Why do we Impart of our Substance?

I think about what motivates people to do what they do. I listen to what people have to say about what brings about about the greatest prosperity. And I conclude that man must have the inherent right to own what he produces. Nobody has the right to take away another's substance. Now these fundamental beliefs will always create inequality. Some become rich while others remain poor. What is to be done? Some will say that there's nothing to be done, that this is the way of our natural dog eat dog world. Others will want to break the cardinal law above and force others to involuntarily give (government enforced redistribution). If one believes that substance ought to be shared, the only honest answer to the problem is what the Lord teaches in the following story.

Alma has been teaching a group of people the gospel. They believe in Alma's words and want to unite in living the way believers would live. Their actions are a result of this love they feel in their hearts toward God and each other. They know where happiness is found.

Where is happiness found? The people already expressed their willingness to mourn with those that mourn and comfort those that stand in need of comfort. They have made a covenant with God through baptism to follow Jesus Christ. They desired this way of life more than anything else.

After the people were baptized, the Lord has Alma organize His church. As part of this organizing, Alma does the following in Mosiah 18: 27-29:

And again Alma commanded that the people of the church should impart of
their substance, every one according to that which he had; if he have more
abundantly he should impart more abundantly; and of him that had but little, but
little should be required; and to him that had not should be given.

And thus they should impart of their substance of their own free will and good
desires towards God, and to those priests that stood in need, yea, and to every needy, naked soul.

And this he said unto them, having been commanded of God; and they did walk uprightly before God, imparting to one another both temporally and spiritually according to their needs and their wants. (italics added)

So, what is the answer to the rich and poor question? How does the wealth get redistributed? Of our own free will and good desires towards God. Do we desire the same thing that Alma's people desired? If these doctrines of Christ feel foreign to us, why do they? Mormon asks a question along the same lines:

Why do ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life, and yet suffer the
hungry, and the needy, and the naked, and the sick and the afflicted to pass by
you, and notice them not? (Mormon 8:39)

Mormon answers his question:

37For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted

Mormon ask another question:

38 ...Why are ye ashamed to take upon you the name of Christ? Why do ye not think that greater is the value of an endless happiness than that misery which never dies—because of the praise of the world?

Isn't it interesting that Mormon ties being ashamed to take upon ourselves the name of Christ and endless happiness to using our substance (our prosperity) for our enjoyment as we walk by the needy and the poor and notice them not? This may have been what Alma meant when he said, " ...can ye lay aside these things, and trample the Holy One under your feet...?"(Alma 5:53).This tenet of Christian faith is everywhere in the scriptures yet we want to avoid it. I think it makes us feel uncomfortable. Or, perhaps its too disruptive to our prosperous lives. It really is an inconvenient doctrine.

If we don't have these good desires in our hearts, what hangs us up? Jacob says that we first need to obtain a hope in Christ. (Jacob 2:19) We need to believe that these teachings are true and work on ourselves (faith, repentance, service, etc.) until we have the same desires that the true believers in all ages had - from Adam to the present. When we unite this way, we walk uprightly before God (Mosiah 18:29).