2.327 For the Benefit of Man

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. Okay, okay, let's not get political, but maybe we should just for Doctrine and Covenants 134. We're reading this week and we're wrapping up that reading in Doctrine and Covenants 133 and 134 as well as Mormon chapters 3 through 6.

We're going to come back to the Doctrine and Covenants one last time for this week's reading. Inside of it we're going to take a look in Doctrine and Covenants section 134. And before I even start there, every one of these 12 verses could be a master's thesis, a doctoral study on the beliefs that the early leaders of the church held in terms of government and what government is, its responsibilities to its people, its relationship to God.

And so while you may take some time, you might just skim over it and be like, "Oh, governments, governments, government, governments." Some of you may take some more time. You may remember at the time that the saints, early saints especially, had a maybe even an unhealthy skepticism and relationship with governments because by the time they had written this, they had been chased out of several cities. Now that being said, we also have some interesting insight to why governments exist and that's where our verse is for today.

Let's take a look at Doctrine and Covenants 134:1 and see what it means for us today here. We believe that governments were instituted of God for the benefit of man. When I say that, I simply mean governmental.

I don't mean political in terms of picking a political party, especially considering that many of you that are listening aren't even inside the United States. So talking political parties wouldn't do much good for you in your situation. Instead, let's look at this from a principle level.

Governments were instituted of God for the benefit of man. Here we have, and if I could quote perhaps an American document here, with the "Declaration of Independence," here we see the belief that government does exist by divine law and that divine law says that the government should work to the benefit of men. And then we see that God holds men accountable for their acts in relation to the government.

Now that means if you're living in a country where you have responsibilities in terms of government interaction, whether it's through elections, whether it's through the opportunity to run for election and serve, you will be held accountable for your acts in relation to the government. The Bible says that the people of the world who are living in the world will be held accountable to God. In what way?

Well, they'll be held accountable to God in terms of them making laws and administering them for the good and safety of society. Now, what does that mean for us as we're trying to be savory salt? Well, you can start at the very base level.

Let's be good citizens and support the governments that are working for the benefit of men under the institution of God. Do you decide what that means? Decide what support looks like and then turn to the Lord and ask for his help in being the best support of a God-endorsed institution that you can be.

My friends, I know we can make governments better as we turn to the Lord and invite Him into those institutions. That's all for today, my friends. Lift up your hearts and rejoice.

Cleave to the covenants you have made. And together we will be savory salt.