Section 42

For this week's post, I'm supposed to write about the importance of Section 42. Early in the same year, The Lord promised Joseph Smith that he would receive "the law" of the Church in Ohio. Section 42 is the fulfillment of this promise. Of course, since it is "the law," it is a rather long section, so I will break it up into pieces.

The first piece consists of verses 1-17. (For those of you unfamiliar with the lay out of the Doctrine and Covenants, it is broken up into sections which are mostly in chronological order. Each section is then split up into several short verses) So- the first 17 verses of this section talk about teaching the Gospel. We are instructed to teach the principles of the church which are found in both the Book of Mormon and the Bible. We are also told how important it is to teach with the Spirit. The Holy Ghost provides a testament of truth to both the teacher and the student. Verses 53-60 also can be included in this part of the section because they declare that the scriptures govern the church and should therefore be taught to the whole world.

The second part consists of verses 18-29 as well as verses 74-93. The first set of verses restate the basic commandments given in the bible. Basically, they saints are commanded not to kill, steal, lie, lust, commit adultery, or speak evil against others. The second set of verses give the laws that govern what to do if a member has broken one of these commandments. It states that those who break commandments like stealing and killing are to be dealt with according to the law of the land. Those who break commandments that are more specific to the church are dealt with by the church and any issue between two saints can be resolved between those two people with the help of church leaders if necessary.

The next piece, from verses 30-39, give details to the Law of Consecration. This was a law lived by the early saints that helped them to survive during the early days of the church as well as helping to unify them. The law of consecration asked those who had more than they needed to give their excess to the needy. This was more than just charity to the poor. If one family had several cows, they would give the excess milk to families without cows. Those families without cows might have an excess of something else and were able to give something else in return. It was basically a system of sharing what they had.

Next, verses 40-52 give several commandments in quick succession. Here's the list: Don't be prideful, cleanliness, don't be lazy, and heal the sick. The last one is focused on longest. Of course, the commandment to heal the sick isn't difficult to understand. The verses after this commandment is given go into detail about having faith to be healed and living together as a loving society.

Finally, the remaining verses talk about how the location of the New Jerusalem shall soon be revealed and that the church should purchase property to help support the saints. It might seem unusual for a church to own large amounts of land other than the land that it's meeting houses and temples are built on. The church purchases other land and turns it into farming grounds, businesses, or even schools, to help support and teach not only members but others who are in need.