Service in the Church
Six reasons why we serve — from the lowest to the highest — and why only one of them truly profits us before God.
As covenant members of the Church of Jesus Christ and disciples of the Lord, service is imperative. Men holding the Melchizedek Priesthood are under an oath and covenant to magnify their callings (D&C 84:33). Women have likewise covenanted through baptism and the temple endowment to be disciples of Jesus Christ and to magnify their stewardships.
Elder Dallin H. Oaks, in the November 1984 Ensign, identifies six reasons why people serve in the Church — in ascending order from the lesser to the greater. These are not exhaustive, but they reveal how we examine our own motives.
1. Hope for Earthly Reward
Elder Oaks: “Some may serve for hope of earthly reward. Such a man or woman might serve in Church positions or in private acts of mercy in an effort to achieve prominence or cultivate contacts that would increase income or aid in acquiring wealth. Others might serve in order to obtain worldly honors, prominence, or power.”
The scriptures have a word for gospel service “for the sake of riches and honor” — it is priestcraft. “Priestcrafts are that men preach and set themselves up for a light unto the world, that they may get gain and praise of the world; but they seek not the welfare of Zion” (2 Ne. 26:29). When we reject callings because they seem beneath us, or serve only when we believe others are watching, we practice a subtle form of priestcraft.
1 Corinthians 12:14–27
“The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee…” The body of Christ has no unimportant members.
2. Desire for Good Companionship
Elder Oaks: “Another reason for service — probably more worthy than the first, but still in the category of service in search of earthly reward — is that motivated by a personal desire to obtain good companionship.” When we serve only with people we like, or stop serving when a valued friend moves away, we reveal that our service was ultimately about us.
Luke 5:31–32
“They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
3. Fear of Punishment
King Benjamin taught that the soul of the unrepentant transgressor would be filled with “a lively sense of his own guilt, which doth cause him to shrink from the presence of the Lord, and doth fill his breast with guilt, and pain, and anguish, which is like an unquenchable fire” (Mosiah 2:38). Such descriptions offer incentive for keeping the commandment of service. But service out of fear of punishment is a lesser motive at best.
4. Sense of Duty or Loyalty
Those who serve out of duty or loyalty are “the good soldiers, who instinctively do what they are asked without question.” Such persons “fill the ranks of voluntary organizations everywhere, and they do much good.” These are the good and honorable men and women of the earth. But there is still a higher motive.
5. Hope of Eternal Reward
Elder Oaks: “One such higher reason for service is the hope of an eternal reward. This hope — the expectation of enjoying the fruits of our labors — is one of the most powerful sources of motivation.”
D&C 14:7
“And, if you keep my commandments and endure to the end you shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God.”
6. Charity — The Pure Love of Christ
This is the highest reason of all — “a more excellent way” (1 Cor. 12:31). Even the most extreme acts of service profit us nothing unless our service is motivated by the pure love of Christ:
1 Corinthians 13:1–3
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal… And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.”
Moroni 7:46–48
“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail —”
“But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.”
“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.”
All true followers of Jesus Christ will have this love bestowed upon them. Of all six reasons for service, only the last is selfless and un-self-motivated. The first five all point back to what service does for us. The Lord holds us to a higher standard. May we accept and fulfill any calling and stewardship given to us — not for what it gives us, but for the love of God and His children.