The Law of Consecration

By Hollie Wells

It is nearly impossible to avoid reading, talking, and thinking about the law of consecration when studying the Doctrine & Covenants. I remember growing up and having lessons in seminary and Sunday school on section 42 and being taught about the law of consecration. I don’t remember specific things they said but I remember coming away with the overall impression that the law of consecration was an impressive ideal, but something of the past, something that we did not practice in the church today. 

However, when I was endowed in the House of the Lord, I was impressed by the covenant I made to keep the law of consecration. This helped me understand that consecration most definitely is still something we do as members of the church, it just takes a different form than what we read about in the Doctrine & Covenants and in other church history documents. Related to the law of consecration is the law of sacrifice. After I was endowed, I was intrigued by these laws and sought to better understand them. Both vaguely imply giving things up, but what is the difference? 

To illustrate sacrifice, I have often turned to the story of Lehi leaving behind all of his gold and silver. When he landed in the promised land, his people found that there was gold, silver, and ore to spare (1 Nephi 2:4, 1 Nephi 18:25). Often when God calls us to sacrifice something, we find that He returns infinitely greater blessings on our heads (Matthew 19:29). That does not make the sacrifice easy, however. Abraham was asked to sacrifice his own son. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and later Abinadi were asked to give their lives to the fiery furnaces, regardless of the outcome. Whether it be material possessions, relationships, sins, or innocent habits, the things God asks us to give up sometimes can be so dear to us. I once heard someone say, “if it doesn’t sting a little, is it really a sacrifice?” 

To help contrast sacrifice against consecration, I think about the very concrete principle of money. Sacrifice would be God prompting you to take all the cash you saved up in the mason jar in your closet and get rid of it: burn it, bury it, whatever, like Lehi leaving behind his gold. Consecration would be following the commandment to pay tithes and offerings, and then following a prompting to help pay for a young woman in your ward’s mission, or perhaps buy a little gift for a widow next door, or buy the ingredients to make a struggling family a meal. Whether giving up or utilizing, we covenant to do both things as God prompts us to do. Some principles of consecration are a universal commandment for the church, as the sharing of property and income was under Joseph Smith’s revelation. Churchwide, we pay tithing and are asked to pay a generous fast offering. We are also encouraged to be as generous as we can be with our time, talents, and other God-given resources, which can look different for individuals at different stages of their lives. 

Consecration is using what God has given us for the furthering of the kingdom. Time is a good example of something we do not really sacrifice, but rather consecrate. We use the time

God has given us to serve or lift His children and build the kingdom. Maybe we are sacrificing the other activities or rest we were going to fill that time with, but our time is what is consecrated. Another concrete example is consecrated oil. We are not taking oil and pouring it down the drain, we are setting aside the oil that could have been used for other purposes for the sole use of anointing the sick and afflicted.