Presented are transcripts of radio broadcasts by R.L.D.S. President Frederick M. Smith in 1938 on pertinent topics that continue to be of considerable interest in this 21^st century.

III. Jesus the Liberator from Social Bondage

      Jesus showed the lawyer that our neighbor is found where there is one in need of help. Service to humanity, then, is fundamental to the Christian religion—service rendered here, not in the beyond. Lip service—avowal of love for God—counts as naught, for service to the least of those in need counts for more than the loudest claim. We first become aware of God by seeing our brother, and consciousness of God creates awareness of our obligations toward our fellow-man.

      It is impossible to love the Father without loving our neighbor. Demonstration of real love of God will issue in service to neighbor. No other conception of godly love could exist in the mind of one who gave to the world the Golden Rule, that our social conduct should always synchronize with what we expect from others. It is the essence of what should motivate ideal social conditions. “I am come that ye might have life and have it more abundantly” was certainly social in content.

      We would be justified, therefore, in saying that the religion of Jesus is fundamentally social, and any form of society which entails a struggle of individuals for existence is not Christian, though of course work is God given, for in the sweat of our faces must we eat our bread. A ruthless policy of survival of the fittest may be adequate for beastly propagation, but is unworthy of rational beings. We are our brother’s keepers, not his destroyers.

The Rich Young Man

      As further evidence that Jesus would place the chief emphasis upon the social aspects of the religion he was teaching, I refer to the incident of the rich young man who came to Jesus and in formal address asked him concerning how eternal life might be obtained. “What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” Here was a young man who today would likely be termed successful, and perhaps religious, even devoutly so. He was rich, which today passes far too often as being the criterion of success. He had punctiliously kept the Mosaic law, and yet, under the gripping teachings of Jesus, he had become conscious that there was something lacking. So he said to Jesus, “What must I do?” He would be saved, and he wanted to know the minimum of effort to bring him escape from destruction. And Jesus said, “If thou wilt enter into eternal life, keep the commandments.” When the young man said, “Which?” Jesus repeated five of the Ten Commandments and added one from another place in “the law,” “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” The young man then said, “All these things have I kept from my youth up, what lack I yet?”

      It is not unlikely that the young man thought he had kept all the things in the law mentioned by Jesus, but doubtless he greatly underestimated the scope of the last one uttered by the Master. For Jesus at once put him to the test, and gave him a suggestion, a promise, and an invitation, by saying, “If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come and follow me.”—Matt. 19:21 The promise of perfection and treasure in heaven followed the command to demonstrate that his wealth would not stand between him and his duty to the needy. It was a test. God does not want man to put treasure above his Creator in desirability. Deity has not at any time said or indicated that he does not want man to possess great treasure or wealth. But he has said that man should not have idols. Therefore, man must not have love of money above the love for God, and must hold the wealth (or goods) given him as instrument of service in doing full duty to man and Deity.

      Note Jesus’ command, “Sell that thou hast, and give to the poor.” This in other language meant, Devote your possessions and powers to God’s service by serving your fellow-man in need. You have so far spent your life in thinking of yourself and laying up goods for your own gratification. You have been devout in your observation of religious ceremony, but that is not enough. Forget yourself and see those around you whom you can help. Your road to God (for this is life eternal, that they might know God) lies in service to them. The answer of Jesus pointed clearly to social duty.

      “But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions.” He could not comply with the master’s instruction. Too long had he been taught in the school of self-serving interests. The sorrow followed either because of his inability to comprehend the scope and bearings of the answer, or else from his lack of social consciousness and sense of social duty. The conduct and reaction of this young man are quite typical of far too many today who display the propensity to put a minimum limit on religious activities and a maximum on service to self.

The Essence of Religion

      Religion in the Christian sense is comprised of service—service to those in need, service to others—altruism. And this makes religion much more than meditation, prayer, and observance of ceremonies. It is meditation become dynamic, it is prayer plus the desire to do, it is ceremony followed by action. It is meditation, prayer, and ceremony vitalized and sanctified by beneficent action in service to others.

