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Mosiah 4–6 — A Mighty Change

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aliasesMosiah 4–6, Mosiah 4-6, A Mighty Change

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Mosiah 4–6 — “A Mighty Change”

Come, Follow Me — April 29–May 5, 2024

Official reading: Mosiah 4–6
Official title: “A Mighty Change”
The official manual frames these chapters as a sequence: Benjamin’s people see themselves differently, receive forgiveness through Christ’s Atonement, allow the Spirit to change their desires, and covenant to do God’s will.1

← Previous: Mosiah 1–3 — Filled with Love towards God and All Men | Next: Mosiah 7–10 — In the Strength of the Lord →

Key Verse

“And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.” — Mosiah 5:2

Why These Chapters Belong Together

Mosiah 1–3 gives the sermon; Mosiah 4–6 shows what the word does when people truly receive it. The movement is not merely from a bad mood to a good mood. It is from exposure to transformation:

  1. The people see their dependence and plead for Christ’s mercy (4:1–2).
  2. The Spirit answers with forgiveness, joy, and peace of conscience (4:3).
  3. Benjamin teaches them how to remain in that relationship through humility, prayer, faith, family discipleship, generosity, wisdom, and watchfulness (4:4–30).
  4. The people consent to a covenant because the Spirit has changed what they want (5:1–5).
  5. Christ gives them a name and a family identity—His sons and daughters (5:6–15).
  6. The covenant becomes durable communal memory as names are recorded, teachers are appointed, and Mosiah begins to reign (6:1–7).

The chapters can be pictured as a temple door swinging outward. The people first face God and receive mercy; then that mercy turns them toward children, neighbors, debtors, beggars, and strangers. Their vertical reconciliation with God becomes horizontal responsibility for one another. Finally, both directions are joined in a public covenant community.

The official title comes from Mosiah 5:2, but the “mighty change” is not isolated in one dramatic verse. It includes the quiet practices of chapter 4 and the institutional follow-through of chapter 6. A changed heart that is never retained, embodied, recorded, or taught would remain only a powerful moment. Benjamin is building a covenant life.

What to Watch for While Reading

  • Track the verbs receive, retain, remember, believe, trust, impart, watch, covenant, take, know, record, appoint, teach.
  • Notice the emotional sequence: fear and guilt → plea for mercy → joy and peace → love → desire to do good → steadfastness.
  • Mark what the people do and what God does. Their faith and covenant response are real, but the Spirit “wrought” the change.
  • Compare begging before God in Mosiah 4:1–3 with responding to human beggars in 4:16–26.
  • Watch how Benjamin protects humility from becoming self-hatred: awareness of weakness is always paired with God’s goodness, power, wisdom, patience, and Atonement.
  • Look for family discipleship in 4:13–15 and public discipleship in 4:16–28. Conversion changes both the home and the economy of attention and care.
  • In chapter 5, mark every word connected with name, head, right hand, left hand, know, voice, stranger, serve, seal.
  • Ask why chapter 6 records names, appoints priests, and resumes ordinary work. What structures help a spiritual experience survive Monday morning?

Historical and Literary Context

The sermon has not really stopped

Modern chapter divisions can hide the continuity. Mosiah 4 begins with the people’s response to the angelic message Benjamin has just relayed in chapter 3. Benjamin then resumes speaking through the end of chapter 4. Chapter 5 records the people’s second response and Benjamin’s covenant declaration. Chapter 6 closes the assembly.

The resulting pattern is dialogical rather than merely oratorical:

Speaker/actionPassageCovenant movement
Benjamin relays the angel’s witness of ChristMosiah 3The saving word is offered
People cry for mercy; Spirit grants peaceMosiah 4:1–3Grace is received
Benjamin teaches a retained remissionMosiah 4:4–30Covenant life is described
People declare belief and changed desireMosiah 5:1–5Oath/consent is given
Benjamin bestows Christ’s covenant nameMosiah 5:6–15New identity and warning are declared
Names are recorded; priests are appointedMosiah 6:1–3Covenant memory and teaching are organized
People return home; Mosiah reigns and laborsMosiah 6:4–7Covenant moves into ordinary life

A covenant assembly with an interpretable ancient pattern

The BYU Studies lesson index points to Stephen D. Ricks’s comparison between Benjamin’s speech and ancient treaty/covenant forms: preamble, historical review, stipulations, oath, blessings and curses, and preservation of the covenant record.2 Ricks argues that large portions of Mosiah 1–6 participate in that pattern, while also identifying sections that do not fit it neatly.3 This is useful precisely because it does not reduce the whole sermon to a rigid template. Benjamin’s assembly is a living event: angelic prophecy, spontaneous cries, Spirit-filled change, and pastoral instruction overflow any form.

A possible Feast of Tabernacles or Israelite New Year setting has also been proposed because of the tents, temple, sacrifices, kingship, covenant, and name-giving. Gospel Talktrine develops that proposal and compares the people’s prostration and covenant with Israelite worship.4 The text itself never names the festival. The safest conclusion is that the account deliberately sounds like an Israelite temple-and-covenant assembly; identifying its exact festival remains scholarly or devotional interpretation.

