D&C 70: Stewards Over the Revelations and Commandments
I was cleaning out the shop last weekend. Not the kind of cleaning where you sweep the floor and call it done. The kind where you pull everything off the shelves and decide what stays, what goes, and what belongs to somebody else.
I found a chisel I borrowed from a friend three years ago. I had not used it in at least two. I sharpened it, wiped it down, and drove it back to his house that afternoon. It was not mine. I was just the one holding it.
That is the closest I can get to what D&C 70 is about. Six men were called to be stewards over the revelations and commandments. Not owners. Stewards.
What Is the Law of Stewardship in D&C 70
The Lord called six men by name. Joseph Smith, Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, John Whitmer, Sidney Rigdon, and W. W. Phelps. They were appointed as stewards over the revelations and commandments given to the church.
Alright, let's think about it this way. A steward is somebody who manages something that belongs to someone else. You do not own the thing. You are responsible for it, you keep it in good shape, and you use it for the purpose it was given. Eventually you give an account of what you did with it.
Verse 4 is where the weight of it lands.
And an account of this stewardship will I require of them in the day of judgment.
Not a suggestion. A requirement. The Lord says plainly that he will ask for an accounting. That changes how you look at the thing in your hands.
Meaning of D&C 70 Stewards Over Revelations
Here is what I keep coming back to. These six men were not being honored. They were being trusted, and there is a difference. Being trusted with something means you can break it, lose it, or fail to pass it on.
The revelations were not just spiritual documents. They were physical objects that needed to be recorded and transcribed, then published. Somebody had to keep the papers safe. Somebody had to decide who got to read them. Somebody had to make sure the next generation had access to what had been given.
That is what a steward does. You keep the thing in good order so it is there when it is needed.
I think about this when I look at my tool chest. I did not build most of those tools. I bought some and inherited a few, and one plane belonged to my grandfather. I do not own it in the sense that I can do whatever I want with it. I am keeping it for the next person who will need it.
How Does the Law of Equality Work in D&C 70
The section does not stop at stewardship. It moves into something harder. Verses 7 through 14 talk about surplus and the storehouse.
And let all things which are written in this book be kept for the instruction of the children of Zion, and for the benefit of the poor.
The idea is that what you have beyond what you need does not really belong to you. It belongs to the storehouse. It is for the person who does not have enough.
Fair enough. I have thought about this a lot. I keep a surplus of walnut and cherry in the shop. Not because I need it right now. Because someday a neighbor will need a piece for a repair, or a project will come up that I did not plan for. The surplus is readiness, not hoarding.
But verse 14 adds a warning.
Nevertheless, in your temporal things you shall be equal, and this not grudgingly, otherwise the abundance of the manifestations of the Spirit shall be withheld.
The grudging part is what gets me. It is not enough to give. You have to give without resentment, and if you hand over the surplus but you are angry about it, the Spirit pulls back. That is a hard line.
Difference Between Ownership and Stewardship in the LDS Context
This is where the chapter becomes personal. The Lord makes it clear in verses 9 and 10 that the law of stewardship applies to every member of the church, not just the six men named at the beginning.
Behold, this is what the Lord requires of every man in his stewardship, even every man who hath need, that he may be made equal with his brother.
Every man. That includes me and you. Whatever you have been given, you are managing it for someone else. Your time, your money, your skills, your testimony. None of it is yours in the final sense.
It is the kind of thing you only learn the hard way. I spent years thinking of my life as something I owned. My career, my shop, my weekends. The shift to thinking of it as something I am managing for a season changes everything. You stop asking what you want and start asking what you are supposed to do with what you have been given.
I wrote about a similar idea in D&C 69: Why John Whitmer Was Called to Travel with Oliver Cowdery. John Whitmer was called to be a historian and a steward of the church's records. The same principle applies. The records were not his. He was keeping them for the church.
Responsibility of a Steward in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The chapter closes with a practical instruction. Verse 5 says the stewards were to manage the revelations and the concerns thereof, the benefits thereof. Verse 6 says they were commanded not to give these things unto the church or unto the world. The revelations were to be kept and managed, not scattered.
I don't know. I think we sometimes treat stewardship like a spiritual concept that does not have practical teeth. But D&C 70 is specific about what that means. There is a storehouse, an accounting, a warning about grudging, and a requirement to manage what has been given.
The same thread runs through D&C 68: Teaching Children Faith and the Duty of Parents and Bishops, where the Lord lays out specific responsibilities for parents and leaders. Stewardship is not abstract. It is what you do on Tuesday.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who were the original stewards appointed in D&C 70?
The Lord appointed Joseph Smith, Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, John Whitmer, Sidney Rigdon, and W. W. Phelps to be stewards over the revelations and commandments given to the church.
What does it mean to be a steward according to this section?
A steward is someone entrusted to manage resources, revelations, or responsibilities that belong to God. The key characteristic of a stewardship is that the individual is accountable to the original owner for how those things were managed.
What happens if a steward manages their temporal things grudgingly?
According to verse 14, if temporal equality is not pursued without grudging, the abundance of the manifestations of the Spirit shall be withheld. This suggests a direct link between generosity with material things and spiritual receptivity.
Does the law of stewardship apply to everyone or just the six men named?
The Lord makes clear in verses 9 and 10 that the law of stewardship applies to every member of the church. No one is exempt from the requirement to be a faithful steward of what they have been given.
I dropped that chisel off at my friend's house. He said he had forgotten he lent it to me. I said I had not. It was his, and I was just holding it.
That is what D&C 70 is asking us to remember. None of it is ours. We are just holding it.
-- D.