"Only in the Service of Your God"

Tonight, my mom and I read Mosiah 2:17 "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom, that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God."

I hope that's right. I tried to memorize it, and I typed that by memory. I'm really iffy about the punctuation, though. I didn't bother to try to memorize the punctuation.

Anyhow, I thought about that "only" part. Because, as I understand it, it's not possible to only serve God. When we serve our fellow beings, yes, we are serving God, but we are also serving our fellow beings. Service is being done for them, as well as for God. However, if we didn't serve our fellow beings and tried to only serve God, we couldn't do it. We cannot serve God without serving others because we can only serve God by serving others. I don't think God accepts any service to Him that does not also bless others.

Now, I did think of one way one could, theoretically, serve one's fellow beings and still only be in the service of one's god. However, that way required one to serve a different god. That god could take many forms, such as self-righteousness or the praise of the world. We might serve others only because we have to, or to pay off a favor, or to be owed one. We might have any number of reasons to do "service," including several reasons that have nothing to do with serving God or others and everything to do with serving ourselves. But that's why this theoretical possibility fails. If we do service for others, not for their sake, but for our own, we're not really serving them; we're serving ourselves.

I don't think it's possible to truly serve others without also serving God, and I don't think it's possible to truly serve God without also serving others. To serve God is to serve our fellow beings, and vice versa. So, no, I don't think it's possible to serve your fellow beings and still "only" serve God.