A divided people receive one name

Benjamin’s audience includes descendants of the people led by Mosiah from the land of Nephi and the larger population found at Zarahemla (see Omni 1:12–19). Their recent history included warfare, false prophets, contention, and social fracture. Now “all the people” who can understand enter the same covenant and receive the same name (Mosiah 6:2). The BYU Studies index describes this as a democratizing force: covenant belonging is not reserved for the king, priests, wealthy, or one ancestry.5

That context deepens “one voice.” Unity does not mean that every biography disappears. It means the people can answer from a shared center—faith in Christ—and accept obligations that cross family, class, and lineage.

The narrative moves from event to ecology

A dramatic spiritual event can be compared to rain on dry ground. The immediate effect is visible, but lasting life depends on what receives and channels the water. Mosiah 4–6 builds a conversion ecology:

  • humility keeps the heart porous;
  • daily prayer keeps dependence conscious;
  • family teaching passes faith forward;
  • generosity prevents grace from terminating in the recipient;
  • wisdom and order make service sustainable;
  • remembrance guards thought, word, and deed;
  • covenant gives desire a declared direction;
  • a shared name gives identity;
  • records and teachers preserve communal memory.

The Architecture of the Change

MovementPassageGift from GodHuman responseSocial fruit
Awaken4:1–2Truth about Christ exposes needCry for mercyPride is broken
Forgive4:3Spirit, joy, remission, peaceExceeding faithA people can begin again
Retain4:4–12Goodness, patience, loveRemember, pray, stand steadfastLove fills the disciple
Embody4:13–30Continuing grace and substanceTeach, succor, impart, watchPeace, care, justice, restraint
Transform5:1–4Spirit gives sure knowledge and new desireBelieve and rejoiceOne voice; desire to do good
Covenant5:5–9Christ offers freedom and familyPromise obedience; take His nameShared allegiance
Remember5:10–15Christ knows and seals His peopleKnow His voice; serve; remain steadfastNo longer strangers
Preserve6:1–7A new reign begins in peaceRecord names; appoint teachers; workConversion becomes community practice

Major Themes

1. Humility looks at human weakness and divine goodness at the same time

At first the multitude falls because it sees its “carnal state” and dependence. Benjamin does not leave the people staring at themselves. He immediately directs their attention to “the goodness of God,” His “matchless power,” wisdom, patience, long-suffering, and the Atonement prepared from the foundation of the world (Mosiah 4:5–7).

This distinguishes humility from shame:

Shame’s closed circleBenjamin’s covenant humility
“I am weak, therefore I am hopeless.”“I am dependent, therefore I turn to the One who is good.”
Fixates on the selfLooks from the self to Christ
Hides or performsConfesses and trusts
Treats weakness as identityTreats dependence as relationship
Produces paralysisProduces repentance, joy, and love

Don’t Miss This observes that Benjamin awakens change by displaying God’s goodness, not by endlessly magnifying the hearers’ defects.6 The point is not that sin is trivial. It is that a true diagnosis helps only when joined to a true Physician.

Teaching illustration — walking into sunrise: A person facing west before dawn sees only a long shadow. Turning east does not deny the shadow; it reveals the light causing it. Benjamin lets the people see their fallen condition, then turns them toward the goodness of God. Humility tells the truth about both shadow and sun.

Practice: When repenting, name one specific wrong without euphemism, then name three attributes of God in Mosiah 4:6 that make change possible. This resists both self-excusing and self-condemning.

2. Forgiveness is received in a moment and retained in a relationship

The people’s remission comes with striking immediacy: the Spirit fills them with joy and peace “because of the exceeding faith which they had in Jesus Christ” (4:3). Benjamin then spends most of the chapter explaining how to “always retain” that remission (4:12, 26).

“Retain” does not mean that Christ forgives reluctantly and waits to repossess mercy. It describes ongoing covenant life: remember God’s greatness, humble oneself, call on His name daily, stand steadfastly in faith, live peaceably, teach children, succor those in need, and watch thoughts, words, and deeds.

Jared Halverson compares remission to cancer remission or addiction recovery—not because sin should be medicalized, but because “in remission” names a grateful present condition that still requires continuing care.7 followHIM uses a retainer after braces: teeth once moved need a pattern that helps them remain aligned.8 Both are devotional illustrations, not definitions of the Atonement. They clarify Benjamin’s own contrast between receive and retain.

Elder David A. Bednar teaches that sincere repentance and the ordinances of the gospel produce spiritually clean hands, while the Holy Ghost sanctifies and helps create a pure heart; the sacrament is a repeated opportunity to assess and renew that covenant direction.9

Retention is not earning the original gift

The practices in Mosiah 4 do not purchase Christ’s blood. They keep the disciple turned toward the Giver and allow received mercy to become merciful character.

3. “Are we not all beggars?” makes mercy reciprocal without making it transactional

Benjamin places the human beggar beside the praying disciple. The person tempted to say, “The man has brought upon himself his misery,” has just asked God not to use that same logic against him (4:17–21). This does not erase agency or wise stewardship. It forbids contempt.

President Jeffrey R. Holland makes the connection succinctly: “we obtain a remission of our sins by pleading to God, who compassionately responds, but we retain a remission of our sins by compassionately responding to the poor who plead to us.”10 He explicitly avoids prescribing one universal social program. The command is firmer and more personal: pray, look, and act conscientiously; do what one can.

