You are the servant of the master whose will you pursue. It is incorrect to interpret the choices we make as free autonomy. While every person has full autonomy in every choice they make,7 we neither create the options available to us nor the value of each. All choices are not equally good or acceptable in the eyes of God. God has a preference in every decision you make, and your choices determine your allegiance to or rebellion against him.8
In any decision, the best option is the will of God, the will of God is the best option, and all other options are the will of the devil.9 Though some bad choices are worse than others, everything less than what is best achieves the purposes of Satan and works against the purposes of God.
You don’t get to choose whether you are a servant or not, only whom you will serve. Those who do what is best at all times and in all places, as far as they understand, are servants of God. Those who do anything less are the servants of Satan. You cannot serve God and the devil.10 You can’t serve two masters, because serving the interests of one requires prioritizing it over the other.11 You will most desire what you most value.12
Submission to God is the sacrifice of making God’s purpose your singular desire and highest priority. You cannot follow Jesus without fully and exclusively adopting his purpose.13 If you adopt God’s purpose, you are in his kingdom; if you don’t, you can’t be.
You have either forsaken your sins and fully submitted to God, or you remain captivated by the spirit of the devil.14 Those who still allow themselves to think, feel, or do less than the best they know, even on occasion,15 remain servants to the devil.16 All negative feelings in response to greater light and truth reveal rebellion against God.
There is absolutely no good or valid reason to serve Satan.1180 No good result can come from serving Satan,1181 and everything that seems good will either evaporate in perceived value1182 or otherwise erode into something far worse than imagined.1183
Footnotes
- 1. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. (Isaiah 1:2-3) ↩
- 2. And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? (Luke 6:46) [The Lord said] go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. (1 Samuel 15:18-24) ↩
- 3. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7:21-23) ↩
- 4. A son honors his father, And a servant his master. If then I am the Father, Where is My honor? And if I am a Master, Where is My reverence? Says the Lord of hosts To you priests who despise My name.... (Malachi 1:6, NKJV) ↩
- 5. And this is the manner after which they were ordained—being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place being left to choose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good, and exercising exceedingly great faith, are called with a holy calling, yea, with that holy calling which was prepared with, and according to, a preparatory redemption for such. (Alma 13:3) And after this manner did they ordain priests and teachers, according to the gifts and callings of God unto men; and they ordained them by the power of the Holy Ghost, which was in them. (Moroni 3:4) ↩
- 6. After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way, but made again of the lowest of the people priests of the high places: whosoever would, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places. (1 Kings 13:33) ↩
- 7. And now, ye see by this that our first parents were cut off both temporally and spiritually from the presence of the Lord; and thus we see they became subjects to follow after their own will. (Alma 42:7) ↩
- 8. Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other. (2 Nephi 2:16) ↩
- 9. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? (Romans 6:16) ↩
- 10. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. (Romans 6:20) ↩
- 11. 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. (Matthew 6:24) ↩
- 12. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Matthew 6:21) ↩
- 13. And now behold, I say unto you that the right way is to believe in Christ, and deny him not; and Christ is the Holy One of Israel; wherefore ye must bow down before him, and worship him with all your might, mind, and strength, and your whole soul; and if ye do this ye shall in nowise be cast out. (2 Nephi 25:29) ↩
- 14. Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. (John 8:34) ↩
- 15. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. (2 Peter 2:19) ↩
- 16. I say unto you, can ye think of being saved when you have yielded yourselves to become subjects to the devil? (Alma 5:20) ↩