# Commandment

Explore how commandments intersect with transhumanist thought and Mormon theology, revealing divine guidance as an invitation to transcend human limitations.

[Image: Before Adam received any prohibition in Eden, he was charged “to dress it and to keep it,” and the Hebrew verb for keeping the garden is the same one Deuteronomy uses for keeping the commandments.]

Before Adam received any prohibition in Eden, he received a task. God placed him in the garden "to dress it and to keep it" (Genesis 2:15), and the verb that translates to keep, *shamar*, is the one Deuteronomy later uses each time it urges Israel to keep the commandments. The commandments themselves are *mitzvot*, from a root meaning "to command," and the Greek *entolē* of the New Testament comes from a verb meaning to entrust someone with a specific charge. In this reading, a commandment is an assignment given within a covenantal relationship, and keeping it means guarding and tending what has been entrusted.

## Commandment as Covenant

[Image: Scholars have compared the Book of Mormon’s promise of prosperity in the land to ancient Near Eastern treaties, in which a great king pledged protection and continued life in the land to those who kept his statutes.]

The Book of Mormon repeats one formula from its opening chapters onward: "inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper" (1 Nephi 2:20). Scholars have connected this refrain to the suzerain-vassal treaties of the ancient Near East, in which a great king secured the loyalty of a people and pledged protection and continued life in an appointed land in return. On this reading, commandments are the terms of a covenant. They bind the one who gives them as surely as they bind those who receive them.

Restoration scripture continues the pattern. Early revelations to Joseph Smith gathered moral and ritual instruction into a law for the young Church, echoing the Decalogue and the Levitical codes while setting their requirements within the gospel of Christ. Some of these commandments restate the law of Moses; most are New Testament teachings given new force for a covenant community preparing to build Zion.

## Agency and Love

In the Restoration account of Eden, the first commandment arrives with an explicit grant of choice: "nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee" (Moses 3:17). Agency belongs to the law from its first appearance.

Latter-day Saint writers have pressed this point against the habit of treating commandments as a recipe that yields identical results for anyone who follows the steps. God regards each person individually, and obedience on this account does not purchase additional divine love. It opens a person to the power of a love already given, so that they can do the particular good they are suited to do. Commandments taught in settings that disregard agency or withhold love can wound the people they were meant to help.

Others describe two postures toward divine law. In the first, rules function as transactions with a distant God who is easily offended and must be appeased. In the second, the rules express the character of a God who seeks the growth of his children, and keeping them becomes a response to that care. Jesus placed the whole law within the second posture when he named love of God and love of neighbor as the commandments on which all others depend (Matthew 22:36–40).

## Law and the Structure of Reality

The Doctrine and Covenants extends law beyond human conduct. "That which is governed by law is also preserved by law and perfected and sanctified by the same," the revelation states, and "unto every kingdom is given a law; and unto every law there are certain bounds also and conditions" (D&C 88:34–38). No space exists without law, and the glory a being can receive depends on the law it is able to abide.

Mormon transhumanists read this teaching as continuous with natural law. If commandments describe the conditions under which persons and communities flourish, keeping them aligns a life with how growth actually works. Revelation and empirical inquiry then address the same reality from different directions, and each can refine the other's account of what God asks.

## Commandment as Commission

[Image: Followers of Jesus Christ are expected to be anxiously engaged in a good cause and need not be commanded in all things]

The image of keeping a garden suggests that commandments are meant to amplify agency, not restrain it. Restoration scripture says so directly: "it is not meet that I should command in all things," and people "should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will" (D&C 58:26–28). The same passage calls the servant who must be compelled in all things slothful. The faithful are expected to act without waiting for instruction on every point.

Mormon transhumanists argue that this ethic extends to science and technology. God works through various means, and human knowledge and tools are among the means he provides. Jesus told his disciples to "heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead" (Matthew 10:8). Read as a standing commission, these words direct disciples toward medicine, public health, and research into restoring and extending life as participation in work God has assigned.

## The Garden and the Charge

Adam received a place to tend, a law to keep, and the freedom to choose. Mormon transhumanists find the same structure in the commandments given. A charge from God is received through covenant and carried out with growing knowledge and power, anchored by the expectation that the scope of what is entrusted will widen as those who fulfill their stewardship become more capable.

*See also*: [Agency](/topical-guide/agency), [Authority](/topical-guide/authority-0), [Conscience](/topical-guide/conscience), [Covenant](/topical-guide/covenant), [Ethics](/topical-guide/ethics), [Faith](/topical-guide/faith), [Law](/topical-guide/law), [Ordinance](/topical-guide/ordinance), [Prayer](/topical-guide/prayer), [Repent](/topical-guide/repent), [Responsibility](/topical-guide/responsibility), [Salvation](/topical-guide/salvation), [Sanctify](/topical-guide/sanctify), [Worship](/topical-guide/worship)