Benjamin’s teaching holds several truths together:

  • Need does not cancel dignity.
  • Agency does not justify contempt.
  • Wise help is more than impulsive cash, yet complexity is not an excuse to do nothing.
  • Those with little can possess a genuinely generous heart (4:24–25).
  • Those who receive help remain responsible for covenants and for returning what they borrow (4:28).
  • Everyone is a receiver before God.

Teaching illustration — two open hands: One open hand faces upward to receive; the other faces outward to give. Close the receiving hand and grace becomes self-reliance. Close the giving hand and grace becomes possession. Covenant discipleship keeps both hands open.

Come, Follow Me connection: Ask not only, “Who needs money?” but “Who is poor in time, belonging, safety, attention, hope, transportation, knowledge, or advocacy—and what form of help would actually bless rather than merely relieve my discomfort?”

4. Wisdom and order protect discipleship from both apathy and burnout

Mosiah 4:27 is often quoted as permission to slow down. In context, Benjamin has just commanded radical generosity. His caution is not an exit ramp from service: “it is expedient that he should be diligent.” Wisdom and order hold zeal and sustainability together.

Unshaken calls this “sustainable sainthood”: do not confuse a brief explosion of guilt-driven effort with lifelong covenant faithfulness.7 followHIM adds the image, “You can’t draw water from an empty well,” while also noting that receiving help can be harder than giving it.11

A useful diagnostic:

Too littleWisdom and orderToo much
I wait for a perfect planI take the next faithful, bounded stepI attempt to solve every need personally
I call avoidance “discernment”I seek revelation and real informationI call exhaustion “consecration”
I leave care to someone elseI cooperate with family, Church, and communityI refuse help because I must be the helper
I never beginI serve diligently and review fruitI cannot continue

The verse protects duties too. Service to a distant cause should not become neglect of children, spouse, health, employment, or covenants already entrusted to us.

5. A mighty change changes desire, not merely behavior

The people do not say, “We are now incapable of temptation.” They report that the Spirit has changed their disposition: they no longer want evil and want to do good continually (5:2). The distinction matters. Behavior can be constrained by fear, reputation, or lack of opportunity; conversion reaches the “heart,” the scriptural center of desire and loyalty.

Don’t Miss This describes Benjamin as giving the people a believable view of who grace can help them become.6 Unshaken emphasizes both halves of their statement: evil is not only pruned; good grows in its place.7

The change can be mighty in depth even when gradual in time. The official manual explicitly asks readers to consider both subtle, gradual changes and dramatic experiences.1 A river can alter a canyon by one flood or by faithful flow. The test is not how cinematic the conversion story sounds but what direction desire, choice, and relationship now take.

Reflection: What good do I now desire that once felt burdensome? What evil has lost some attraction? Those changes may be evidence of grace already working.

6. Taking Christ’s name means belonging, resemblance, and responsibility

Because of the covenant, the people are called “the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters” (5:7). This does not replace Heavenly Father. The verse explains its own metaphor: they are “spiritually begotten” because their hearts are changed through faith in Christ. Christ is the Father of their spiritual rebirth and salvation (compare Moses 6:59–60).

The name does at least four things:

  1. Belonging: “under this head ye are made free” (5:8).
  2. Identity: they are no longer defined first by former divisions, status, or sin.
  3. Resemblance: bearing the name invites them to act as Christ acts.
  4. Accountability: a name can be “blotted out” through knowing rebellion (5:10–11).

followHIM compares the name to an ancient royal seal impressed in clay: the mark identifies what belongs to the king.8 Don’t Miss This connects name-giving with a new identity and with the sacramental question of what attribute or saving role of Christ the disciple most needs to remember that week.6 These are teaching images. The canonical center is the sacrament prayer: disciples witness that they are willing to take Christ’s name, always remember Him, and keep His commandments so that His Spirit may be with them (Moroni 4:3).

Teaching illustration — the family name on a work shirt: Wearing a family business name does not merely announce who hired you. It tells customers whose reputation your conduct carries. Christ’s name is far more than branding, but the comparison exposes a practical question: What would someone infer about Him from the way I carry His name today?

7. Chapter 6 shows that spiritual change needs memory, teachers, and ordinary work

Benjamin records the names of those who entered the covenant. This is not God needing a list to remember them. The community needs a durable witness of who has consented and who now bears responsibility. Priests are appointed “to teach the people,” and the people are dismissed to their homes (6:3). The assembly does not become permanent religious spectacle.

Then Mosiah begins to reign and works with his own hands (6:6–7). Covenant identity returns to fields, homes, administration, and labor. The final proof of Benjamin’s servant-kingship is that his son follows it.

This chapter answers a recurring spiritual question: What do we do after the conference, temple visit, baptism, blessing, retreat, or revelatory moment? Record what God did. Receive continuing teaching. Return home. Work. Keep the name alive there.

Verse-by-Verse Commentary

Mosiah 4 — Receiving Mercy and Learning to Live Mercifully

Mosiah 4:1–3 — The cry for mercy and the gift of peace

“O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins.”

The people fall, recognize their fallen condition, and cry “with one voice.” Their plea is Christ-centered and specific: mercy, applied Atonement, forgiveness, and purified hearts. The Spirit’s answer is not ambiguity but joy, remission, and peace of conscience.

