Take your Bibles with me and turn to First Corinthians chapter 16. We finally made it out of chapter 15, which was a very long amazing chapter but a very long chapter, and now we're in chapter 16. (Which is as short as Chapter 15 is long.)
This is a very practical chapter. It is a chapter that deals with specific situations inside of this church and it's kind of like a conclusion and wrap up to the book of First Corinthians. We're going to read the whole chapter but we're only going to focus tonight on the first four verses of the chapter.
1 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye.
2 Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.
3 And when I come, whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters, them will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem.
4 And if it be meet that I go also, they shall go with me.
5 Now I will come unto you, when I shall pass through Macedonia: for I do pass through Macedonia.
6 And it may be that I will abide, yea, and winter with you, that ye may bring me on my journey whithersoever I go.
7 For I will not see you now by the way; but I trust to tarry a while with you, if the Lord permit.
8 But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost.
9 For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.
10 Now if Timotheus come, see that he may be with you without fear: for he worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do.
11 Let no man therefore despise him: but conduct him forth in peace, that he may come unto me: for I look for him with the brethren.
12 As touching our brother Apollos, I greatly desired him to come unto you with the brethren: but his will was not at all to come at this time; but he will come when he shall have convenient time.
13 Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.
14 Let all your things be done with charity.
15 I beseech you, brethren, (ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints,)
16 That ye submit yourselves unto such, and to every one that helpeth with us, and laboureth.
17 I am glad of the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus: for that which was lacking on your part they have supplied.
18 For they have refreshed my spirit and yours: therefore acknowledge ye them that are such.
19 The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.
20 All the brethren greet you. Greet ye one another with an holy kiss.
21 The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand.
22 If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.
23 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
24 My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.
1 Corinthians 16 (KJV)
Throughout this book Paul has answered a bunch of the Corinthians' questions. This whole book is just Paul answering questions that the Corinthians had sent him.
They had questions about:
division in the Church
marriage
spiritual gifts
Here he's going to deal with the last question. It's a question about giving. Look at verse number one again:
1 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye.
1 Corinthians 16:1 (KJV)
Let me explain what the context of this chapter is. One of Paul's big projects, and we see this in the book of Romans, we see this in the book of Galatians, we see this in the book of Acts. One of his big projects was collecting money for the poor Christians that lived in Jerusalem.
You know typically we think of a mother church supporting their mission projects but in the early church it just so happened that it was the other way around. Jerusalem, the mother church, had to be supported by these missionary churches spread throughout the Gentile world.
Why is that? Well a couple things were going on.
First the church in Jerusalem dealt with severe persecution. Almost everybody in the Jerusalem church would have been a Jewish believer, which means that their families and their communities would have ostracized them for coming to faith in Christ. They would have been pariahs in their society. They would have suffered financial harm.
Second the church at Jerusalem was going through a famine. We read about that in the book of Acts. Even if everything was alright and there was no persecution, they would have been in a time of great need.
Third it's probable that when all those people got saved at Pentecost they stuck around and were supported by that church. There's just a lot of need in this church at Jerusalem.
And Paul had it on his heart to help them. He wanted to take up an offering from all of these Gentile churches and bring it back to the mother church in Jerusalem to help these poor brothers and sisters in Christ in their need there. Now there's probably something else going on too. Paul, being a Jewish missionary to gentiles, there was a little bit of prejudice there. I think that Paul probably wanted to bring this money as a gift from these gentiles to bring it with the gentiles so they would give the money to kind of help heal that rift.
And so that's what Paul's talking about here specifically in 1 Corinthians chapter 16. But that doesn't mean that there aren't principles that we can learn from this gift and the instructions that Paul gives for this gift. In fact these might be some of the most practical and specific instructions in the entire New Testament about what giving as a New Testament believer looks like.
And I'm gonna give you one sentence for the whole message and then we're gonna walk through that sentence in four different pieces. Okay so here is what this passage we're gonna look at today is teaching:
Christians should give regularly, personally, proportionally, and carefully.
