D&C 38:21-27

38:21-27 - If the righteous are to inherit the earth, there has to be some sort of governance, and the Lord tells them that he is it, and really, it’s a miracle if we consider the horrors that are perpetuated on others by corrupt governments. Christ is the only king that is guaranteed to not be corrupted by power, because he has all the power in the universe now, but he doesn’t bow to the pressures to misuse it. Christ as King is a concept that has been interesting to me since the time of Christmas carols. The IM teaches, “’Christ is the King. By this is meant that he is the Ruler, Lawgiver, and Sovereign in whom all power rests. As King he rules over the heavens and the earth and all things that are in them; and also, in a particular sense, he rules over the kingdom of God on earth which is the Church and over the kingdom of God in heaven which is the celestial kingdom.’ Though Jesus is King by right and authority, President Joseph Fielding Smith taught that at the council of Adam-ondi-Ahman, Christ will be crowned the actual, political ruler of the world. President Smith further explained that the kingdom of God includes both political and spiritual aspects, for ‘when our Savior comes to rule in the millennium, all governments will become subject unto him government, and this has been referred to as the kingdom of God, which it is; but this is the political kingdom which will embrace all people whether they are in the Church or not. Or course, when every kindred, tongue and people become subject to the rule of Jesus Christ such will be in that political kingdom. We must keep these two thoughts in mind. But the kingdom of God is the Church of Jesus Christ, and it is the kingdom that shall endure forever. When the Savior prayed, ‘Thy kingdom come,’ he had reference to the kingdom in heaven which is to come when the millennial reign starts. When Christ comes, the political kingdom will be given to the Church. The Lord is going to make an end to all nations; that means this nation as well as any other. This kingdom of God is the Church, but during the millennium, the multitudes upon the fact of the earth who are not in the Church will have to be governed, and many of their officers, who will be elected, may not be members of the Church.” Interesting that the leaders in Christ’s government will be elected. The Lord has a definite theme of equality as he continues, “But, verily I say unto you, teach one another according to the office wherewith I have appointed you; And let every man esteem his brother as himself, and practice virtue and holiness before me. And again I say unto you, let every man esteem his brother as himself. For what man among you having twelve sons, and is no respecter of them, and they serve him obediently, and he saith unto the one; Be thou clothes in robes and sit thou here; and to the other: Be thou clothes in rags and sit thou here- and looketh upon his sons and saith I am just?” There are a couple of interesting points here, first is that they are to “teach one another according to the office wherewith I have appointed you.” This implies two things, first is that all church callings come from the Lord himself. He is aware of our situations and asks us to fulfill callings that will help us grow spiritually, he’s not asking us to do things blindly, the Lord qualifies those he calls. The second point is reiterating the doctrine of stewardship, that we only receive revelation for ourselves and those under our stewardship, and we aren’t to go and try to “teach” others that haven’t been assigned to us by the Lord. Another point from this passage that I thought was interesting is when the Lord says that all of his sons that “serve him obediently” will be given the same reward, and let’s contrast that to the parable of the servants hired at the 11th hour. All the servants were paid the same amount regardless of whether they were hired at the beginning of the day or at the last round of hiring. We all have our own different gifts, talents, and abilities as well as our own limitations and disabilities, our ability to “obey” is limited to who we are as people as we grow spiritually. So when the Lord says those who “serve him obediently” that’s not necessarily to mean that we all complete the same tasks at the same speed with the same exact results, it doesn’t mean that robot service is required. In the parable of the servants in the vineyard, the Lord of the vineyard commands his servants to work diligently, and those that do that are paid, all the same price, here it’s similar, we are all commanded work diligently to become more Christ-like, and if we all do that, as much as we can and in our own way, then we are considered obedient and are rewarded the same as everyone else. That’s pretty empowering if we think about it, when I first read this verse I was kind of put off because I thought “well someone who didn’t have the gospel in this life can’t be as obedient as President Monson,” or “I’m trying my best to be righteous but my mental or physical capacities are more limited in comparison to others” and I think that what I do wrong here is focus on other people, on what they are doing or getting, and that’s not what the Lord is trying to tell us here. I can’t remember a single time when the Lord has told us that we have to be as good as someone else, or try as hard as someone else, or to have the same results as someone in order to be considered obedient. Salvation is an individual matter, one that is between us and the Lord, what anyone else does or doesn’t do, is not our measuring stick, that’s Satan’s way. In fact, in the parable of the laborers of the vineyard, when the first hirelings complained that the last hirelings were receiving the same pay as them the Lord told them, “Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?” Basically, the Lord’s telling these complainers, “I fulfilled the agreement that I made with you in the beginning, so don’t worry about what I’m doing with anyone else.” And that’s the lesson here, our best effort to obey the commandments is acceptable to the Lord, as long as it is legitimately our best efforts, regardless of whether or not they are more or less than what anyone else does. The motivation between caring about other people and caring about what other people get comes down to selfless service and selfishness. The Lord tells them that this parable has been told to them to demonstrate the commandment to “be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine.” If we are too busy nitpicking each other, making sure that no one gets what we don’t think they deserve and making sure that we get everything we think we deserve, that’s not building the kingdom of God. Truly we should rejoice that God is merciful to all, we should relish in the fact that all can be happy through the atonement and the gospel, we should bring that to each other shouting for joy that we all have the chance to be happy.