The phrase “apply the atoning blood” resonates with sacrificial and covenant blood imagery such as Exodus 24:7–8, where Moses reads the covenant and sprinkles “the blood of the covenant.” Gospel Talktrine proposes that Benjamin’s hearers would have heard that Israelite background.4 The Book of Mormon’s essential claim, however, is plain without reconstructing a ritual: animal sacrifice points beyond itself to Jesus Christ.

“Peace of conscience” is not amnesia. It is a changed relationship to remembered sin because Christ has forgiven it. The memory can teach without continuing to condemn.

Come, Follow Me connection: Repentance begins by telling the truth in Christ’s presence, not by waiting until one feels worthy to approach Him.

Mosiah 4:4–8 — Nothingness paired with goodness

“If the knowledge of the goodness of God at this time has awakened you to a sense of your nothingness …”

Benjamin calls the people “friends,” “brethren,” “kindred,” and “people” before describing their dependence. The relational address matters. He is not humiliating enemies; he is teaching beloved covenant hearers.

Verses 5–7 hold the comparison together: human beings cannot save themselves, while God possesses matchless power, wisdom, patience, long-suffering, and an Atonement prepared from the foundation of the world. Verse 8 gives the conclusion: salvation comes through Christ to those who trust Him and continue faithfully.

The BYU Studies index’s covenant-pattern materials help explain why Benjamin rehearses what the divine King has done before declaring covenant obligations.2 Grace precedes stipulation.

Come, Follow Me connection: When weakness becomes spiritually useful, it increases trust in God rather than obsession with self.

Mosiah 4:9–10 — Belief becomes a sequence of action

“Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things …”

Benjamin’s belief is not vague optimism. It includes God’s existence, creation, wisdom, power, human dependence, repentance, forgiveness, humility, and sincerity. The culminating command—“if you believe all these things see that ye do them”—refuses to separate theology from life.

The sequence is worth marking:

  1. believe;
  2. repent and forsake sins;
  3. humble oneself;
  4. ask sincerely for forgiveness;
  5. act on what one believes.

This is not a ladder by which mortals climb beyond needing Christ. Every rung is a form of turning toward Him.

Come, Follow Me connection: Choose one belief in verses 9–10 and complete the sentence: “Because I believe this about God, today I will …”

Mosiah 4:11–12 — The daily pattern of retained remission

“Remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God.”

Benjamin’s retention pattern joins memory, humility, prayer, steadfast faith, joy, divine love, spiritual knowledge, and increasing knowledge of Christ’s glory. “Always” need not imply frantic conscious repetition every second. It describes covenant orientation—the recurring return of heart and practice to God.

The result is expansive rather than anxious: “ye shall always rejoice,” “be filled with the love of God,” and “grow in the knowledge” of Christ. Retained remission is not spiritual surveillance; it is continued life in divine love.

Restoration parallel: The sacrament prayer similarly combines taking Christ’s name, remembering, obedience, and the promised companionship of the Spirit (Doctrine and Covenants 20:77).

Mosiah 4:13–15 — Conversion enters the home

“Ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another.”

Benjamin first describes what parents will not permit: children going hungry, naked, transgressing God’s laws, fighting, quarreling, and serving the devil. Then he states the positive curriculum: truth, soberness, love, and service.

The text does not promise that converted parents can control every child’s agency or eliminate every conflict. It does make family care a direct fruit of conversion. Feeding and clothing appear beside moral teaching; physical and spiritual nurture belong together.

The phrase “withdraw yourselves” in verse 14 warns against abandoning children to destructive patterns. This is more than punishment after failure. It is attentive presence, teaching, boundaries, modeling, and repair.

Come, Follow Me connection: Ask at family council, “What would help our home become easier to tell the truth in, easier to apologize in, and easier to serve in?”

Mosiah 4:16–18 — Do not let the plea be vain

“Ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor.”

“Succor” means to run to help. Benjamin condemns three linked failures: withholding substance, allowing the petition to be vain, and judging the person as solely responsible and therefore undeserving.

Verse 18’s warning—“whosoever doeth this … hath great cause to repent”—places contempt for the poor inside the sphere of serious discipleship, not optional niceness. At the same time, “those that stand in need of your succor” invites discernment about the help genuinely needed.

Parallel: Jesus identifies care for the hungry, stranger, naked, sick, and imprisoned with care for Himself (Matthew 25:34–40).

Mosiah 4:19–23 — The beggar and the Beggar before God

“For behold, are we not all beggars?”

Benjamin dismantles superiority by comparing every possession—food, clothing, metals, and riches—with the divine source on whom all depend. More deeply, the hearers have just begged for remission and received an outpouring of the Spirit. To demand compassion from heaven while withholding it on earth is covenant contradiction.

The comparison is not “God gives me everything I request in exactly the requested form, so I must do the same.” God’s wisdom governs His gifts. The comparison concerns posture: He does not despise the sincere petitioner. Neither may disciples use another’s vulnerability as a platform for contempt.

President Holland’s “Are We Not All Beggars?” carefully joins this command with industry, thrift, self-reliance, and individualized revelation about how to help.10

Come, Follow Me connection: Before deciding how to respond to need, remove the sentence “I am better than this person” from the decision.

Mosiah 4:24–25 — The generosity of those who have little

“I give not because I have not, but if I had I would give.”

