From the earliest days of the restored Church there developed a motto, a “creed” among the faithful: members were encouraged to “mind their own business.” This homely counsel was not without scriptural warrant, for every man who would be saved must “stand in his own office, and labor in his own calling” (D&C 84:109).
Those seeking to stand in the office of another, or to counsel or direct where they have no stewardship, have partaken of that same spirit of him who would have placed himself upon God’s throne (see Moses 4:1-4). As Moses had his Korah and his Dathan (see Numbers 16), so in our day the Church has its reformers, its critics from within, its ark-steadiers-those who, knowing not the mind of God, seek to run before their file leaders.
“Be Reconciled Unto Him Through the Atonement”
Through sin man alienates himself from God and widens the chasm between himself and the heavens. All men live in a fallen world and remain in a fallen state-as natural men, enemies to God and to all righteousness-without the atoning grace and mediation of Christ the Lord. “For if, when we were enemies,” Paul said, “ we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement [reconciliation, restoration to favor].” (Romans 5:10-11.) Paul likewise wrote to the Corinthians that “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 5:17-18; cf. 2 Nephi 25:23; 2 Corinthians 33:9.)