Our Surplus

The revelation on tithing in the Doctrine and Covenants is where we get our directive to pay 10% of our income on tithing: “Those who have thus been tithed shall pay one-tenth of all their interest annually” (D&C 119:4).  That’s a pretty simple concept, but when it was given in 1838, giving ten percent was not the only requirement.  The revelation begins with this verse: “Verily, thus saith the Lord, I require all their surplus property to be put into the hands of the bishop of my church in Zion.”  Giving all of their surplus was the first requirement, “the beginning of the tithing of my people” (D&C 119:3).  After this, then the requirement going forward was to pay 10 percent.  Bishop Partridge at the time explained it this way, “The saints are required to give all their surplus property into the hands of the bishop of Zion, and after this first tithing they are to pay annually one tenth of all their interest.”  Brigham Young was assigned to go among the Saints at the time of the revelation “to find out what surplus property that they had,” and according to Joseph, the Saints were to be their own judges to determine what was surplus property. 

Today we aren’t required by the law of tithing to give our surplus, but this wasn’t the only revelation that spoke of this principle in the Doctrine and Covenants.  In “the law” given to the Church, the Saints were told this: “And behold, thou wilt remember the poor, and consecrate of thy properties for their support that which thou hast to impart unto them, with a covenant and a deed which cannot be broken….   And again, if there shall be properties in the hands of the church, or any individuals of it, more than is necessary for their support after this first consecration, which is a residue to be consecrated unto the bishop, it shall be kept to administer to those who have not” (D&C 42:30, 33).  In the same revelation, the Lord also said, “And if thou obtainest more than that which would be for thy support, thou shalt give it into my storehouse, that all things may be done according to that which I have said” (D&C 42:55).  The principle is simple: if you have more than you need, you should give it to the bishop so that it can be administered to those who are in need.  This is consistent with this principle taught later in the Doctrine and Covenants: “And you are to be equal, or in other words, you are to have equal claims on the properties, for the benefit of managing the concerns of your stewardships, every man according to his wants and his needs, inasmuch as his wants are just” (D&C 82:17).  It’s easy to suggest that this is not applicable to us anymore because we don’t live the same kind of consecration today, but the principle has not changed: the Lord expects us to use our means to help others once we have been able take care of our own families.  The natural impulse in our society when any extra wealth is obtained is to do as the rich man in Jesus’ parable: “I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods…. Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.”  But to that attitude the Lord’s response is simple and piercing: “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?” (Luke 12:16-20).  As we consider the way that we use the means the Lord has provided for us—and what we do with our own “surplus”—I guess we only need to ask ourselves this question: would the Lord call us a fool as well?