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There is an analogous passage in the Book of Mormon, in King Benjamin’s marvelous speech. And, to me anyway, there’s a striking anecdote (from outside the Book of Mormon) in which it plays a role:
Truman Madsen once told me of a year-end Christmas party for the missionaries who served on Temple Square. This was a long time ago, when those missionaries were older local men rather than today’s young full-time sister missionaries.
President Joseph Fielding Smith, of the Council of the Twelve, was to be the concluding speaker at the dinner party. He had been allotted a fair amount of time for his remarks.
Apparently, at least to President Smith’s taste, the earlier remarks and testimonials of the evening took a bit too much of a self-congratulatory turn, about all of the great things that the Temple Square missionaries had accomplished on behalf of the Lord’s Church during the preceding twelve months.
So, when his turn came to speak, he stood up, opened his scriptures, and read Mosiah 2:20-21 to them. “In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen,” he said when he’d finished reading, and sat down.
I may be mistaken, but I seem to recall that Truman was there in the audience, and that, at least in retrospect, he thought President Smith’s non-speech rather well-aimed. He told me that you could have heard the proverbial pin drop, afterwards.
You might think the rebuke just a tad sharp, and perhaps it was. But the Lord’s statement in Luke 17:7-10, the passage under consideration here, is pretty tough, too. And it’s certainly thought-provoking.
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