After JESUS gives the parable of the sower in Matthew 13 his disciples ask him why He is teaching in parables. He responds according to the King James Version with,
11. He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know
the mysteries of the kingdom of the heaven, but to them it is not given.
12. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given,
and he shall have more abundance;
but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
(Matthew 13: 11-12)
I do not know about you, but that seems a little capricious to me. I also know that JESUS is not capricious so what does verse 12 mean?
Thanks to Joseph Smith's inspired work on the Bible we now know.
The JST takes verse 12 and splits it into two parts and changes the main verb.
For whosoever receiveth, to him shall be given,
and he shall have more abundance;
But whosoever continueth not to receive,
from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
That sounds more like GOD to me. If you receive instruction from Him, and you follow it, you get more instruction. You grow. If you continue to trust GOD and follow his counsel, then eventually you can have your calling and election made sure. That is the best possible outcome for the test we are currently taking.
If you get information from GOD and ignore it or fail to heed it, then you wither. The risk is that is you do that enough without repenting you can die spiritually. Dying spiritually is infinitely worse than physically dying.
GOD knows more than all of us put together, so we don't we just start listening to Him? He only has our best interests at heart. He loves us unconditionally, but HE cannot bless us equally, unless we all start doing what he advises us to do.
No one is going to get to the other side and say,
"Boy, I sure regret following JESUS!"
