You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/alma/5?lang=eng.
One can imagine that Alma has to rely deeply on his faith in God and his love for his people as he considers how to preach to them. It can be a real challenge to find the right tone when you feel compelled to share truth as it has been revealed to you, but also want to make sure your audience knows that you care about them and want them to benefit from what you’re sharing, even if it may sting. And in the case of the people in the Nephite capital of Zarahemla, many have gone astray from God’s teachings. Alma certainly recognizes the importance of his first effort to encourage the people to repent, right in his backyard. Maybe Alma’s familiarity with the people of Zarahemla (and they with him) can complicate his efforts, but those efforts represent an important precedent for what he will share to others throughout the Nephite lands.
As a good leader often does, Alma starts his teaching by helping his people remember how the Lord has helped them and their fathers and mothers in the not-so-distant past. He first mentions how God delivered the believers who joined his father Alma’s church from the clutches of the wicked King Noah, and then from the captivity placed upon them by the Lamanites who found them in the wilderness (verses 3-5). In neither case were the people’s predecessors exempted from trials and turmoil. But the message is that the Lord did not forget them. He instead helped them find their way back to Zarahemla, where they could live and worship free from bondage, allowing the church to expand and touch the lives of so many more.
When drawing the main lesson from this flashback, Alma asks whether the people have “sufficiently retained in remembrance” both their trials and their deliverance from them by the Lord. And it becomes clear that the deliverance Alma wants the people to focus on is less about how their ancestors escaped the physical bondage of King Noah and the Lamanites, and more about the change that occurred in their hearts. For death and hell are the ultimate adversaries, and regardless of our physical condition, it is only when our hearts embrace the light of God’s teachings that we become aware of the hope of salvation—that the Lord will bring about our resurrection and (if we repent) our redemption from sin (verses 6-9).
Alma traces this change of heart from the teachings of the imprisoned prophet Abinadi, whose courageous testimony despite facing a martyr’s death changed the heart of Alma the Elder. Then the younger Alma recounts how his father preached what Abinadi taught and changed others’ hearts as they “humbled themselves and put their trust in the true and living God” (verses 11-13).
And then Alma
pivots from the past to the present, and invites his audience to reflect upon
the meaning of these lessons for them in a very searching, personal way. “And
now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born
of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced
this mighty change in your hearts?” (verse 14) He goes on, in his
characteristic way, with question after question, helping the people understand
how critical it is for them to examine themselves in the light of the truth
they have received both as a legacy from their ancestors and directly in their
own lives from teachers and the voice of the Lord speaking to them.
Finally, Alma pivots to the future, and beckons the people to imagine what kind of experience they want to have when it comes time for them to face God. Will they feel as though the condition of their heart and conscience will be able to withstand His goodness and His all-knowing gaze? Alma doesn’t mince words in saying that no one can find salvation except their garments are “cleansed and made white through the blood of Christ, who will come to redeem his people from their sins,” and continues with his searching, question-based examination that may pierce our souls but is meant for our ultimate benefit (verses 15-27).
Alma shares with his people that the good shepherd (Christ) is calling for them to join his fold. They can do this by humbling themselves and repenting. He explains that the best way for them to do this is to bring forth the good fruit of righteousness in their works, and to strip themselves of all pride and envy. He also warns that if they don’t listen to Christ, their shepherd will be the devil, and they’ll receive their just reward based on whose voice they follow (verses 28-42).
Alma then explains to his audience that he is not just sharing these truths, but has a personal knowledge of them. This personal knowledge came through revelation from the Holy Spirit after Alma prayed and fasted—presumably for guidance about what to share with the people. We cannot help but feel the depth of Alma’s sincerity and how much he wants to convey his own convictions on the importance for his people (and indeed we all) to follow Christ and repent in order to gain a remission of sins (verses 43-48).
There is a sense of urgency that Alma desperately wants the people of Zarahemla to feel and act upon. So urgent, in fact, that he frames his call for them to follow Christ as a commandment, just as the Lord’s call for Alma to preach to them was a commandment. In essence, Alma asks the people whether they’ll just continue sleepwalking through life, focusing on the “vain things of the world” and keeping up with the Joneses, when Christ is calling to them to focus on coming out from the wicked, and assisting the poor and needy (verses 49-62). Let us ponder here who is poor and needy. While clearly it refers to people who lack for the basic needs of temporal life, it may encompass a much larger group of people who are in need of truth and the encouragement to recognize and follow it in order to move toward Christ and joy and away from misery. In line with that interpretation, Alma’s final invitation of the chapter is to those who have not yet joined the church. He beckons them to be “baptized unto repentance,” that they “also may be partakers of the fruit of the tree of life” that is the pure love of God found in the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ (verse 62).
A great five-minute video clip here provides an idea of what it might have been like to hear Alma’s oration in person
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