Having quoted this phrase, President Spencer W. Kimball instructed the priesthood leaders of the Church:
“Ponder on that for a moment. Have you realized that? There can be no forgiveness without real and total repentance, and there can be no repentance without punishment. This is as eternal as is the soul… . Please remember these things when somebody comes before you who has broken the laws of God. It is so easy to let our sympathies carry us out of proportion; and when a man has committed sin, he must suffer. It is an absolute requirement- not by the bishop- but it is a requirement by nature and by the very part of a man.” (CR, April 1975, p. 115.)