Why do we serve?

­Everything in this life, within the gospel, the church, and all the creations of the earth are provided for one reason. And that reason is to have infinite happiness by becoming increasingly like our Heavenly Father. We see this in the scriptures: 2 Ne. 2:25, “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy,” That’s the infinite happiness part. Moses 1:39, “For behold this is my work and my glory – to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” What does that mean, eternal life of man? John 17:3, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” Eternal life is more than just living forever; it is the kind of life God has and He wants us to have it. He wants us to become like Him, to think as He thinks, to act as He does, to know what He knows, and be able to do many things He can do.

We find that eternal life is to live like Heavenly Father. We are to become like God, and then we will have eternal life. Therefore, when we speak of the straight and narrow path we are not talking about a trail where we simply have to put in our physical time and become eternal. But, it is a path of practicing and becoming eternal, to gain line upon line and precept upon precept, until we are like our Savior, who is like our Father in Heaven. 2 Ne. 9:38-39, “ . . . Remember, to be carnally-minded is death, and to be spiritually-minded is life eternal.” Thus, as we look at the world, we can see how much the Lord has provided for us to be spiritually-minded and become like Christ through serving.

We repent through getting baptized, where we clean the slate of previous mistakes, and partaking of the sacrament, where we promise with the Lord to continually work at becoming Christ-like.

We become Christ-like through practice – that practice comes through serving. Serving is the means where we reach eternal life. We are to practice what we preach and learn charity, patience, faith, hope, obedience, humility, virtue, diligence, and knowledge of the gospel.

Creation provides us the setting for our probation of repentance. Alma 12:24. We are put on probation from the Lord due to our lack of being like Him with eternal life.  This probation on earth is for us to repent of that condition and become like Him.

Eph. 4: 13, it has all been prepared for us, “ . . . Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

1 John 3:2-3, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 3. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”

D&C 50:24, “That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.”

Moroni 7:45-48