3.177 If Thou Wilt

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to Him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as Savory Salt.

Hello, my friends. It's a new day with new opportunities. Choose ye this day whom you will serve.

Parents and kids out there, have you guys ever had an if-then type of agreement before? I can remember when I was a teenager, mine sounded something like this: "Hey dad, if I wash and vacuum the car, then can I take it on a date on Friday night?" That's kind of the if-thens that I'm talking about. Would you be willing to make an eternal if-then with the Lord?

It's a little bit of what I'm thinking about as we continue our reading in here with Solomon. As we go forward after his wisdom is given to him from the Lord, we're actually going to stay in that same chapter, in chapter 3. Let's take a look at a comment that the Lord makes that I think is vitally misunderstood, and I think the Joseph Smith Translation provides a massive insight to what the Lord is actually saying here to King Solomon.

Let's look at our verse for today here in 1 Kings 3, just a few verses after our verse yesterday, verse 14. The Lord saying, "And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father did walk, then I will lengthen thy days." Now this one's an interesting verse because as it currently reads, the Lord is basically saying, "If thou wilt walk in my ways to keep my statutes and my commandments, then I will lengthen thy days, and thou shalt not walk in unrighteousness, as did thy father David." Interesting there, the complete opposite of the verse. The Lord is saying, "Hey, here are the ifs, right?

What are they? Walk in my ways, keep my statutes and my commandments, then get the blessings and thou shalt not walk in unrighteousness." My friends, this is an interesting one. I've been thinking about this one quite a bit.

We are often heard talking about the unconditional love of the Lord. The Lord's love is certainly unconditional. He loves us as His children.

And yet, interestingly enough, we tend to associate that love directly with His blessings. We learn here that His blessings are actually conditional. The Bible says that the Lord will keep His commandments.

I stay in line and you've got to do the things. Then I will lengthen thy days. My friends, while the Lord's love is certainly unconditional, He loves us regardless of the choices that we make.

His blessings are entirely conditional. They are dependent upon us doing our part to receive the blessings. So now to return to the beginning here when we talk about the if and these agreements that we tend to make with our own kids or our own parents, depending on who's listening here.

Consider those if-thens. The Lord's is: if commandments, then eternal blessings. Would you be willing to make an if-then agreement with the Lord?

Those of you that have gone through baptismal covenants have started that if-then process. Those of you that have been through the temple and received your own endowment have continued that if-then process. My friends, the Lord's blessings, His lengthening of our days is absolutely conditional.

Thank you for watching. Thanks for watching!