Restore justice

The more a person thinks, feels, and acts as Jesus would, the more the world will treat them as it did the Lord:

Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. (John 15:20)

If the world doesn’t hate you enough to try to kill you, as it did Jesus, you aren’t very much like him yet.¹ Anyone who maintains the friendship of the world has betrayed and continues to betray their honesty at least occasionally. You don’t have to do terrible things to lose your honesty, and the world won’t typically require you to do terrible things to get along with it. All it takes in either case is to betray yourself just a little bit here and there. The seriousness of such things is denoted by the language James uses in describing those who do it. He calls them adulterers, stressing that it is impossible to be a friend of the world and a friend to God:

Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. (James 4:4)

This echoes a point stated earlier by Jesus:

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)

The more wicked the world becomes, the harder it will be for people with greater honesty to support themselves. There are those who have lost their careers for the sake of the truth. How many more will be added to their numbers? How many jobs would be lost if everyone told the truth all of the time? Everything you are compelled to say or are not allowed to say that deviates from how you actually think, feel, or do is an example of such lies. Many jobs require you to lie to customers or coworkers on a regular basis. How often do sales people, customer service reps, or politicians lie to their customers? Even outside of careers that are primarily deceitful, there are countless moments where workers are required to lie to each other or their customers.

The more dishonest society becomes, the more those who are honest will be targeted and taken out, as aptly predicted by Isaiah:

When integrity is lacking, they who shun evil become a prey. (Isaiah 59:15, Gileadi Translation)

Knowing firsthand of the challenges that come from telling the truth at all times and in all places, the Lord gave encouraging promises that he would sustain and bless those who serve him.² In many cases, he gives us the opportunity to fulfill these promises, restoring good to those who have been treated badly for behaving righteously.

All Christians ought to be “...distinguished for their zeal towards God, and also towards men...” (Alma 27:27) How many Christians are distinguishable from others in how zealously they seek the benefit of those who deserve better than they have?³ The reluctance of Christians to support those who are treated unjustly causes God great displeasure.⁴