Laman and Lemuel are clasic examples of people who practice conditional obedience. They will be obedient when they agree and not if they disagree. They were willing to try to get the brass plates until it got hard. They were willing to persuade Ishmael and his family so that they could have wives but after having done so they didn’t really want to go back into the wilderness with Lehi.
As I have so often told my children, and qualifier on obedience—whether “delayed obedience” or “grudging obedience” or “selective obedience”— is really disobedience.
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