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In our relationships with one another, justice gets you the first mile. Justice is an unlimited good. That is, you can never have too much justice. Benevolence gets you the second mile, conditional on having first traveled the first mile. One cannot be benevolent without first being just any more than one can go the second mile without having gone the first. Alma 42:25 is where Alma describes this principle to his son … that Mercy has to come after justice or else God's Kingdom becomes ungovernable. Those spirits who are called to come forth in “the morning of the first resurrection” (in patriarchal blessings) are identified in the spirit world as “the spirits of just men made perfect,” (D&C 129:3). In other words, these individuals are not only just but have added to that initial baseline benevolent virtue, the added sanctifying virtue of benevolence, making them even more perfect.

⁠— Armon Eaton