Let's pray and we'll jump right into this.
Christians should give
Again, verse one says this:
1 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye.
1 Corinthians 16:1 (KJV)
Paul is giving a command here to the church. He's saying you need to give. You need to be givers. Let's just start here and say Christians should be givers. Christians should be generous.
It's weird how the Sunday morning message and the Sunday night message go together sometimes, isn't it? We talked about this morning how we're supposed to be generous towards those who are in need.
David Guzik, in his commentary on First Corinthians, gives a really good list of principles for Christians in giving to others. I'm going to read you that list:
The Church has an obligation to help the truly needy. (James 1:27 - this is what we talked about this morning)
Benevolence distribution is a potential source of conflict and division and it is the job of deacons to prevent such problems by their wise, spirit-led actions. (Acts 6:1-7)
The Church must discern who the truly needy are. (1 Timothy 5:3)
If one can work to support himself, he is not truly needy and must provide for his own needs. (2 Thess. 3:10-12)
If one can be supported by their family, he is not truly needed and should not be supported by the church. (1 Timothy 5:3-4)
Those who are supported by the Church should make some return to the Church body. (1 Timothy 5:5)
It is right for the church to examine moral conduct before giving support. (1 Timothy 5:9-13)
The support of the church should be for the most basic necessities of living. (1 Timothy 6:8)
The New Testament has a ton to say about giving. God loves a cheerful giver. God promises that when we give, others will give to us, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. Men will give into our bosom.
God promises that when we give He'll open the storehouse of heaven and pour out blessings on us.
But all of it starts with a simple act of obedience. We should be giving.
So before I go on to talk about how we should be giving, let's just ask ourselves this simple question. Are you a giving Christian? Or are you a stingy Christian?
Christians should be giving. Let’s move onto the next point:
Christians should give regularly
Look at verse 2:
2 Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store…
1 Corinthians 16:2 (KJV)
Paul was saying to this church on the first day of the week, "Set aside money to give." On the first day of the week. What day is that? That's Sunday, alright? This is the strongest evidence in the Bible that the Christians gathered together on Sunday. It's also evidence that giving was a part of their worship.
Now how often does Sunday come? How often do we have a first day of the week? We have it every single week, right? When should we be giving? We should be giving regularly. We should be giving weekly or as the Lord blesses us with a regular cadence.
Most Christians, if they give it all, give sporadically, maybe a little bit here or a little bit there. They give slightly. They're just thinking about making themselves feel good about giving but I think the biblical thing for us to do is for us to give regularly, to make giving a matter of habit. Something that we just do almost automatically.
And I want to tell you I think the Bible gives us a pattern and that pattern is tithing. Now the New Testament doesn't specifically command tithing for Christians; I'll concede that but over 40 times in the Bible the Bible mentions tithing, giving 10%.
And if you say, "Well pastor, the New Testament doesn't command tithing," I agree. Are you, as a New Testament believer, going to give less than an Old Testament Jew was commanded to give two thousand years ago? Are you less blessed than an Old Testament Jew?
I think we should be giving and giving regularly. I'll tell you I love online giving. One of the reasons I love online giving is as soon as I see my paycheck hit, I can open up a web browser and make sure that I give right away.
We should be giving and we should be giving regularly. Let’s look at the third point.
Christians should give personally
Again, verse 2:
2 Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store
1 Corinthians 16:2 (KJV)
It says, "let every one of you.” So church, which people in the Corinthian church were supposed to be giving for this offering? Every single last one of them, it was a personal thing.
“Each of you” means there is no room for exceptions. There was no room for exemptions. There was no room for excuses.
Giving is a personal act of worship that every one of us who are believers should be doing.
Giving can be an act of worship. Someone said, “You can give without worshiping but you can't worship without giving."
Think about how the Old Testament believers worshiped the Lord. They brought a sacrifice. They brought a gift to the Lord every time they came to worship. I think when we give the right way, we are worshiping the Lord.
So Christians should give. They should give regularly. They should give personally. Let's look at the next point.
