The phrase “moderation in all things” is an old rule of thumb. However, it does not originate from the scriptures. The Greek word for “gentleness” is translated as “moderation” in the Bible (Philip. 4:5), but that is one of few uses in scripture (“moderately” in Joel 2:23).
Elder Oaks pointed out in his landmark talk, “The Dedication of a Lifetime” (May 2005) that we are not commanded to use “moderation in all things.” We are to love God with all our heart, might, and mind, for instance. We are not to drink alcohol in moderation—complete avoidance is the current law.
“Moderation in all things” is a helpful heuristic, but it can lead to tragedy in some cases (drugs, poison, etc.). Far better than an unreliable generalization is wisdom, approaching things with an eye directed towards ultimate consequences of our choices. The scriptures provide many of God’s instructions about proper use of earth’s bounty.
Commandments about temporal, material things of this world can be divided into positive and negative instructions, dos and don’ts.
Do
With regard to proper use of temporal blessings, some words jump off the pages of scripture—wisdom, judgment, prudence, skill, and thanksgiving. (Notice how these scriptural terms presuppose a certain level of education beyond what is obvious. Even gratitude requires faith in, and knowledge of, God's influence in our lives.)
We are to provide for our own households (1Tim. 5:8). We are to impart a portion of our abundance to the poor, and we are to think of everything we own as God’s property; by so doing, we qualify as His stewards (D&C 104:18, 55). We are to be content with the bare necessities (1Tim. 6:8). We are to serve the Lord “with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things...” or risk destruction (Deut. 28:47). We are to be temperate in all things (Alma 7:23). We are commanded to fast to be healthy (Isa. 58:8).
Why does God bless anyone with abundance, money, wealth, land, food, etc.? God provides temporally for those who participate in His work. Missionary work (Deut 33:13-17, Matt 6:19-34) gives us access to promises of material abundance. God gives us wealth to bless and help the poor (Jacob 2:18-19, D&C 104:15-16); to prove that we are good stewards, fit to care for greater things (Matt. 25:19-23); to build up Zion generally (D&C 104:55-60). He gives material blessings as a result of proper Sabbath observance and fasting well (D&C 59:9-20). God blesses us with material wealth because he loved our ancestors and made promises to them (Gen. 15:18-20).
Yes, food and material wealth serve to keep us alive and safe, but that seems to be secondary, an afterthought in scripture. Calories and clothing are small bullet points on the list: “Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye, and to gladden the heart; Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul” (D&C 59:18-19).
Food does not merely keep us alive; all calories are not delivered through colorless, odorless pastes or pellets. Their sensory effects are given equal status with survival. Spices, lemons, and all other tangy ingredients add zest to life, and the colors are as important as the flavors to the Lord. (Colors may not affect our health, but they affect our spirits.) Many of these pigments and scents are not necessary for survival, yet they enhance health anyway.
“And he who receiveth all things (I assume that means unpleasant as well as pleasant) with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added to him, even an hundred fold, yea, more” (D&C 78:19). Gratitude is serious business for the Lord, and He blesses grateful people greatly.
Land is consecrated by God to us for our benefit (D&C 57:1), and we have the privilege of consecrating it back to Him (D&C 58:57), offering it and our labors thereon to Him.
Don’t
“Thou shalt not covet” (Ex. 20:17) is the tenth commandment, and so easy to break. Gratitude and coveting are mutually exclusive. Paul warns Timothy that “the love of money is the root of all evil” (1Tim. 6:9-10). “...care not for the body, neither the life of the body; but care for the soul, and for the life of the soul” (D&C 101:37). (Fasting feeds the soul, and maintains health better than any food.) This adds credence to the interpretation that survival is a secondary consideration, while the spiritual impact of material goods holds primacy. “For the kingdom is not meat and drink...” (Rom. 14:17).
We are not to labor for physical food that spoils and decomposes, but for spiritual meat. After feeding the 5000, many followed Him looking for more. Jesus told them, “Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give you...I am that bread of life...He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me...not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.” (John 6:27, 48, 56-58). The crowd balked: “This is an hard saying; who can hear it?...From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him” (John 6:60, 66).
Excess is forbidden (D&C 59:20). Benjamin Franklin quipped that for every man who dies of starvation, a hundred die of gluttony. We should be cautious about what is set before us; Proverbs warns that when we fill our mouths with excessive rich food, we gag on it and can no longer utter sweet words (23:1-9).
Extortion is forbidden (D&C 59:20). To hold for ransom that which another person needs is anathema to the gospel of Christ. Price gouging is not only forbidden by the laws of the land; it will be “measured” to us in the final judgment if we choose to practice it (Matt. 7:2). It will be as though we did it to Christ Himself (Matt. 25:31-46). To hold the necessities of life hostage pending unreasonable fees is cruel (and standard business practice).
Some business models depend on getting customers addicted to certain unhealthy substances. “In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving you this word of wisdom by revelation...” (D&C 89:4). Addiction means the body is tricked into thinking something destructive is necessary for life. Sugar, nicotine, alcohol, caffeine, and numerous illegal drugs all share that in common—regardless of what damage they inflict, cravings comparable to those for air and water drive persons who consume them to keep consuming them. Some manufacturers design foods to cause hunger instead of satisfying it.
