“Let Us Labor Diligently”
This one verse contains an entire discourse on the importance of enduring to the end and always being found doing one’s dirty. Both Mormon and Moroni could have easily given up hope on their people, lost the motivation to continue in their prophetic callings, and become fatalistic. Instead, Mormon exhorts Moroni to continue to labor in his divinely inspired duty. From their examples we learn that diligence in doing one’s duty is not to be dependent upon the receptiveness of others. We must do our duty, be diligent in fulfilling the Lord’s commands, regardless of how others choose to conduct their lives or how they respond to our efforts. To do otherwise is to let go of the iron rod, to cease enduring to the end, which brings one under condemnation (compare 2 Corinthians 5:9; Jacob 1:19). One can hardly imagine how discouraging it must have been for both Mormon and Moroni to continue to labor among such a hardened and wicked people, yet they did “press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men.” If we will do likewise-whatever our duties, whatever our burdens-if we will endure in faith to the end, we, like Mormon and Moroni and numerous others, will hear the words: “Behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life” (2 Nephi 31:20 ).
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