FIRST PRESIDENCY MESSAGE (hOME tEACHING mARCH 2014) Service and Eternal Life
BY PRESIDENT
HENRY B. EYRING
First
Counselor in the First Presidency
The
Savior is our example of unselfish service. His perfect life was devoted to
serving Heavenly Father and all of His Father’s children. The united purpose of
the Father and the Son is to give all of us the gift of immortality and
the blessing of eternal life (see Moses 1:39).
To
qualify for eternal life, we must be changed through the Atonement of Jesus Christ—born
again and cleansed from sin. Little children under the age of eight, however,
are without sin and are redeemed through the Atonement (see Mosiah 3:16, 21; Moroni 8:10–12).
For all
of us who reach the age of accountability, there is a wonderful plan that
allows us to be cleansed from sin and prepared for eternal life. That
preparation begins with baptism by priesthood authority and the
reception of the Holy
Ghost. Then we must always remember the Savior and keep the
commandments He has given us.
King
Benjamin told his people in the Book of
Mormon of the joy that
comes from feeling forgiveness from sin through the Atonement of
Jesus Christ. Then he taught them that to retain a remission of their sins,
they must teach their children to serve one another and they must be as
generous as they could to meet the temporal and spiritual needs of those around
them. (See Mosiah 4:11–16.)
He also
taught, “And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye
may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in
the service of your God” (Mosiah 2:17).
Jesus
went about teaching His gospel and doing good (see Acts 10:38). He healed the sick. He raised the dead.
With His power He fed thousands when they were hungry and without food (see Matthew 14:14–21; John 6:2–13). After His Resurrection He gave food to several of His
Apostles as they came ashore at the Sea of Galilee (see John 21:12–13). In the Americas, He healed the sick and
blessed the children one by one (see3 Nephi 17:7–9, 21).
James
the Apostle taught us how the desire to serve others springs from our gratitude for what the Lord has done for us:
“But
whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being
not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in
his deed. …
“Pure
religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the
fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from
the world” (James 1:25, 27).
One of
the assurances that you are being purified is an increasing desire to serve
others for the Savior. Home teaching and visiting teaching become more of a joy
and less of a chore. You find yourself volunteering more often in a local
school or helping care for the poor in your community. Even though you may have
little money to give to those who have less, you wish you had more so that you
could give more (see Mosiah 4:24). You find yourself eager to serve your
children and to show them how to serve others.
As your
nature changes, you will feel a desire to give greater service without
recognition. I know disciples of the Savior who have given great gifts of money
and service with a determination that no one but God and their children would
know about it. God has recognized their service by blessing them in this life,
and He will bless them in the eternal life to come (see Matthew 6:1–4; 3 Nephi 13:1–4).
As you
have kept the commandment to serve others (see Matthew 22:39), you have felt a change in your feelings
of pride. The Savior corrected His Apostles when they contended about who would
be greatest among them. He said: “Neither be ye called masters: for one is your
Master, even Christ. “But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant”
(Matthew 23:10–11).
The
Savior teaches us how we can learn to serve others. He served perfectly, and we
must learn to serve as He learned—line upon line (seeD&C
93:12–13
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