"The Least of These..."

“The Least of These...”

May 4, 2025

I've been a Sunday school teacher for over a decade, and I have three rules that I insist on in class:

One Conversation: We are all talking to each other, not little conversations around the room.
No Phones: So that we are all engaged in the conversation.
Active Obedience: We are obedient to every commandment we know about, because commandments are just blessings.

So this week we were talking about the third one, and discussing Doctrine and Covenants 42, “The Law of the Gospel”.

Socioeconomics of the Gospel

Whenever we talk about The Law of Consecration I like to define it as:

From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

And this is a fun “trap” for my class because this isn't a quote from Joseph Smith, but from Karl Marx.

And teaching communism in a Utah Sunday School class almost seems like heresy! Except of course it isn't. The difference between government-enforced communism and the law of consecration of course is enforcement. The law of consecration is voluntary, and as a commandment, it is simply a route to greater blessings. Communism is a secular form and will only be as effective as the honesty of the government enforcing it.

We read about several groups throughout the history of the world who have lived consecrated lives. The City of Enoch, the Nephites after Christ’s visit, and the “Primitive Church” in the New Testament. We teach the “Pride Cycle “ in our Seminaries and Sunday School classes. For reference:

And the reason we teach the cycle is so that we can learn how to get off the cycle at the right point. If we can stay humble when we are righteous and prosperous, we can avoid the suffering that pride engenders.

And this is consecration. It's also Jacob's law of obtaining riches:

But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God. And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted. -Book of Mormon, Jacob 2:18-19

The inescapable mathematics of Consecration dictate that as everyone gives more everyone also receives more. Which is why the pride comes in, and why people continue the cycle.

A modern example of this is the Perpetual Education Fund. For years my wife and I chose to pay a little bit each month into this fund, because education is something we both believe in strongly. So imagine our surpise when the church announced that the PEF had all it needs, and that they were no longer seeking contributions. This is Consecration in action. This is why I have the third rule in my class: Active Obedience. When we live the laws we get the blessings. And the blessings for taking care of those who are in need are clear:

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. Old Testament, Malachi 3:10, King James Version

When we give to the Lord's storehouse, the windows are opened and we are blessed beyond our capacity to receive.

Sociopolitics of the Gospel

The other side of this law is looking at those to whom we are to give and for whom we are to care. That sentence is fine. Leave it alone.

Joseph Smith was fond of the song “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief”. The song is about all the places where we might see someone in need, and how the Lord interprets are care for them:

These deeds shall thy memorial be; Fear not, thou didst them unto me.” – A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief

But remember the penultimate verse?

In pris’n I saw him next, condemned To meet a traitor’s doom at morn. The tide of lying tongues I stemmed, And honored him ’mid shame and scorn. My friendship’s utmost zeal to try, He asked if I for him would die. The flesh was weak; my blood ran chill, But my free spirit cried, “I will!” – (ibid)

The man of grief in this verse is a criminal. They are condemned by the law to die. We don't know what their crime was. But we shouldn't care. It is our duty to care for condemned criminals. It is our duty to love one another, every one, every other.