Peace is the word Shalom in Hebrew.

"At the end of the Priestly Blessing (Numbers 6:24--26); "May God turn His countenance unto you and grant you shalom . (In this case) shalom is more like grace or spiritual fulfillment than simply peace.

One of Paul’s great concerns was the assimilation of early saints into the worldly culture that existed around them. Today’s Latter-day Saints are told to be in the world yet not part of. One of the Jews’ greatest concerns is "conforming to the world," or as they call it, assimilation. Note the similar trends of the challenge of Jewish assimilation and identity with that of the Latter-day Saints.

"Assimilation is the process in which one cultural or national group loses its identity and becomes part of another group. Referred to Jews, assimilation means losing Jewish identity and becoming absorbed in gentile society."

"Throughout Jewish history assimilation of Jews has taken place and has been motivated by many factors. In some cases Jews viewed gentile culture as superior and wished to join it."

"For some Jews, assimilation served as a shortcut to attaining individual advancement . . . Later, their admiration for the modern national state, a growing appreciation of the lifestyle and social structure of the dominant nations, and the idea of progress combined to create the conception that the Jewish national existence was outdated. Such Jews also felt that they were guilty of intellectual and emotional dishonesty in cherishing Jewish messianic hopes. Furthermore, instead of looking to Erez Israel as the Jewish national homeland, Jews became imbued with nationalistic feelings for the country in which they lived."

"Assimilation in the Jewish community of the United States has been directed by several different pressures. During colonial times, there were so few Jews that they were regarded as exotic."

"The Holocaust and the creation of the State of Israel caused many Jews to reaffirm their Jewish identity. The rapid economic rise of the bulk of the American Jewish community into the middle and upper-middle classes during the postwar period remade the life style of American Jews, so that in many aspects Jews became part of the American establishment. This was particularly true in the realms of academic and artistic endeavor, where Jews became a dominant force during this era. It was thus no longer necessary to play down the fact of one's Jewishness. Increased efforts were made by almost every American Jewish body toward intensifying Jewish education and strengthening the connection between American Jews and Israel. The last generation of American Jews has rebuilt the institutions of Jewish communal life at an estimated cost of two billion dollars, and enormous personal energy." (Encyclopedia Judaica Jr.)

Assimilation for a Latter-day Saints represents a compromise in lifestyle and obedience to the Lord’s commandments. Yet being "in the world" and yet "not of the world" allows us the interchange with others that would benefit form our God given standards. Those higher standards even apply to the treatment of our enemies.

On the subject of treating our enemies, let us review a section from Lesson #8 - "Living Righteously in a Wicked World" from the previous year’s Old Testament Gospel Doctrine Supplements.

Through the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls we find the motivation of those many call the Essenes, was to move away from wickedness and establish a singular community of righteousness. Their organization had a shadow of biblical organization. Their leader was called the "Teacher of Righteousness" and he had two assistants. There was also a council of "Twelve Overseers." They had an order following the ‘righteous king’ which is said in Hebrew, "Melech Zedek." The Dead Sea sect shunned others, and probably evoked one of the Savior’s comments in the Sermon on the Mount.

"Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?" Matthew 5:43-46

Elisha’s continued theme was that he was a servant of God, even refusing payment from Syria’s highest ranking officer in the Land of Israel at that time. The anomaly is that the children of Israel strongly objected to the Syrian "occupying" forces. The prophet was probably teaching the same principle that Jesus taught and that has been revealed again in our day.

"Then saith he unto them, Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s." (Matthew 22:21)

"We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law." (Articles of Faith 11)

The faithful young woman, probably serving in Naaman’s household was a believer and prompted the "occupying" Syrian officer to come to the prophet to be blessed. He sent a message to do something simple, bathe in the Jordan river. When he finally "swallowed his pride" he was blessed! Imagine. The "enemy" was blessed!

"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." (Matthew 5:44)

We don’t know for sure if that even resulted in his conversion and it doesn’t matter. The blessing was unconditional on that point. The lesson for the unbelieving Israelites was repeated by the Savior as he said:

"And many lepers were in Israel in the time of (Elisha) the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian." (Luke 4:27)

"The earliest ethical teachings are commandments in the Bible: to do justice, to avoid bribery, gossip, robbery, oppression, to protect the weak --- the widow, the orphan, the slave, the stranger; to be kind to animals. Man is obliged to overcome his normal feelings and to obey these commands --- even with respect to his enemy." (Encyclopedia Judaica Jr.)