The contrast with the egalitarian members of the church is seen in the description of those who are not in the church. Mormon does not paint a pretty picture of them. They “indulge themselves in sorceries, and in idolatry or idleness … in envyings and strife; wearing costly apparel.”
What is hard to see behind the way Mormon paints this picture is that there is prosperity in all the community. Even though Mormon declared that those in the church were wealthier, the very fact that those not in the church could wear costly apparel tells us that they, too, were prospering. The difference is that Mormon defines prosperity differently. It is not simply possessions, but the nature of the person who might have possessions. Thus, prospering was more about caring for others than accumulating personal costly apparel.
Mormon often uses the term “continual peace” as a description of times of the absence of conflict and presence of prosperity. The definition of “continual” is perhaps ironic as there are times where it lasts hardly a year, and rarely as many as three or more years. As with other descriptions of peace and prosperity, Mormon mentions this prosperous time to prepare his readers for its dissolution, which begins in the next chapter.
In the 1830 edition, there was no chapter ending at this point. Our current Chapters 1 through 3 were all part of the original Chapter I. Thus, right after the statement that there was much peace is the declaration of its duration: “until the fifth year of the reign of the judges. That year and its story begin in the next chapter, and the separation gave Orson Pratt the subject change on which to make a new chapter division.