3898 — The Law in the Heart
Explain Rom. 2:14, 15. If the heathen have received the law in their hearts, why is the Sabbath not found, as well as other precepts? M. H. W. It would be, if the law were there; but the trouble is that sin has obliterated the writing of God's law in the hearts of the heathen. We could meet this question by other questions similar: If the heathen have received the law in their hearts, why is not the second commandment found there? Why have they multiplied gods and idols? Why is not the seventh commandment found there? The heathen have really made the transgression of the seventh commandment a part of their very religion. It is certainly clear, as history recorded on tablets of brick and stone, and in the traditions of ancient peoples, that in ancient times the Sabbath did have place among the heathen nations, and in fact all the perversions of all the commandments of God show that they once had the truth. For instance, the observance of Sunday in honor of the sun is only a perversion of God's true commandment. They feel that Deity demands worship, and that a time should be set apart to worship. Worshiping the sun, therefore, they dedicated a day to him. All these things, all these perversions, show us that the truth existed among the people of the world in the beginning. Were the ministers of the apostolic church supported by the tithing system, or by voluntary contributions? In the epistolary writings, the system is not enjoined, but "As a man purposes in his heart, so let him give." D. N. W. Evidently they were supported by both, even as now new converts coming to the faith are continually donating for the work of the ministry and their support, and those who had come into the church and were fully instructed doubtless paid tithes. That was not simply a Levitical ordinance, but it belonged to the Melchizedek priesthood as well, and Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. The same thought is conveyed in 1 Cor. 9:13: "Know ye not that they that minister about sacred things eat of the things of the temple, and they that wait upon the altar have their portion with the altar?" This is a reference to the priests and Levites, that ministered in the temple of old, and we know that the priests and the Levites were supported by the tithes, the Levites from the tithe of all the people, and the priests from the tithe of the Levites. The apostle continues, "Even so [that is, in like manner] did the Lord ordain that they that proclaim the gospel should live of the gospel." That is, it was the duty of the church to support the ministers of God in this dispensation, just as it was of the people to support them in old times. Our Lord's words indicate the same thing when He told the Jews that they were very careful and circumspect about little things, which little things they ought to do, but were careless about the great things,—they paid tithe of mint, and rue, and anise, and cumin, which they ought to have done; and omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, and mercy, and faith, and the love of God; and these ought they to have done. Luke 11:42. And Malachi 3 is certainly a prophecy of the Christian dispensation, and it indicates that the tithing system is as truly binding now as it ever was.