President Russell M. Nelson has encouraged us multiple times to be peacemakers, most recently in an article in Time Magazine last weekend (“Russell M. Nelson: We All Deserve Dignity and Respect,” Time Magazine, 5 September 2025).
This week’s Come, Follow Me lesson encourages us to review Doctrine and Covenants 98:23-48, looking for principles of peacemaking. This revelation was given to a group of people who were experiencing violent persecution and whose lives were being threatened. The specific instructions in this passage may not apply to us, but the underlying principles do. Here’s a brief summary of those instructions:
- If someone “smites” you or your family once, twice, and even three times, “bear it patiently.” Don’t seek revenge. After three infractions, warn him clearly that you will no longer tolerate this behavior. If he attacks you again, you are justified in defending yourself (v. 23-31).
- The same principles apply to collective defensive action. If a nation declares war on you, “lift a standard of peace” three times. If the aggressors do not back down, then you are justified in defending yourselves, and the Lord will be with you (v. 32-38).
- If someone harms you and subsequently repents, you should forgive them, no matter how many times they have sinned against you. If they don’t repent, God will hold them accountable. He will avenge you. But at any time, if your enemy will sincerely repent, he can escape that vengeance (v. 39-48).
Here are the principles I see in these instructions:
- Don’t escalate. Disciples of Christ react to inappropriate behavior with patience and restraint. When someone behaves inappropriately, we often just let it go. We remember President Nelson’s counsel that “anger never persuades” (“Peacemakers Needed,” General Conference, April 2023).
- Set appropriate boundaries, and communicate them clearly. Peacemaking is not the same as tolerating abuse. As President Nelson clarified in the same talk, “I am not talking about ‘peace at any price.'” A pattern of inappropriate behavior needs to be addressed kindly but firmly.
- Defense is about ending violence, not exacting revenge. Multiple times in the scriptures, God has declared, “Vengeance is mine” (Mormon 3:15; Deuteronomy 32:43; Romans 12:19). In this revelation, He tells church members they will be blessed for not seeking revenge (v. 23), and He tells them that He will avenge them (v. 37, 45, 48).
- The Lord is eager to forgive. Even if someone has repeatedly harmed us, the Lord offers them the same gift of forgiveness that He offers to us. They qualify for that gift by repenting “with all their hearts and with all their might, mind, and strength” (v. 47). His goal is not to punish any of His children; it is to help them change.
Mormon dedicated a significant portion of his book to the military leadership of Captain Moroni, who led the Nephites to victory multiple times against invading armies. Unlike their enemies, who sought power over them (Alma 43:8, 29; 48:4) and vengeance for past wrongs (Alma 54:16, 24), Moroni’s armies “were inspired by a better cause” (Alma 43:45), defending their families and their freedoms. They remembered the following instruction which the Lord had given to their ancestors:
Inasmuch as ye are not guilty of the first offense, neither the second, ye shall not suffer yourselves to be slain by the hands of your enemies.
Alma 43:46
Moroni always sought to accomplish his strategic objectives with a minimum of bloodshed. (See, for example, Alma 55:18-19.) When the war was over, “he retired to his own house that he might spend the remainder of his days in peace” (Alma 62:43). He may seem like an unusual example of a peacemaker, but that is how Mormon portrays him — as someone who sought for peace and did what was necessary to achieve it.
Today, I will look for ways to reduce conflict and increase harmony. I will be patient with others and measured in my responses to inappropriate behavior. I will be firm when needed, but always with a goal to ensure safety, never in a spirit of revenge.
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