Benjamin refuses to equate righteousness with available cash. A person who lacks means can still refuse the contempt condemned in verse 17 and cultivate a willing heart. The verse comforts those who cannot give what they wish and challenges those who use imagined future generosity to avoid present forms of service.

Desire counts, but desire also searches honestly: perhaps I cannot give money, but can I give attention, skill, a ride, a meal, a referral, advocacy, prayer, welcome, or time? Wisdom may answer “not now” to some requests; love should still shape the answer.

Come, Follow Me connection: Write two lists: “What I do not currently have to give” and “What God has already placed in my hand.” Act from the second without shame about the first.

Mosiah 4:26–27 — Impart, retain, and proceed in wisdom

“For the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day … impart of your substance to the poor.”

Verse 26 names food, clothing, visiting the sick, and relief “both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants.” Here “wants” means needs or lack, not every preference. Care can be direct or organized; the command reaches both body and spirit.

Verse 27’s “wisdom and order” prevents the command from becoming chaotic or self-destructive. Yet its second half prevents caution from becoming inertia: “it is expedient that he should be diligent.”

Parallel: James rejects faith that blesses the destitute verbally while withholding necessities (James 2:14–17).

Come, Follow Me connection: Sustainable service has a next action, a boundary, and a return date. “I will help with X, within Y limit, and reassess on Z” can be more covenantally faithful than either doing nothing or promising everything.

Mosiah 4:28 — Borrowing and returning

“Whosoever among you borroweth of his neighbor should return the thing that he borroweth.”

This apparently ordinary rule belongs exactly where Mormon places it. A merciful community can be exploited if recipients treat others’ generosity as entitlement. Benjamin addresses both giver and receiver, protecting trust in the covenant economy.

Returning a borrowed object recognizes the neighbor as a person, not merely a resource. When return is impossible, honesty, timely communication, repair, and a responsible plan honor the same principle.

Come, Follow Me connection: Is there an object, debt, message, apology, or responsibility I have left unreturned?

Mosiah 4:29–30 — Watch the source, not only the list

“I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit sin.”

No finite checklist can anticipate every technology, relationship, culture, temptation, or rationalization. Benjamin therefore gives a governing practice: watch yourselves, thoughts, words, deeds, commandments, and continued faith in Christ.

“Watch” is attentive stewardship, not obsessive self-accusation. Thoughts matter because they shape words and deeds, but intrusive or unwanted thoughts are not identical to chosen intention. The question is what we welcome, rehearse, and act upon.

The chapter ends with “remember, and perish not.” The warning is severe because choices matter; the preceding chapter makes equally clear that remembrance turns toward a patient, long-suffering God.

Come, Follow Me connection: At day’s end, review without drama: What thought did I feed? What word gave life or injury? What deed should be repeated, repaired, or repented of?

Mosiah 5 — Changed Desire, Covenant, and the Name of Christ

Mosiah 5:1 — Benjamin asks rather than assumes

“King Benjamin desired to know of his people if they believed the words which he had spoken unto them.”

Benjamin has preached powerfully, but he does not declare the people converted on their behalf. Covenant requires consent. The question also allows the people to articulate what the Spirit has done.

Healthy teaching makes room for honest response. Unshaken notes that Benjamin asks where the hearers actually are rather than demanding performance for the teacher’s approval.7

Come, Follow Me connection: In teaching, replace “You all understand, right?” with a real invitation: “What do you believe? What remains difficult?”

Mosiah 5:2–4 — The Spirit changes disposition and opens a view

“We have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.”

The people know Benjamin’s words are true “because of the Spirit.” Their evidence includes an inward miracle: changed desire. They also receive “great views of that which is to come,” which may include revealed understanding of Christ’s future coming and a hope-filled view of covenant possibility. followHIM labels the exact scope uncertain and applies the phrase devotionally to hope made possible by the Spirit.8

Verse 4 remembers practical transmission: Benjamin’s voice could not reach everyone, so words were written and sent among them. The Spirit’s work does not make communication systems unnecessary. Records carried revelation across distance and now carry it across centuries.

Come, Follow Me connection: What “great view” of a repaired relationship, faithful future, or Christlike self has the Spirit helped me glimpse?

Mosiah 5:5 — Covenant turns desire into declared allegiance

“We are willing to enter into a covenant with our God to do his will.”

The people promise obedience “all the remainder of our days.” They do not promise that mortality will contain no weakness. They promise whose will will govern their return after weakness.

The wording joins willingness and durability. Covenant is not passive admiration of Christ; it is a relationship in which disciples deliberately offer their will.

Come, Follow Me connection: A useful covenant question is not only “What rule must I keep?” but “Whose will am I learning to want?”

Mosiah 5:6–9 — Spiritually begotten and called by Christ’s name

“Because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ.”

Benjamin had hoped for this response. The covenant marks a spiritual birth because hearts have changed through faith in Christ. Under His “head” they are made free; no competing name or allegiance can save.

The language of sons and daughters is strikingly inclusive. Every accountable covenant maker receives direct kinship language, not a lesser designation based on sex, wealth, role, or lineage.

The sacrament prayers carry this language into weekly worship. We witness willingness to take the name rather than announce completed resemblance. The name is both gift and vocation.

Restoration parallel: New birth by water, Spirit, and Christ’s cleansing blood is described in Moses 6:59–60.

