Most of us recognize that the law of obedience helps protect people from harm. Laws such as “thou shalt not steal,” or “thou shalt not kill” protect us individually and protect others. However, the law of obedience may have a function even more vital: the law of obedience keeps the universe in order.
While in the temple recently, I was struck by the prevalence of order. The creation occurs in a specific order. God first separates the water in the heavens from the water on earth, then he creates light, then he separates the water from the dry land, then he creates fishes and fowls, then mammals and humans, and then he rests. Clearly, plants need water, and animals need plants, and people apparently need animals. God created the universe in a specific order because it wouldn’t function otherwise. There would be chaos.
Just as the stars and the moon and the earth orbit in a critical order, there must be order in our lives for our lives to function well. God provides this order for us by inviting us to be obedient to His plan.
The vicarious ordinances that occur in the temple occur in a specific order. The covenants of baptism and confirmation come first, followed by the initiatory, the endowment, and sealings. It is significant that the first covenant requires the covenant-maker to keep the commandments, or to be obedient. The subsequent covenants are of no use unless one keeps the first covenant, obedience.
The order of the covenants within the endowment is equally vital. The first covenant we make in the endowment is the law of obedience. If we refuse to obey, subsequent laws are useless, and our lives can evolve into chaos.
God gives us commandments and invites us to obey because God’s house is a house of order. For example, the commandment to live the law of chastity gives order to families. We know who our father is and who our mother is when our parents live the law of chastity. We understand our heritage and our genetics. We understand why we have certain gifts and what are our inherited vulnerabilities.
Sometimes people resent the concept of obedience. The mere word “obedience” can make them cringe. They hate the idea of being controlled. I would contend that the law of obedience is not an attempt to control mankind (we already have the gift of agency). The law of obedience is necessary to have order in the universe.
Order in the Restored Gospel
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a church of order. The prophet and the Quorum of the Twelve make decisions for the entire church. They communicate to the area presidencies, who inform stake presidents, who guide the bishops, who share with the auxiliary leaders the plan for the Church as a whole.
How could God accurately communicate His divine will if random individuals started their own church, changed the order of things, changed the doctrine, and changed who is in charge? It is very reassuring to attend an LDS church in another country and find they use the same Come Follow Manual we use in the States. They use the same scriptures. They understand the same doctrine.
If there were no order in the church, everybody would be trying to do their own thing—making up their own laws, their own commandments. Who would be in charge? What would be true doctrine? What would be false? There would be chaos, just as would happen in a universe without order.
Order in the Home
Just as order in the universe helps the universe function smoothly, and order in the church helps the church function smoothly, order in our homes helps our homes function smoothly. I delight in the scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants 88:119 that encourages us to establish a “house of order.” Order appeals to me. I order my books by genre, my clothes by purpose, my kitchen by “point of use” and my day with a planner. Order helps me feel peace.
We have rules or “laws” in our home that the residents must obey for us to live in a house of order. It is frustrating when someone fails to put the scissors back where they belong and I am in the middle of a project that grinds to an abrupt halt because I can’t find the scissors. The rule in our family is “always leave at least four eggs in the carton.” It throws me off if someone in the family eats all the eggs, and I’m in the middle of baking a cake and must stop to run to the store to buy eggs (especially if I have a deadline).
Order in the Country
Living in a country that lacked law and order made me more grateful than ever for the law of obedience.
While serving as mission leaders, we lived in a country where hardly anybody obeyed traffic laws. Drivers completely ignored traffic lights and policemen with guns had to stand underneath the lights to direct traffic. Where there were no policemen, cars refused to drive along the road in an orderly manner, and four or five cars would crowd onto an on-ramp that accommodated only two cars, causing massive gridlock.
Once our children came to visit, they wanted to attend the temple. We drove the car to within a mile of the temple when we encountered deadlocked traffic. We waited 20 minutes, then 30 for the traffic to move, but it did not. Finally, my son and his wife jumped out of the car, left us with their children, ran all the way to the temple, completed an endowment session, walked back to our apartment, and still arrived home before we did!
The lack of order made me grateful for laws (commandments) and for those who obey the law.
Some people might resent God’s commandments, thinking they are too harsh or restrictive. However, when we recognize that God needs obedience to have order in the universe, we will be grateful for an all-knowing God who wants his plan to work.
Order in the Elements
There is order in the universe because the elements are obedient. In Helaman 12, we read, “O how great is the nothingness of the children of men; yea, even they are less than the dust of the earth. For behold, the dust of the earth moveth hither and thither, to the dividing asunder at the command of our great and everlasting God…”
When Christ calmed the waves, his disciples marveled that “even the winds and the sea obey him!” (Matthew 8:27)
After extolling nature for being obedient, Nephi compares the obedience of the elements to the obedience of man. “Therefore, blessed are they who will repent and harken unto the voice of the Lord their God.” (Helaman 12:7-8, 23)
One might argue that the winds and the seas are not always obedient. What about hurricanes that topple trees, waves that flood towns? What about volcanoes that erupt and bury cities? What about lightning that strikes little children? Could this mean the elements are not always obedient? Could it be that the elements are in the process of becoming obedient, just like mankind is in the process of becoming obedient? Perhaps one day all the obedient souls will be on a Celestialized earth where there are no heat waves or droughts.
JeaNette Goates Smith is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and the author of four books on family relationships that can be found on Amazon and at www.smithfamilytherapy.org She and her husband, Bret, served as mission leaders in the Dominican Republic from 2017-2020.
MaryannAugust 5, 2025
The temple account of the creation is truly beautiful, and also instructive. For example, God said to divide the light from the darkness a couple of days BEFORE he created the sun, moon, and stars! Interesting to contemplate. I also see God's great love manifested in the order of the creation. Everything man would need was prepared for him beforehand. All this loving, careful planning was for us!