“A Faithful, a Just, and a Wise Steward . . . Shall Inherit Eternal Life”
Doctrine and Covenants 51:19
19 And whoso is found a faithful, a just, and a wise steward shall enter into the joy of his Lord, and shall inherit eternal life.
Elder Hyrum M. Smith and Janne M. Sjödahl wrote:
“The Lord promises those who are faithful, just, and wise as His ‘stewards’ over the temporal things entrusted to their care an entrance into the ‘joy of his Lord’ and eternal life. We are apt to regard a blissful hereafter as a reward for the faithful performance of such duties as attending meetings, praying, engaging in devotional studies, giving alms, etc., and all such manifestations of a new life are as natural to those who are born again of the water and the Spirit, as are breathing, eating, etc. to man’s physical existence. But we must not forget that to take care of whatever material and temporal gifts we may have is just as much the duty of a Latter-day Saint, as to attend meetings and to pray. All our talents should be used for the furtherance of the Kingdom of Christ. There is no such real distinction between things temporal and eternal as men frequently draw. The fact is that we are now in eternity, as much as we ever will be, and we are surrounded everywhere by things of eternal portent.”
(The Doctrine and Covenants Commentary, rev. ed. [1951], 301.)
