Mosiah 2:16 - 2:20

Mosiah 2:16 Behold, I say unto you that because I said unto you that I had spent my days in your service, I do not desire to boast, for I have only been in the service of God.

He say that his motivation for his service has been only for his people’s good. He has felt that serving the people was only serving his God.
[The only way one can serve God is to serve his children. One cannot serve God by hiding in a corner and not trying to sin. He has to be activity doing something to help others. In addition, we can do nothing directly for him such as wash his car or clean his house. He is in heaven, we are on the earth. His happiness is tired up in our progression so as we help those around us progress, we are helping him to greater glory.]

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.

King Benjamin tells his people this fact so that they will know that this is the proper way to live one’s life, that is, by serving others and seeing to their well being before your own is where true happiness lies. Serving God by serving others is what elevates you towards perfection and knowledge not self absorption.
[And it is interesting to me that the talents we have are really for helping others. Development of talents and abilities are really only refined and enlarged by service to others even if it is in our occupations or education. Our Father in Heaven has sent us here to be enlarged or added upon and the way that is accomplished is through service.]

Mosiah 2:18 Behold, ye have called me your king; and if I, whom ye call your king, do labor to serve you, then ought not ye to labor to serve one another?

He has tried to be an example of the principle. If he has spent his time and energy in serving his people, his people should be serving each other.

Mosiah 2:19 And behold also, if I, whom ye call your king, who has spent his days in your service, and yet has been in the service of God, do merit any thanks from you, O how you ought to thank your heavenly King!

King Benjamin points out again that if he merits any thanks from his people, it is God that deserves the thanks. It is God that has sustained the people during the times of war and uncertainty not necessarily any abilities he has.

Mosiah 2:20 I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another—

If a person could thank God with all his soul for this mortal experience, which experience has brought us happiness and given us rules of behavior which allows us to live with each other in peace, in fact —