Mosiah 5:10–12 — Two names and the discipline of remembrance

“Remember also, that this is the name that I said I should give unto you that never should be blotted out.”

The right-hand/left-hand contrast names two directions of allegiance. Those who knowingly reject Christ’s covenant take the name of the adversary whose works they follow. Benjamin is not teaching that one stumble erases belonging; chapter 4 has just taught daily repentance and retained remission. He warns against settled rebellion and forgetting the covenant’s governing name.

The instruction is to keep Christ’s name “written always in your hearts.” Gospel Talktrine compares this with Jeremiah’s promise of a covenant written inwardly.12 The parallel is illuminating: Jeremiah 31:31–34 anticipates a people who know the Lord, bear His law within, and receive forgiveness. The claim that Benjamin consciously designed every phrase to fulfill Jeremiah goes beyond what Mosiah explicitly says and should remain interpretive.

Come, Follow Me connection: What repeated practice is currently writing Christ’s name into my reflexes? What repeated practice is trying to overwrite it?

Mosiah 5:13–15 — Knowing the Master through service

“How knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him?”

Covenant is relational knowledge. Christ can be near in vocabulary yet far from “thoughts and intents.” Serving Him—especially through serving those He loves—turns doctrine into acquaintance.

The final blessing is to become “steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works,” so that Christ may “seal you his.” Divine ownership here is belonging, protection, and covenant recognition, not dehumanizing possession. He brings His people to heaven through wisdom, power, justice, and mercy.

The sequence matters: good works do not replace Christ; they abound in those who know His voice and bear His name.

Come, Follow Me connection: Choose one act of service that will place you where Christ’s character is easier to recognize.

Mosiah 6 — Recording the Covenant and Returning Home

Mosiah 6:1–2 — Names recorded, children excepted

“There was not one soul, except it were little children, but who had entered into the covenant.”

Benjamin records the names of covenant participants. Ancient covenants often included witnesses and written preservation; Ricks identifies this as one element of the treaty/covenant pattern.3 The record creates accountable community memory.

Little children are excepted not because they are excluded from Christ’s love but because they cannot make accountable covenant consent. This anticipates the Book of Mormon’s later explicit teaching that little children are alive in Christ (Moroni 8).

The near-universal response also dramatizes covenant equality. Every adult name matters.

Come, Follow Me connection: Sacred records—ordinance records, journals, patriarchal blessings, family histories—can witness what God did and what we promised when emotion fades.

Mosiah 6:3 — Priests appointed to teach and stir remembrance

“He had consecrated his son Mosiah to be a ruler and a king … and also had appointed priests to teach the people.”

Political succession and spiritual teaching are distinguished but coordinated. The priests’ purpose is not to create dependence on teachers; it is to keep the people hearing and remembering the covenant they freely made.

A mighty change still needs repeated teaching. This does not cheapen the original experience. It respects human memory.

Come, Follow Me connection: Which teacher, class, scripture practice, or conversation helps “stir” remembrance rather than merely deliver new information?

Mosiah 6:4–5 — The assembly ends and Benjamin dies

“King Benjamin lived three years and he died.”

The people return “every one, according to their families, to their own houses.” The covenant must now survive outside the gathered multitude. Benjamin’s death three years later closes a faithful reign without making the community dependent on his physical presence.

The people have received words, Spirit, covenant, name, record, teachers, and a successor. Benjamin has prepared them to continue.

Come, Follow Me connection: The purpose of a powerful lesson is not to keep people in the classroom. It is to help them return home differently.

Mosiah 6:6–7 — Mosiah reigns and tills the earth

“He, himself, did till the earth, that thereby he might not become burdensome to his people.”

Mosiah is about thirty years old and begins his reign in peace. Like Benjamin, he works rather than extracting his support from the people. The ending returns to the servant-kingship theme that opened Benjamin’s address.

The example resonates with the restrictions on kings in Deuteronomy 17:14–20: the king must not exalt his heart above his brethren or accumulate power and wealth without restraint. Gospel Talktrine treats Benjamin and Mosiah as models of kingship disciplined by covenant law.4

The final image is deliberately ordinary: a king in a field. Mighty change is credible when it becomes work, restraint, and non-burdensome leadership.

Come, Follow Me connection: Where does bearing Christ’s name ask me to carry my share rather than transfer avoidable burdens to others?

Teaching Illustrations and Object Lessons

1. The retainer

Bring an orthodontic retainer or show a picture. Ask:

  • What moved the teeth?
  • What keeps them aligned after the dramatic phase?
  • What are the spiritual “retainers” in Mosiah 4:11–30?

Clarify that habits do not mechanically preserve salvation. The analogy, used in followHIM, helps distinguish receiving a remission from living in remembered, renewed relationship.8

2. Two open hands

Invite learners to hold one hand palm-up and one palm-out. The first receives mercy; the second imparts mercy. Read Mosiah 4:20 and 4:26. Ask what happens spiritually when either hand closes.

3. A seal in clay

Press a ring, stamp, or carved object into clay. The clay receives a name or image because it yields to contact. Discuss Mosiah 5:12, 15. Christ’s “seal” is not superficial ownership; it is covenant belonging that reaches the heart and produces resemblance.

