The Savior's warning about false prophets who are "ravening wolves in sheep's clothing"1 is not so much a commentary about the viciousness of the one wearing the costume, so much as it is that they have no business wearing the costume and pretending to be something they're not.2

We watch nature films and look upon the wild ferociousness with horror, yet we are greater devourers of men's lives than animals are of each other. The reason we don't see the animal in ourselves is because of how good we are at detecting other people's flaws which blinds us to our own.3 We are the same, however we have an ability to make ourselves appear respectable.

We are consumers. It's the very term we use for the basis of our economy. We consume, we eat, we shop we want more, ravenously, cheaper, lighter, more powerful, shinier, produced by slave wages at home or oversees. We work for more than is sufficient for our needs so we can get more. We prize titles of authority, and the flattery it brings, to be higher, more chosen, and revel in our superiority over those who look to us as wise, sure of our own inerrant way. We consume the faith of others with our nonsense and feed on the sheep, bleeding them dry as Ezekiel describes.4 Not only this, but we desire the goods of others, we break through and steal.  And instead of doing it ourselves we use our teeth and claws anonymously in the voting booth to provide to ourselves some benefit at the expense of others and let the "law" perform the plunder for our lusts.

The Lord says simply "I give unto you a commandment that ye shall continue in prayer and fasting from this time forth." (D&C 88:76) In other words cease practicing consumption. Let your sprit take ascendency over your lusts. Fasting has aided me in this process.

We are all wolves. We need redemption from our fallen nature, and as the Lord said, be brought back into His presence.

 

Notes

1. "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." (Matthew 7:15)

2. "Why teach ye men the law and the commandments, when ye yourselves are the children of corruption?" (Matthew 7:7, JST)

3. "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?  Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye." (Matthew 7:3-5)

4. See Ezekiel 34

 

See Also

"the devil flatters us that we are very righteous, while we are feeding on the faults of others." (Joseph Smith, Words of Joseph Smith, p. 124, June 9, 1842. Relief Society Minutes)

"Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." (Matthew 10:16)

"Therefore, as the soul could never die, and the fall had brought upon all mankind a spiritual death as well as a temporal, that is, they were cut off from the presence of the Lord, it was expedient that mankind should be reclaimed from this spiritual death. Therefore, as they had become carnal, sensual, and devilish, by nature, this probationary state became a state for them to prepare; it became a preparatory state." (Alma 42:9-10)