This is a diluted version of the Mahan principle, trading someone else’s life for personal enrichment. Instead of causing instant death, deteriorating health spans long periods. But life is still shortened by prolonged abuse. Purveyors of these kinds of substances and behaviors are among the wealthiest people on the planet. They have become rich by luring people into a predicament in which they must choose between unmet cravings on the one hand, and self-destruction and poverty on the other. That is extortion.
Waste is prohibited, especially where meat is concerned. “And wo be unto that man that sheddeth blood or that wasteth flesh and hath no need” (D&C 49:21). Animals must die for us to eat, but that is no license for wanton cruelty or waste. The blood of every beast will be accounted for in the final judgment (JST Gen. 9:10-13). “Take only what you need, eat only what you need,” is the basic concept. I cringe when I think of certain dumpsters—not just because they stink, but because they bespeak a willingness to waste animal flesh (and other food), and apathy toward the hungry. I have worked in places where dumpsters were filled to overflowing with perfectly good food—enough to feed a multitude—mingled with genuine garbage.
Greed prompts some to portray land as scarce. Land is meant to be cultivated and populated (Gen. 1:28). Various people and institutions accept and preach as indisputable law the premise that “the earth cannot sustain an increase in population.” I heard a radio commentator claim that a full third of all food is wasted—the combination of crop failures in poor countries, and the extravagant waste of half-eaten food discarded in wealthy nations. “For the earth is full; there is enough and to spare” (D&C 104:17). It is not a question of availability, but a question of how poorly we choose to produce, distribute, consume, and discard what we have been blessed with. In some instances, waste is even enforced by law. Near closing time, my friend and I were told meat at a deli had to be thrown away. We could not have any, nor could the genuine poor, if any had asked. America is mentally ill in this respect—mindless regulation trumping common sense, generosity, and any other virtues that happen to cross its path. Waste is an inevitable consequence of poor thinking—and it is greed in action. Using land to extort excessive rent runs counter to the scriptural concept of promised lands, acknowledging parts of the earth as the sacred property of those who inhabit them, and their children.
“But it is not given that one man should possess that which is above another, wherefore the world lieth in sin” (D&C 49:20). Perhaps the litmus test for how thoroughly we are integrated into Babylon is our reaction to this verse of scripture.
Time is a precious temporal commodity, and we are commanded not to waste it. “Behold, they have been sent to preach my gospel among the congregations of the wicked; wherefore, I give unto them a commandment, thus: Thou shalt not idle away thy time, neither shalt thou bury thy talent that it may not be known” (D&C 60:13). Talents are given to use to use—in the Lord’s service. Inactivity is bad; using our time to pursue the wrong activities is worse. “Be wise in the days of your probation; strip yourselves of all uncleanness; ask not, that ye may consume it (our probation, our time here) on your lusts, but ask with a firmness unshaken, that ye will serve the true and living God” (Morm. 9:28). God prolongs our lives to give us time to repent (2Ne. 2:21).
Spirit of the Law
There are no carnal commandments; to God all is spiritual (D&C 29:34). The point of life is not to live here forever, but to collect important gems during our brief stay. Elder John A. Widtsoe defined a Temple as anything God puts us into, or through, to endow us with power. This earth, our bodies, even the scriptures answer well to that definition of a Temple. Temples are not an end to themselves; this earth is not either. We are here to gain experience, to learn, to grow, to be tested, to create the seeds of kingdoms by establishing eternal families.
While a certain degree of toiling with one’s nose in the dirt, or one’s attention focused on temporal labors is necessary, it is important to look up, physically and spiritually, and recognize the things that are important to God, what is actually important. Brigham Young taught that the Saints should care no more for gold or jewels than for the gravel and dirt under foot. If our hearts are swallowed up in temporal concerns, they will burden us. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon” (Matt. 6:21, 24). “Mammon” means “trust,” as in “trust fund.” What do we love? What do we devote our hearts and our time to? In whom or what do we trust?
The point of taking a test is not to have a well-sharpened pencil with an immaculate eraser. It is to have a well-developed mind. Likewise, the point of this life is not to have a flawless body and endless wealth. It is to develop and prove our spirits. Like Ammon, who got a job tending sheep so he could smuggle the gospel into the hearts of his enemies, we should be looking for opportunities to use our physical blessings as a means to spiritual ends, to build things that actually outlast mortality. Ammon’s flocks are all gone now, but his converts are still with him. How sad to be anxious about the physical lost sheep and neglect the spiritual ones.
The ultimate end of all commandments, even a law of health, is to promote spiritual ends. Wick and wax are necessary to make a candle, but their purpose is to sustain a living, dynamic flame. Spiritual ends often depend on temporal, material means, but spiritual takes priority over the temporal in scripture. When spiritual serves temporal, it breeds misery and death.
Excessive concern about health or wealth, status or power, often leads to destruction—self destruction. Perhaps the greatest paradox in scripture is found in Matt. 10:39. It sounds absurd at first, but the longer I live, the more I see real-world examples of it: “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” Those who are obsessed with extending life and obtaining the things of this world tend to destroy themselves in the process, but those who are devoted to following Christ live full, peaceful, abundant, productive, and long lives.
Adam’s first assignment was parenthood; his second was gardening, tending the earth. Instructions to us are comparable. In summary, scripture tells us we are to view things the way God does by valuing people and living things more than self-interest, be kind and generous with our means, and care for the earth.
