Monday, May 14, 2012

Doctrine and Covenants 38:24-27 -- On Being One

"And let every man esteem his brother as himself, and practise 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 clothed in robes and sit thou here; and to the other: Be thou clothed in rags and sit thou there—and looketh upon his sons and saith I am just?
Behold, this I have given unto you as a parable, and it is even as I am. I say unto you, be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine."
Doctrine and Covenants 38:24-27


When God repeats himself, it seems to me like it is something that we should pay extra attention to. :)  In these verses he repeats that we should esteem our brothers as ourselves, and I am sure that he means sisters as well.  And since God is our father, I'm also certain that he doesn't just mean siblings in our earthly families... but all of our brothers and sisters, everywhere.  That's a tough one.  People of other faiths, other political parties, people in other countries... people who we disagree with, people who have hurt other people, or who may have treated us badly in the past.  They are all our siblings, and people that God exhorts us to esteem as ourselves.  They aren't lesser people, and we can't dismiss them as worthless or hopeless or heartless.  And also, economically, we can't dismiss the poor... or the rich.  God's parable here is pretty specific about that aspect.  It isn't just to give someone robes and another rags.
God isn't going to force us to think of or treat our brothers and sisters as equals, but he does ask it, here.  He wants us to be united, as one... and if we aren't one, we aren't his.  Today, no matter how we feel personally, or whether we've worked out how we feel about economic disparity or nationalism or religious supremacy, let's belong to God and try it His way.  Let's treat each other as equals, and work at being one with the rest of humanity.

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