Partakers of the Heavenly Gift

When the Savior gave the words of Malachi to the Nephites, He included the invitation to pay tithing.  After suggesting the people had robbed Him, God said in the writings of Malachi, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house; and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (3 Nephi 24:10).  It is likely that the people of Nephi needed this reminder to give of their substance to the Lord and His church for prior to the great destruction in the land “there became a great inequality in all the land, insomuch that the church began to be broken up” (3 Nephi 6:14).  Clearly with this description the people at large had not been consecrating their gain to the Lord through tithing and the poor were not being helped through the Lord’s storehouse.  These words of Malachi are the only direct reference to tithing in the Book of Mormon besides a brief mention that Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek as “one-tenth part of all he possessed” (Alma 13:15).  But the Nephite prophets had clearly taught the need to impart of their substance to the poor and tithing may have been the mechanism whereby they did this.  For example, Alma described the commandment this way: “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” (Mosiah 18:27).  This matches exactly how tithing works in practice—with a ten percent donation those who have more give more, those who have less give less, and those who have none give none.

               Though the Savior gave this law of tithing to the Nephites during His visit, perhaps suggesting that this was all that He required of them, their actions exceeded the requirement of one-tenth of their possessions.  In what appears to have still been within that first year of His visit, Mormon described their society this way: “And they taught, and did minister one to another; and they had all things common among them, every man dealing justly, one with another” (3 Nephi 26:19).  Later Mormon emphasized again that this was their manner of living: “And they had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift” (4 Nephi 1:3).  Incredibly, this way of life together with all things in common lasted about 165 years until in the 201^st year when “from that time forth they did have their goods and their substance no more common among them” (4 Nephi 1:25). 

               So what motivated these Nephites to give not just ten percent but all their possessions to each other and to the Lord?  How did they sustain this kind of society for generations, with the people willing to give all they had without concern for personal property and belongings?  Perhaps the verses prior to 3 Nephi 26:19 where Mormon first mentioned it give us a clue: “They both saw and heard these children; yea, even babes did open their mouths and utter marvelous things; and the things which they did utter were forbidden that there should not any man write them…. [They] were filled with the Holy Ghost. And many of them saw and heard unspeakable things, which are not lawful to be written” (3 Nephi 26:16-18).  This people were having such marvelous spiritual experiences that they could not even be recorded.  They were filled with the Holy Ghost and experienced a miraculous outpouring of the Spirit on their children, and after describing this Mormon noted that they “had all things common among them.”  With such incredible and powerful spiritual manifestations, money and possessions likely just didn’t mean much anymore.  They had been filled with the Spirit of God, that which caused even the Savior to say, “My joy is full” and they were promised that they too could have “fulness of joy” (3 Nephi 17:20, 28:10).  What did money or possessions or perishable earthly riches mean when they were having such incredible sacred experiences with the Savior that their joy was full?  If their joy was literally full than that would mean that possessions could add nothing to that happiness.  As they continued to have these marvelous outpourings of the Spirit for many decades, they no longer cared for riches and were willing to give all they had to the Lord.  Perhaps the lesson then for us is that as we grow closer to the Spirit, as we feel more fully the love of God for us, as we have sacred spiritual experiences, our desire for the things of the world should decrease such that we care little for amassing wealth and the things of the world.  As we become filled with the Spirit and find joy therein, the happiness of material possessions will simply pale in comparison to the blessings of that “heavenly gift.”