Verse 32 is extremely important for our understanding of the Nephite world at this point in time. King Benjamin has just commended the people on their righteousness in the previous verse, but here he specifically warns them “lest there shall arise contentions among you.” Benjamin is not suggesting that there be no squabbles between family members, or that no one should argue with another. In the Book of Mormon, contentions are much more serious. Most of them fall into a category we would recognize as apostasy from the established religion, though the confluence of religion and politics made Book of Mormon contentions even more serious and divisive.
The destructive nature of that type of contention would have been painfully clear after the events that are only briefly described in Words of Mormon. Even though the people currently accept the Nephite religion and political system, later events will clearly demonstrate that Benjamin’s admonition against those contentions was warranted. They will come again, and they will continue to be destructive to the fabric of Nephite society.
Benjamin links contentions with listening to the evil spirit. He references a discourse his father, Mosiah1, had given. We do not have that sermon, and it may have been recorded in the lost pages of the first part of the Book of Mormon translation. From this snippet we can tell that Mosiah1 contrasted listening to Jehovah, the representative of good, with listening to the evil spirit. There are consequences of following the two opposite influences. Listening to the evil spirit removes one from the benefits of the reconciliation with God. Interestingly, it is phrased as “having transgressed the law of God contrary to [one’s] knowledge.” They have been taught correctly, and it would be the opposite influence that would remove them from what they had been taught, and which Benjamin reiterated was true.