New Testament Blog Post #9 - Concerning the Widow's Mite

The Savior taught in Mark 12:28-30 that the first great commandment was to love God “with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.” The widow who cast two mites into the treasury as a tithe personifies this commandment. The Savior says that she gave all her living in that sacrifice, and the first commandment is to love God with “all thy strength.” In my opinion, “strength” could easily be interpreted as “ability” or “what you can do.” The Lord gives us commandments to perform certain actions or abstain from certain other actions. If, as the Savior taught in John 14:15, keeping God’s commandments is a part of loving him, then part of the commandment to love God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strengths is to keep his commandments in that same fashion. The widow’s choice to give all she had in the way of tithing, or to give all she was able to give, was obedience to this commandment.

            In Mark’s account, the Savior also said that the widow gave more than all the men who were there giving to the treasury because they gave OF their abundance, but the widow, in her want, gave “all that she had, even all her living.” If the Lord has asked us to love him with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strengths, then by extension, he has asked us to keep his commandments with everything that we can give or do or be. If he approves of the widow giving all she has in this scenario, and he is only satisfied with full obedience of the commandment (as would be suggested by the fact that he gives it), then the only acceptable offerings to the Lord are those offerings that involve giving all. 2 Nephi 25:23 says that “it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.” One prerequisite for reaching salvation and eternal life is keeping the commandments of God. So while we often interpret this verse to mean that we do everything we can to reach our salvation and Christ does the rest, it may really just be an re-emphasis of this commandment to love God and of the fact that salvation comes through obedience to the commandments of God.

            The difficult thing about this particular commandment is that it requires us to give everything that we can in order to obey the other commandments. And I think that one of the commandments that the Lord gives involves becoming more than we are. In 3 Nephi 27:27, he says, “What manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am.” So really, full obedience to God requires that you give everything that it is in your power to give in order to become like he is. And I think that can mean two things: reaching exaltation—we have been taught that Gods plan for us is to, eventually, become like him, and that we’re on Earth to gain a body and to be tested so that we can reach that goal—and possessing Christ’s traits. In other words, to be obedient to the commandment to give all, we must behave as Christ did. We must be obedient to the other commandments of God. We must forgive. We must be kind. We must bless those who are not as privileged as we are. And, cyclically, we must be willing to give even our lives (in other words, all we have) to do his will.
            So, on the topic of becoming more, I will say that there are several things I can do myself to become more like Christ. One commandment in which I could be more obedient is to study the word of God. Christ himself was very knowledgeable concerning what was written in the scriptures, and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been asked by our Church leaders to study the scriptures (that includes the Old and New Testament, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, and the Book of Mormon) daily. I am not great at doing that. I tend to put it off. So my goal in this following week is to do part of my reading assignment for this New Testament course every day.