Christians should give proportionally
Read verse 2 one more time:
2 Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him…
1 Corinthians 16:2 (KJV)
Notice the phrase there, "as God hath prospered him."
God expects us to give in proportion to how he has given to us. This means that if your income is $100 a week, you should give a proportion of that income. When God grows your income to be $1,000 a week, you should give a proportion of that income. If God grows your income to be $10,000 a week, (please keep coming to our church); you should give a proportion of that income.
Listen, God sees the proportion more than he sees the amount. Remember what Jesus said to the disciples as they watched the widow give her mites. Jesus said that the widow has given more than all of these Pharisees because she gave all that she had. God cared about the proportion.
So as God blesses us we should give. Now let me tell you what happens most of the time. As God blesses us we spend more money. A lot of people think, "Man if I just got a big raise I would have so much more money and I could give so much." But what ends up happening is when we get a big raise we end up spending more and more. I'm guilty of it. I think almost all of us can be guilty of it. What we need to do is we need to give more as God gives more to us.
So, Christians should give:
They should give regularly.
They should give personally.
They should give proportionally.
There's one more point here…
Christians should give carefully
Let's read verses 2, 3, and 4, alright?
2 Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.
3 And when I come, whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters, them will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem.
4 And if it be meet that I go also, they shall go with me.
1 Corinthians 16:2-4 (KJV)
I think there's some important and practical stuff at the end of verse 2 and verse 3 and verse 4.
That there be no gatherings when I come. What does that mean? Well I think it means that Paul didn't want to do a bunch of high-pressure fundraising. He wanted all of this taken care of before he got there. He wasn't standing in front of them, putting on the pressure, begging for them to give. He wanted them to be faithful at it, to be regular at it, and to have it ready to go.
From just a practical standpoint, one of the best things that we can do for our church is just to be faithful and regular in our giving so that there is a surplus when a need arises. And there doesn't have to be some high-pressure squeeze thing that happens.
But that's not the only practical thing that he did. The second thing he did is he said, "I want you to get somebody ready to send to Jerusalem with this offering." Now remember they didn't have Western Union. They didn't have ATM machines. The only way they could carry money was in cash. They needed a lot of people to go and bring this money for protection but also to make sure that it actually got there.
And in verse 4 Paul says if it's meet or fit for me to go, I'm going to go as well.
Here's what I think we can learn from this about giving. Just as it is fitting for us as Christians to give to the Lord, it is fitting for us as Christians to expect that our gifts be handled wisely, carefully, and responsibly.
One of the reasons that we have deacons is so that they can oversee the wise, careful, responsible taking up of money for the Lord's work.
They don't count it by themselves.
They don't keep money in places where it can be easily taken.
They don't publish who is giving what.
They regularly tell the church what is in our accounts and what that money is being spent on.
One of the things we can learn from this text is that we have a duty to the Lord to ensure that the money that is given in worship is wisely used and carefully taken care of.
Conclusion
So let me just bring it all together tonight. This passage is about as practical as it gets. Paul doesn't get mystical here. He doesn't get complicated. He just lays it out plainly:
Christians should give — regularly, personally, proportionally, and carefully.
You know, some of the questions the Corinthians asked, Paul answered in three chapters, right? But this question he only really needed three verses to answer. Because it's simple.
Every week. Every person. In proportion to how God has blessed you. And with wisdom and accountability.
And here's the thing — this wasn't optional for the Corinthians and it's not optional for us. This is one of those areas where obedience comes before feeling. You don't wait until you feel generous to give. You give, and generosity grows in your heart.
So let me just ask you tonight — where do you need to grow?
Maybe you're not giving at all and you just need to start.
Maybe you give but it's hit or miss and you need to make it a habit.
Maybe you've been giving the same amount for ten years even though God has doubled your income. Wherever you are, take the next step.
Because here's what I know — you cannot outgive God. You just can't. And every dollar you give in faith and obedience, God sees it, God honors it, and God uses it.
Let's pray.
