Steadfast and Abounding in Good Works

At the end of the great discourse by King Benjamin among the Nephites, he summed up his message with a powerful invitation to be true and faithful in the gospel.  He said, “Therefore, I would that ye should be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works, that Christ, the Lord God Omnipotent, may seal you his, that you may be brought to heaven, that ye may have everlasting salvation and eternal life, through the wisdom, and power, and justice, and mercy of him who created all things, in heaven and in earth, who is God above all. Amen” (Mosiah 5:15).  Those are the last words we have from him, and they are excellent counsel for how to continue on the path once we have entered into it, how to retain the name of Christ in our hearts.  On the one hand we must be immovable in our devotion to the Savior, firm in the faith and unshaken away from our foundation in him; on the other hand, we must be on the move seeking to do many good works in similitude of Him as we try to take his name fully upon us. 

Other scriptural passages are similar to King Benjamin’s language and express this dual notion of being both firm and immoveable in the faith but also at the same time constantly moving about doing good.  For example, this is what Lehi taught his sons near the beginning of the Book of Mormon.  On the one hand he urged Lemuel to be “firm and steadfast, and immovable in keeping the commandments of the Lord” just like the valley they were in; on the other hand he counseled Laman to be like a river, “continually running into the fountain of all righteousness!” (1 Nephi 2:9-10)  We need to be both firm in our faith but also continually moving to bring about righteousness as the Savior would.  King Benjamin’s words are also similar to how Paul summed up his message about the resurrection of Christ to the Corinthians.  He wrote, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).  Because of Christ’s triumph over death, we can know that our efforts to live righteously on earth “is not in vain in the Lord” and thus we must strive to be both steadfast in the faith and to “abound in the work of the Lord,” in “doing good” as He did (Acts 10:38). Moroni similarly wrote in his record about Ether that “whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God” (Ether 12:4).  Again the counsel was two-fold: be sure and steadfast in the faith but also abound in good works.  We must establish our foundation in the Savior and never leave it, but we must at the same time extend ourselves to do good as He would in every way we can.