2.283 Not at War Does Not Mean Peace

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, a bold reminder that our lives are meant to carry his flavor, his truth, and his love to the world. Join me each day to explore one verse of scripture and one thought, striving to stay full of savor and truly live as savory salt. Hello my friends, it's great to have you with me.

Today let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. My friends, just because we're not at war, does it mean we have peace? We're reading this week Doctrine and Covenants sections 111 through 114.

We're also reading 3 Nephi chapters 6 through 10. And we're going to take a break from Doctrine and Covenants for the week a little bit and shift gears into 3 Nephi. There's some pieces inside of here that I've debated about breaking down a little bit more than usual.

And perhaps this window for Doctrine and Covenants left me a little bit of time to spend a little extra time inside of the Book of Mormon and these chapters. We're going to specifically take a look inside of 3 Nephi chapter 7, somewhere we did not spend a lot of time in last season. So we're going to take today and tomorrow inside of 3 Nephi chapter 7.

And that's rare. I'd realize that when it comes to reading the Book of Mormon, because we're just kind of moving so quickly through that. And it is kind of a supplementary reading through the week.

But let's dive into it. This verse is a lengthy one, and it takes a little bit of explaining here. In 3 Nephi 7, we see the complete destruction of the government of the people at that time.

We see that through murder of the chief judge and through this band, this band of Gadianton. And we see a rise in tiny tribes that are run by basically kind of individual chieftains. Most of these are family related, but we see an interesting perspective in these tribes.

They're not going to go after each other, but the real key here is, are they really at peace? So let's see what it says here in 3 Nephi 7, verse 14. It says, And it came to pass in the thirty and first year that they were divided into tribes, every man according to his family, kindred, and friends.

Nevertheless, they had come to an agreement that they would not go to war one with another. But they were not united as to their laws and their manner of government, for they were established according to the minds of those who were their chiefs and their leaders. But they did establish very strict laws that one tribe should not trespass against another, insomuch that in some degree they had peace in the land.

Nevertheless, their hearts were turned from the Lord their God, and they did stone the prophets and cast them out from among them. Now did you catch the little pieces in there? I realize this one's a long one.

You might need to read this one on your own sometimes. I don't know if you listen to this when you drive or whatever, but did you catch the piece in there that there was only some degree of peace? These tribes that are broken apart, you'll notice that there's not war, but there's not really peace either.

They have strict laws that prevent them from interacting with each other negatively. But the phrase in there that I think stands out is very, very interesting. They were not united.

My friends, this one got me thinking, and I'm going to try and attach it in just a short thought here. It got me thinking into one of my favorite authors in the kind of the business development world. His name is Marcus Buckingham.

He done stuff with StrengthsFinder, if you ever heard of StrengthsFinder and those things. He wrote a book called "Nine Lies About Work". And it's a fascinating concept because in the front end of it, I'm not going to go into the book by the way, in the front end of it, he brings up an interesting idea.

He says, you know, most social scientists, most of those that want to do studies in human behavior in order to understand excellence, they look at failure and they just say, "Well, if this is what failure looks like, don't do those things and you'll be excellent." And his point is quite well taken when he says only the study of the thing itself will bring you a greater understanding of it. The study of its opposite does not bring you into an understanding of the opposite. What he means by that is studying failure will not teach you anything about excellence.

It simply teaches you how to not fail. My friends, I think we see here an interesting perspective in the Book of Mormon. While these tribes divide and make themselves into laws to prevent other wars from happening, they're not seeking the Lord Jesus Christ in their lives.

And thus, they will not have his peace afforded to them. We see that it mentions inside of here they had some degree of peace in the land. And yet we realize that that peace is one, temporary, and two, not founded on any gospel principle in any way, shape, or form.

It's almost as if they simply said, "Let's just not fight." And by not fighting, we will be peaceful. My friends, how many different places in our lives do we simply not do something hoping that it makes us become the opposite of peace? What I mean by that is, do we simply not sin in hopes that that makes us righteous?

Do we simply not go to war or not argue in the hopes that we can bring the peace of Jesus Christ in our lives? I hope I'm clear in what I'm trying to process here. My friends, you and I should reach towards the excellence that is Jesus Christ.

We should seek to have him in our lives and not simply seek to not do the bad things we've been told not to do. That is where we can find abundance, joy, light, and the true love of our Savior in our lives. It is by seeking the good things the Lord teaches, not simply avoiding the bad things, we can find a greater love pouring into our lives.

I'm grateful to the Savior Jesus Christ, and I'm grateful to seek His peace in my life, rather than simply avoid the war that surrounds us in our daily lives. That's all for today, my friends. Lift up your hearts and rejoice.

Cleave into the covenants you have made, and together we will be savory salt. For more information, visit us at www.savorysalt.org.