Benjamin has now laid out two very specific communal “sins.” The first is the social stratification occasioned by the refusal to give substance, and the second is the social tension created when substance is loaned (as opposed to given, in the first case) but not returned. In both cases, the problem is social division, and these divisive elements are declared to be sin.
Benjamin realizes that this is not an exhaustive catalog of possible sins, even of possible social sins. He therefore clearly notes that there are many ways that we may sin, and that he cannot list them all. The solution is to conform ones thoughts, words, and deeds to the commandments of God. If Benjamin’s people, and we modern readers, will so conform our lives, and continue in that effort until the end, then we may achieve salvation – then we will not perish.
Benjamin’s final statement is his plea that his people follow these commandments – that they “remember, and perish not.”
Textual: This concludes this section of Benjamin’s discourse. There is a chapter division here in the 1830 edition as well, marking the end of copied discourse. The next chapter will begin with Mormon’s introduction prior to continuing with the direct copying of Benjamin’s text. In Benjamin’s discourse this constituted a concluding point.