The teachings of Jesus.
As it is with the football squad so it is with society in the large. Men and women are organized into communities and associations of various kinds for greater efficiency, and are subject to the laws governing organized society. Now, since Jesus was not primarily a social reformer, nor a social teacher, we should not be surprised if He had little to say about man's duties to organized society. Yet since He touches in His teachings nearly all phases of temporal and spiritual life, we might expect that somewhere He has something to say about the larger aspects of society. And we do really find it so. The three chief social institutions in the world are the family, the state, and the church. About man's duties to each one of these Jesus has something significant to say. Let us consider briefly the most important sayings of Jesus concerning these three fundamental institutions.
The family.
In the teaching of Jesus, marriage is presented as a divinely appointed sacrament, and the family as a sacred institution One day the Pharisees came to Jesus to test Him, and asked, "Is it lawful for man to put away his wife? And He answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you? And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away.
"And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh; so then they are no more twain but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together let no man put asunder."
The family sacred.
Thus emphatically did Jesus teach that the marriage relation was ordained of God. And in doing so He declared also that the family is a sacred institution and its claims should never be put aside. The crying shame of the world today is the common practice of divorce. Boys and girls who become acquainted with the teachings of Jesus, should grow up with a horror of the divorce court. They should learn to look upon marriage as one of the highest privileges accorded to them by the heavenly Father. And boys and girls in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints should rejoice in the thought, that, when the proper time comes, they may go into the House of the Lord and have there performed the divine sacrament of marriage for time and for all eternity. For the Lord has said in this generation, "Whoso forbiddeth to marry is not ordained of God, for marriage is ordained of God unto man."
The state.
Jesus was equally emphatic in His teachings of man's duty to the state—to organized civil government. Certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians were sent one day to try to catch Jesus in his words. "And when they were come they say unto Him, Master, we know that Thou art true, and carest for no man: for Thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? Shall we give, or shall we not give? But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them. Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny, that I may see it. And they brought it. And He saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto Him, Caesar's. And Jesus answering said unto them. Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they marvelled at Him."
The state divinely instituted.