4. The minutes after the meeting

Ask learners to imagine the people packing tents, feeding children, returning borrowed objects, walking home, and resuming fields. Then read Mosiah 6. What has to happen after a revelatory gathering for the revelation to become a culture?

5. The empty well and the shared bucket

Show a cup or bucket. Discuss the difference between refusing to serve, serving sustainably, and refusing needed help. Mosiah 4:27 teaches both diligent motion and honest limits. In a covenant community, sometimes one draws water and sometimes one receives it.

A Practical Pattern for Retaining Remission

Daily/regular practiceBenjamin’s languageOne concrete expression
Remember God’s character“greatness,” “goodness,” “long-suffering”Name an attribute of God in prayer
Remain humble“depths of humility”Confess one specific need without self-contempt
Call on God“calling on the name of the Lord daily”Ask for cleansing and help before acting
Stand in faith“steadfastly in the faith”Keep one small covenant practice when emotion is absent
Create peace“live peaceably”Repair one quarrel or lower the temperature of a conversation
Teach and nurture“teach them to love … and serve”Pair gospel instruction with food, attention, and example
Succor need“impart of your substance”Offer help fitted to the actual need
Proceed sustainably“wisdom and order … diligent”Define a faithful next step and limit
Practice integrity“return the thing that he borroweth”Return, repair, communicate, or repay
Review the whole life“thoughts, and your words, and your deeds”Brief evening examen and repentance
Renew the name“written always in your hearts”Hear the sacrament prayer as identity and mission

Teaching and Discussion Questions

  1. Why does Benjamin pair human “nothingness” with God’s goodness? What goes wrong when either half is taught alone?
  2. What is the difference between receiving forgiveness and retaining a remission of sins?
  3. Which practices in Mosiah 4 help retain remission without implying that mercy is earned?
  4. How does being a beggar before God change the way we evaluate another person’s need?
  5. What is the difference between compassionate discernment and judgmental withholding?
  6. How can someone with little still live Mosiah 4:24–25 sincerely?
  7. Where do you currently need more diligence? Where do you need more wisdom and order?
  8. How can a “mighty” change happen gradually?
  9. Why do the people promise to do God’s will only after the Spirit changes their hearts? What does that order teach about grace and covenant?
  10. What does taking Christ’s name add to simply admiring Him?
  11. How are we children of Heavenly Father and also, through rebirth, children of Christ?
  12. What practices write Christ’s name on a heart? What habits make Him a stranger to our thoughts?
  13. Why does Mormon include the administrative details of names, priests, dismissal, succession, and labor?
  14. What structure would help a recent spiritual impression survive in your home for the next month?
  15. If conversion became visible in one relationship this week, what would change?

Personal Study Invitations

  • A three-column prayer: Write “My need / God’s attribute / My next faithful act.” Fill one row from Mosiah 4:5–12.
  • Mercy audit: Identify one person or group you have reduced to “they brought it on themselves.” Seek better information, repent of contempt, and ask what wise help looks like.
  • Name practice: During the sacrament, choose one scriptural title of Christ to remember and one way to carry that attribute into the week.
  • Return what is borrowed: Complete one practical act of integrity from Mosiah 4:28.
  • Record the change: Write a short account of one desire the Spirit has changed. Include what helps retain it.
  • Build chapter 6: Choose one form of record, one recurring teacher/source, and one ordinary setting where a current spiritual impression will be practiced.

Assigned chapters

Important parallels

← Previous: Mosiah 1–3 — Filled with Love towards God and All Men | Next: Mosiah 7–10 — In the Strength of the Lord →

Annotated Source Guide

  1. Official Come, Follow Me manual (2024). Supplies the exact title and reading and the official teaching framework: receiving and retaining remission, trusting God, watching thoughts/words/deeds, Spirit-wrought change, covenant name, repentance’s joy, and care for others. Official Church curriculum.1
  2. BYU Studies lesson 18 index. Audited first for passage-specific scholarship. It points to work on covenant form, equality under Christ’s name, literary structure, baptismal language, parenting, Atonement, and Benjamin’s complete speech. Its summaries are research leads, not official historical determinations.2
  3. Stephen D. Ricks, treaty/covenant pattern. Contributes the ancient comparative sequence and the importance of oath, blessings/curses, and record preservation. Scholarly interpretation.3
  4. followHIM with Aaron Schade (2024). The retained 56-page proofread PDF and new searchable extraction contribute the orthodontic-retainer illustration, name/identity and seal imagery, care for poor in spirit and in goods, receiving help, sustainable service, and the movement from personal covenant to unified community. Devotional and scholarly podcast discussion, not official commentary.8
  5. Unshaken with Jared Halverson. Contributes remission/recovery imagery, “sustainable sainthood,” the vertical-to-horizontal movement of the sermon, honest consent, replacing evil with good, and covenant-family applications. Devotional interpretation.7
  6. Don’t Miss This with David Butler and Emily Belle Freeman. Contributes the coronation/new-name teaching frame, God’s goodness as the catalyst for change, a hopeful view of becoming, and a sacramental application of Christ’s names. Earlier Book of Mormon cycle, directly covering Mosiah 4–6; devotional interpretation.6
  7. Gospel Talktrine with Mark Holt. Contributes Israelite covenant/festival comparisons, the atoning-blood/Exodus 24 connection, Jeremiah 31 parallels, and Deuteronomic kingship. The festival identification and claims of deliberate one-to-one fulfillment are clearly labeled interpretive.4
  8. Jeffrey R. Holland, “Are We Not All Beggars?” Apostolic teaching that joins universal dependence, practical compassion, self-reliance, humility about unequal mortal circumstances, and individual revelation about how to help.10
  9. David A. Bednar, “Always Retain a Remission of Your Sins.” Apostolic teaching on clean hands, a pure heart, the sanctifying Holy Ghost, and the sacrament as recurring spiritual evaluation and renewal.9