      And so the young man could not accept the wonderful invitation of Jesus when he said, “And come and follow me,” after he had given to the poor. His approach had been wrong. He came down the avenue of selfishness. He would be saved, he would know the minimum of effort to escape destruction. The answer pointed to social responsibility and duty, and his sorrow followed either his inability to comprehend the scope of the answer, or his lack of social consciousness and sense of social duty.

      To follow Jesus as believer, disciple, and servant, man must hold all his possessions, his life, his conduct, his attitude, and his money at the service of God ready to utilize all in the service of his fellow-man, as full duty to Deity.

      The young man failed in the test. But he is not alone in that, for many before, and multitudes since, have had their vision of God dimmed by scales of gold on their eyes.

      Any social order based on selfishness is fundamentally wrong. Who will deny that today the appeal for endeavor is to selfishness? In the school, on the street, in the bank, from the rostrum, in union headquarters, from the pulpit, in the factory, the appeal is largely, if not entirely, to the selfish instinct. Individuals are urged to endeavor, but for reward. Service is urged, but in the line yielding the largest returns to the individual. Professions are chosen for the prospective return, and excellence therein is striven for because larger tolls can be collected, and the struggle is to amass a competency or more, for the power brought or for the chance for early retirement with security from worry or work. Our industry is based on the reward to self and on fear. Men toil in fear of old age and insecurity. What a travesty on the Christian religion. A society ostensibly Christian whose industrial impulsion is fear, or the appeal to self, when Christianity is based on love—love of God and neighbor.

A New Social Consciousness

      In recent years there has been in certain circles a distinct awakening of social consciousness, and we might begin to hope that the crest of the wave of selfishness which has swept over the world has passed. Did the great World War mark the time of that crest? Did the great depression further re-arouse men to consciousness that his trust is in God, if his faith is well founded? Mayhap even the present recession may still further arouse interest in Deity on the part of man.

      We do know that close observers have sensed a steadily progressing revolution of religion, a revolution which holds promise of getting back more squarely upon the basis on which rests the religion of Jesus, for there has come an awakening to the fact that in our attempted evaluation of Christianity, incidentals have been overemphasized and fundamentals shifted to places of secondary or tertiary importance. The original appeal made by Jesus for individual righteousness was for an end. However much we may emphasize the need for personal righteousness, however deeply we may recognize that a prime purpose of the Christian religion is the formation of character on the pattern given us in the life of Christ and in his precepts, a proper envisagement of the religion of Jesus and the evaluation of his life forces us to the conclusion that not even the most refined and most highly developed religious character can live the Christian religion by himself. “No man liveth to himself alone.” It takes at least two men and God to demonstrate the Christian religion, each man neighbor to the other, demonstrating his love of God in service to his brother. Let us hope, aye, pray, and work, that this conception of the Christian religion is expanding and shall expand in constantly widening circles, until it shall seize the masses of the people of all nations, for then and then only shall war cease, when all shall recognize the deep meaning of those words of Scripture, “And hath made of one blood all nations of men,” and made man that haply he might successfully feel after God, for when man begins to feel after God, the Spirit of God working in him will open his eyes to the fact that his fellow-men are his brothers and the love of God will issue in serving those brothers.

      Social reforms have been proposed, but how seldom have these reforms escaped the taint of selfishness. The appeal has usually been made in the vernacular of selfishness. How could we expect otherwise? “Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” It is necessary for us to know God, and to know him we must become aware of our brother and his needs. God and our brother are complements. To know God we must see our brother, and to see God we must know our brother, a divine paradox. Except there comes that divine personal renaissance which issued in a social consciousness, the new order of society cannot even be glimpsed, and while we today look with delight upon that revolution in religion which distinctly tends toward a social interpretation of the Christian religion we cannot blink the fact that as yet there are far too few with a pure social consciousness. The majority still think, speak, and act in terms of self-serving interests. The awakening of this social consciousness has tremendous powers of soul expansion. Paul once found his soul expanding to all the universe. May not his ecstatic expansion of soul have arisen from a deep spiritual impress of the social content of the message of Jesus? We do know from our experiences, that that content once grasped lifts one up and out of oneself till the expanded soul readjusts itself in a new birth, a vision of larger things and an activity directed toward social betterment and weal, toward the achievement of a redeemed society, one in which the will of God has perfect play—his kingdom come.