Today's Favorite Verse: Proverbs 19:17

Today's Favorite Verse: Proverbs 19:17

"He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again."

I was just reading in 4th Nephi about the people all being converted to the Lord after his coming. They had all things in common, and no poor among them. This was one of the notes I had copied into my scriptures.

"One of the attributes that distinguished the Nephite people was that “they had all things common among them” (4 Nephi 1:3). President Marion G. Romney described what this phrase means and how it worked: 

“This procedure [the united order] preserved in every man the right of private ownership and management of his property. … Each man owned his portion, which, at his option, he could alienate, keep and operate, or otherwise treat as his own. … 

“… He consecrated to the Church the surplus he produced above the needs and wants of his own family. This surplus went into a storehouse, from which stewardships were given to others, and from which the needs of the poor were supplied” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1977, 119; or Ensign, May 1977, 93). 

President Romney also explained what leads a people to live in such a way: “When we reach the state of having the ‘pure love of Christ,’ our desire to serve one another will have grown to the point where we will be living fully the law of consecration. Living the law of consecration exalts the poor and humbles the rich. In the process, both are sanctified. The poor, released from the bondage and humiliating limitations of poverty, are enabled as free men to rise to their full potential, both temporally and spiritually. The rich, by consecration and the imparting of their surplus for the benefit of the poor, not by constraint, but willingly as an act of free will, evidence that charity for their fellowmen characterized by Mormon as ‘the pure love of Christ.’ (Moro. 7:47.) This will bring both the giver and receiver to the common ground on which the Spirit of God can meet them” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1981, 132–33; or Ensign, Nov. 1981, 93). 

The restoration is not complete and one day we will live more fully the law of consecration. I do wish to live to see those days and participate in it.

Day 2806