Book of Mormon Story:
The Savior, Malachi, the Nephites, and Us

(See 3 Ne. 24.)

The tithing of my people … shall be a standing law unto them forever, … saith the Lord (D&C 119:3–4).

Today The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints uses our tithes for the building and the maintenance of temples and meetinghouses, for missionary work, and for other Church programs. But surely the most important reason we pay tithing is because the Lord has told us to, just as He told the people through prophets in ancient times.

Malachi was a prophet who lived near Jerusalem about 430 years before Jesus Christ was born and about 170 years after Lehi and his people left Jerusalem. Malachi admonished (warned) the people to pay their tithing.

The Savior told the Nephites that what Malachi had said about paying tithing was so important that they must write his words in their own records, which we now have in the Book of Mormon. Jesus Christ said that all those—and that includes us, today—who want to be with Him when He comes again must pay their tithing and other offerings. If we don’t, we are robbing God, Who, after all, gave us all that we have. (See 3 Ne. 24:8.)

When we do pay our tithing and other offerings, Jesus Christ has said that He will “open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (3 Ne. 24:10).

What a wonderful promise! He has given us this earth and all things in it, our families, the opportunity to be like Him if we are faithful and obedient, and much more. How He loves us! One way that we can show our love for Him is by keeping the commandment to pay our tithing and other offerings.

Illustrated by Jerry Harston