The Lord has given commandments, and He expects His people to obey, taught leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in October 2026 general conference.
From the commandment to love one’s neighbor, to doing Heavenly Father’s will, to living the law of the fast and paying tithes and offerings, obedience to these commandments will help people live better lives — and see blessings from Heaven.
In the Saturday morning session, President D. Todd Christofferson, second counselor in the First Presidency, spoke out against gambling. Overarching all other concerns, he said, is the fact that gambling is morally wrong. It is built on the desire to obtain something for nothing.
“Its structure requires that any gain comes at others’ expense. It’s hard to reconcile that with the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves,” President Christofferson said.
Gambling produces nothing of value and takes away from the path of Jesus Christ, he taught.
“Today, I am pleading with all of us to live life on a higher plane. God has granted life and agency to each of us, and each of us is accountable to Him for how we live that life,” he said.
In the Sunday morning session, Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said the Lord wants people to experience the joy of a virtuous life.
“The Lord expects us to live lives of virtue and integrity and to follow His commandments,” Elder Cook said. “He taught, ‘And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?’ (Luke 6:46). On another occasion, He said, ‘Not everyone that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven’ (Matthew 7:21).”
The law of the fast
Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke about the law of the fast in the Saturday morning session, saying he has prayerfully pondered the sacred blessings Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ offer to those who draw near to Them through faithfully observing this law.
“From the bottom of my heart, I testify of the sanctifying spiritual power that flows into our lives as we seek to live this law in a higher and holier way,” Elder Soares said.
He discussed Isaiah 58, where the Lord revealed the law’s divine purpose and blessings. And he shared how he has seen the blessings of fasting — and of paying fast offerings — enter people’s lives.
“Personally, I have felt an increase of inspiration and revelation as I have sought to live this law with greater sincerity,” Elder Soares said.
Tithes and offerings
Elder Moisés Villanueva and Elder Patricio M. Giuffra, both General Authority Seventies, spoke about faithfully paying tithes and offerings.
In the Sunday afternoon session, Elder Villanueva said when missionaries taught his mother about the law of tithing, she — although a single mother providing for eight children — chose to obey.
She trusted the Lord’s promise in Malachi 3:10, Elder Villanueva said, which reads:
“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”
He read Doctrine and Covenants 130:20–21: “There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated — And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.”
When Elder Giuffra was a missionary, he taught a 70-year-old woman who cleaned houses and washed clothes to pay the rent. He wondered whether the Lord might have an exception for her in paying tithing, he said in the Saturday afternoon session.
But his mission president told him, “Elder Giuffra, you are no one to deny this sister the blessings of the law of tithing. There are no exceptions to this commandment.”
Elder Giuffra said he has seen “innumerable blessings,” both temporal and spiritual, come to his family as they have sought to faithfully live the law of tithings and offerings.
Blessings come in the Lord’s own way and timing, and sometimes they are subtle, Elder Villanueva said. But when he has looked for those blessings from heaven, he always sees them in his life.