Footnotes

Footnotes

  1. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “April 29–May 5: ‘A Mighty Change.’ Mosiah 4–6,” Come, Follow Me—For Home and Church: Book of Mormon 2024 (official Church curriculum), canonical manual page. The manual’s introduction explicitly moves from changed self-understanding to changed desire and covenant; its sections treat retained remission, trust, thoughts/words/deeds, mighty change, and taking Christ’s name. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. BYU Studies, “A Mighty Change — Mosiah 4–6,” Come, Follow Me: Book of Mormon, lesson 18 (lesson-specific scholarly index), https://byustudies.byu.edu/come-follow-me/book-of-mormon/18; retained research note: BYU Studies Come, Follow Me — A Mighty Change — Mosiah 4–6. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. Stephen D. Ricks, “The Treaty/Covenant Pattern in King Benjamin’s Address (Mosiah 1–6),” BYU Studies 24, no. 2 (1984), 151–62, canonical BYU Studies article. Ricks identifies treaty elements across substantial portions of Mosiah 1–6 and also notes passages that do not fit the pattern; this is ancient-text scholarship, not an official Church identification of the speech’s form. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  4. Mark Holt, “Mosiah 4–6 — S03E16,” Gospel Talktrine (devotional podcast interpretation), exact local transcript: Sources/Series/Gospel Talktrine/Book of Mormon/S03E16 - Mosiah 4-6.md, especially the proposed Feast of Tabernacles context, Exodus 24:8, Jeremiah 31:31–34, the poor, and Deuteronomy 17. The local transcript itself presents several historical reconstructions strongly; this guide treats them as possibilities rather than facts. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  5. John W. Welch, “Democratizing Forces in King Benjamin’s Speech,” summarized and linked by the BYU Studies lesson 18 index, Scripture Central archive. Scholarly social reading; the textual basis is Mosiah 6:2’s near-universal covenant participation. ↩

  6. David Butler and Emily Belle Freeman, “Come Follow Me Mosiah 4–6 (Apr 20–26),” Don’t Miss This (earlier Book of Mormon cycle; devotional teaching transcript), exact local path: Sources/Series/Don’t Miss This/Book of Mormon/Come Follow Me Mosiah 4-6 (Apr 20-26).md, especially the “goodness of God” discussion, the becoming/“deep beauty” illustration, Mosiah 5:2–8, and the name-of-Christ sacrament application. YouTube source. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  7. Jared Halverson, “Come Follow Me — Mosiah 4–6 — Are We Not All Beggars,” Unshaken (devotional commentary), exact local transcript: Sources/Series/Unshaken/Book of Mormon/Come Follow Me - Mosiah 4-6 - Are We Not All Beggars.md, especially the discussions of remission as a continuing condition, Mosiah 4:17–30, “sustainable sainthood,” honest belief, changed disposition, and covenant family. YouTube source. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  8. Aaron Schade with Hank Smith and John Bytheway, “Mosiah 4–6 — ‘A Mighty Change,’” followHIM: A Come, Follow Me Podcast (2024; devotional/scholarly discussion), retained proofread PDF: BM-18-Dr.-Aaron-Schade-Mosiah-4-6-followHIM-Podcast-SHOW-NOTES.pdf, searchable extraction: BM-18 — Mosiah 4–6 — followHIM show notes and transcript. Especially Part 2, approximately 2:12–17:23 (retainer, change, new name, seal, children of Christ) and 22:14–40:21 (the poor, wisdom, receiving help, “great views”). Episode index. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  9. David A. Bednar, “Always Retain a Remission of Your Sins,” April 2016 general conference (official apostolic teaching), canonical Church page. The talk distinguishes the cleansing associated with repentance and ordinances from the sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost and invites recurring self-assessment through the sacrament. ↩ ↩2

  10. Jeffrey R. Holland, “Are We Not All Beggars?” October 2014 general conference (official apostolic teaching), canonical Church page. Quoted language about obtaining and retaining remission and guidance in compassionate discipleship is also preserved in the followHIM extraction, Part 2, approximately 27:54–30:41. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  11. Schade, Smith, and Bytheway, “Mosiah 4–6,” followHIM, local searchable extraction, Part 2, approximately 34:22–38:44, discussing family responsibilities, loneliness and nonfinancial poverty, the “empty well,” and willingness to receive help. These are pastoral applications of Mosiah 4:27, not a replacement for the verse’s command to be diligent. ↩

  12. Holt, “Mosiah 4–6 — S03E16,” local transcript, discussion of Mosiah 4:3; 5:5–15; 6:2 alongside Jeremiah 31:31–34. The canonical texts genuinely share themes of inward covenant, knowing God, belonging, and forgiveness; Holt’s proposed exact literary dependence remains a devotional interpretation. ↩

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