Our Ruling Principle

In our dispensation the Lord has commanded, “Thou shalt not be idle; for he that is idle shall not eat the bread nor wear the garments of the laborer” (D&C 42:42).  This is not a commandment that we speak about very often, but this principle of the need to work and refrain from idleness is taught all throughout the scriptures. 

For example, the writer of Proverbs taught, “An idle soul shall suffer hunger” and that a virtuous woman “eateth not the bread of idleness” (Proverbs 19:15, 31:27). The Lord commanded to others in the Doctrine and Covenants, “Thou shalt not idle away thy time” and “you should go forth and not tarry, neither be idle but labor with your might” (D&C 60:13, D&C 75:3).  The Lord said of Vienna Jaques, “She may settle down in peace inasmuch as she is faithful, and not be idle in her days from thenceforth” (D&C 90:31).  In the Book of Mormon the Lamanites were known as “an idle people” and “full of idleness” (2 Nephi 5:24, 1 Nephi 12:23).  When some of the Lamanites converted to the Lord through the preaching of the sons of Mosiah, they changed and we read that “rather than spend their days in idleness they would labor abundantly with their hands” (Alma 24:18).  Alma told his son Shiblon, “See that ye refrain from idleness” (Alma 38:12).  In the parable of the laborers in the vineyard that the Jesus gave, whenever the householder found those “standing idle”, he was very concerned about their idleness and put them to work (Matthew 20:1-7).  Paul wrote to Timothy in condemnation of those who “learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house” (1 Timothy 5:13).  All of these scriptures confirm how much the Lord values work and how we should not waste away our time.  The principle really goes back to one of the very first commandments that God gave to Adam: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread” (Genesis 3:19).  We are responsible, whenever possible, to provide the bread that we eat, and the Lord’s way is that if we choose to be idle instead of working then we should “suffer hunger”.  This is certainly not the way of the world, which often rewards idlers and keeps them from feeling any need to work.  As President Heber J. Grant said at the inception of the Church’s Welfare System, “The aim of the Church is to help the people to help themselves.  Work is to be re-enthroned as the ruling principle of the lives of our Church membership” (1936).  So I guess the question for us is whether work—in its broadest sense—is indeed the ruling principle of our life.