The first lesson taught in these verses, if the king labors to serve you, you ought to labor to serve one another (v. 18), is a part of the second great commandment: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Matthew 22:39). As Jesus taught in the parable of the Good Samaritan, the neighbor of “him that fell among thieves” is, “He that shewed mercy on him.” Wherefore, Jesus said, “Go, and do thou likewise” (Luke 10:37).
The second lesson, if the king does “merit any thanks from you, O how you ought to thank your heavenly King” (Mosiah 2:19), is an acknowledgment that “all things which are good cometh of God” (Moroni 7:12). The Bible also gives a second witness of this doctrine: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17). King Benjamin expounds upon this doctrine. God “created you and has kept and preserved you” and enabled you to “live in peace one with another” (Mosiah 2:20). That God is lending us breath to live and move according to our own will (v. 21) was echoed by Paul: “For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also as your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring” (Acts 17:28). King Benjamin’s declaration that if they served him with all their souls they “would be unprofitable servants” (Mosiah 2:21) is in keeping with the Savior’s teachings: “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do” (Luke 17:10). “The doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end” (2 Nephi 31:21) is the same whether spoken to the Nephites, or to the Jews, or to any other people.