Sunday Thoughts on Consecration
Consecration can be a hot topic (see what I did there???)
Like in all Things, the Lord Teaches Principles With Consecration and Tithing So We Can Use Our Free Will
When speaking of, reading about, or learning the principles of tithing or the law of consecration, a question will inevitably come up about the meanings of specific terms. Sometimes, those questions are directly aimed at the definitions of terms, and at other times, they concern the application of those terms. In the Doctrine and Covenants (and other locations), terms such as ‘residue’, ‘sufficient’, ‘more than is necessary’, ‘wants’, or ‘amply supplied’ are used. When discussing tithing specifically, the term 'increase' is often wondered about or asked about. It draws people into trying to figure out the letter of the law or the checklist required to determine how much to give. Is it net of taxes or gross? Do tips count? How do I account for my retirement savings that come out before taxes? Do I pay on unearned capital or wait for the sale of the item? What if I had significant losses in a year? How do I figure for those losses?
I'm sure the early saints had very similar questions, issues, and worries. The Lord did not spell it out. The Lord always gives us our agency so that we can personally determine how to follow Him. He wants our hearts, not just a formulaic sum of money or property.
The Lord carefully words his law to teach principles. The scriptures give knowledge of the Lord's will but without coercion or compulsion. It enables us to become engaged in the "good cause" and allows us to do so with our free will. We are stewards of all we have; the Lord created it all, and our choices allow us to decide on how we will be as stewards.
Doctrine and Covenants 58:27-29
27 Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;
28 For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.
29 But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned.
The Lord will never force anyone to follow Him. He invites. He teaches. The choice is always ours. Our agency is something He will never take away from us. Past leaders and prophets have provided us with guidance on how to exercise our free will in areas such as tithing and consecration.
Marion G. Romney asked, "What prohibits us from giving as much in fast offerings as we would have given in surpluses [in the 1830s]? Nothing but our own limitations." (Marion G. Romney, in Conference Report, April 1966, 100.) Our limitations are often simply self-imposed.
President Spencer W. Kimball taught that when we can, we could give more than the normal assumption. "Give, instead of the amount we saved by our two meals of fasting, perhaps much, much more—ten times more where we are in a position to do it." (Spencer W. Kimball, in Conference Report, April 1974, 184.)
“In pondering and pursuing consecration,” said Elder Neal A. Maxwell, “understandably we tremble inwardly at what may be required. Yet the Lord has said consolingly, ‘My grace is sufficient for you’ (D&C 17:8). Do we really believe Him? He has also promised to make weak things strong (Ether 12:27). Are we really willing to submit to that process? Yet if we desire fullness, we cannot hold back part!” (Maxwell, in Conference Report, April 2002, 44.)
And for those who worry about the accounting specifics, Elder Orson Pratt observed and reminded us that there is nothing "laid down in the revelations, requiring us to take [a] particular method." (Orson Pratt, in Journal of Discourses, 21:148)
The Law of Consecration is Eternal and In Force Today
To "consecrate" something is to make it sacred. We covenant in our temples to consecrate all we have, our talents, our skills, all we have, and our very lives. Think about what that means. We covenant to strive continually to make our very lives sacred.
I have often heard from well-meaning church goers and members that we are "not currently" required to follow the law of consecration, and that we have the law of tithing in its place. In some cases, they are specifically referring to the law of consecration as they imagine it was required in the 1830s in Ohio or Missouri. I grew up thinking that the law of consecration was something akin to communism, and the reason it failed was due to greed and people not being honest in their dealings. That leads to the assumption that the law will return when we are ready—all incorrect thinking.
The problem with that type of thinking and those assumptions is many. Not the least of which is that, as I mentioned, we covenant with the Lord to live the law of consecration today in the temples. For those who believe that consecration is a higher law and that tithing is our current lower law, that covenant must cause confusion or some cognitive dissonance. I know it did for me. But both are eternal laws. Details of implementation may change a bit, but both are eternal laws.
In a wonderful overview of the law of consecration, Steven C. Harper wrote, "I’m often asked by students, why don’t Church leaders require us to live the law of consecration today? I wonder what they mean by require. Do we anticipate that the deacons’ quorum will be sent to inspect our pantries or audit our bank accounts? If so, we do not understand the law of consecration or the way God works. And we definitely do not understand the law of consecration as contained in the Doctrine and Covenants." (Steven C. Harper, "'All Things Are the Lord's': The Law of Consecration in the Doctrine and Covenants," The Doctrine and Covenants: Revelations in Context, ed. Andrew H. Hedges, J. Spencer Fluhman, and Alonzo L. Gaskill, 212–28.)
Consecration - Stewardship vs. Ownership
In the same article, Steven C. Harper explained one of the principles the Lord is teaching us by asking us to consecrate all that we have. He wrote, "An owner is accountable to no one. A steward is a free agent empowered to act independently but accountable to the actual owner for all actions." The law of consecration can be thought of as a three-legged stool of agency, stewardship, and accountability. To consecrate means to make sacred. The Lord gave us this law so that, through our own agency, we can learn to make all we have and all we are sacred and see ourselves as stewards of all the Lord has and all He has blessed us with. This is in contrast to seeing ourselves as owners who have no accountability but to ourselves. This process may take considerable time for us to perfect, but the Lord has promised to transform our weaknesses into strengths and to multiply our efforts when we turn to Him.
In March of 1834, Joseph Smith wrote a letter to William W. Phelps to teach him some of these concepts, hopefully in a loving way. W.W. Phelps was a faithful member who had consecrated his possessions and was working with all he had to further the kingdom of God. He was a printer by trade and was asked by the Lord to use those skills—and his possessions—in a way only he could to help build the kingdom. He had followed the revelations and deeded his printing presses and other possessions to the church, which had then given them back to him as a steward. Joseph noticed something very subtle in his language, and he took the opportunity to help W.W. Phelps feel even more like a steward. He wrote:
“Bro. William—You say ‘my press, my types, &c.’ Where, our brethren ask, did you get them, & how came they to be ‘yours?’ No hardness, but a caution, for you know that it is, We, not I, and all things are the Lord’s, and he opened the hearts of his Church to furnish these things, or we should not have been privileged with using them.” (Postscript, Joseph Smith to Edward Partridge and Others, March 30, 1834, in Joseph Smith, Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, ed. Dean C. Jessee, rev. ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2002), 338–39.)
All things are the Lord's, and we are stewards. Our very life and our very breath come from God. We could see ourselves as owners, forgetting where it all comes from, and be accountable to no one but ourselves. Alternatively, we can view ourselves as stewards of all that the Lord has gifted us and work to follow Him. As we do the latter, we are blessed with more, our trust in the Lord grows, and His trust in us does as well.
18 But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
21 I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.
22 And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.
23 And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him.
24 And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?
25 And now I ask, can ye say aught of yourselves? I answer you, Nay. Ye cannot say that ye are even as much as the dust of the earth; yet ye were created of the dust of the earth; but behold, it belongeth to him who created you.
32 And it shall come to pass, that after they are laid before the bishop of my church, and after that he has received these testimonies concerning the consecration of the properties of my church, that they cannot be taken from the church, agreeable to my commandments, every man shall be made accountable unto me, a steward over his own property, or that which he has received by consecration, as much as is sufficient for himself and family.
The Lord carefully words his law to teach principles. The scriptures give knowledge of the Lord's will but without coercion or compulsion. It enables us to become engaged in the "good cause" and allows us to do so with our free will. We are stewards of all we have; the Lord created it all, and our choices allow us to decide on how we will be as stewards.