Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the assemblies of Galatia, so do *ye* do also.
Paul ends this letter with money: a fund the Gentile congregations were gathering for poor believers in Jerusalem. His wording assumes the readers already know of it, and points them to a pattern he had set elsewhere.
Money comes at the end of this letter, not at the start.
Paul's last direction in this letter is about the special collection then being made for poor believers in Judaea. Today in many religious circles money is so often the first topic. Here it is the last. Still it comes in, and he gives instructions of lasting value.
Critics have made the opening phrase of this verse an easy target.
Opponents of the gospel have said, with irony, that there is one point on which every warring sect agrees. They mean the words of Scripture, "Now concerning the collection" (1 Cor. 16:1). The irony bites because the appeals on behalf of Christian work are so frequent. But suppose each Christian gave to the Lord, and not just to a cause. Then there would be no difficulty in finding what the Lord's work needs.
These poor believers lived in Jerusalem. Their poverty had a history, and part of it was the price of their own generosity.
One cannot overlook how often the poor believers at Jerusalem were remembered. No doubt their circumstances gave them a special claim. Outward hardship was probably common, and persecution had left some widows and orphans. The believers there were not only very many. They alone, so far as we read, had sold their possessions and goods to give to all, as anyone had need... Later, poverty took hold there, partly through this surprising witness of unselfish love. And no one among the Gentile assemblies urged help for the believers in Judaea more than Paul did — not only during the great famine under Claudius Caesar, but from then on.
A collection can support those who teach, or relieve those in need. The Jerusalem fund was the second kind.
We may rightly have collections to meet the need of the Lord's gifted servants, from whom we receive spiritual help. But there are times when we also need collections for the poor of the flock. The special need of the believers at Jerusalem at that time was a case in point... From Jerusalem the gospel had gone out to the Gentiles. The Gentile converts had received spiritual things, so it was only right that they should give of their material things.
Paul tells Corinth to do what he had already told Galatia. One writer draws a wider principle from that.
It is untrue that the apostle left the assemblies without regulation, or that he regulated them differently. The dangers and the circumstances of Galatia were as unlike those of Corinth as anyone could imagine. Yet the apostle gave both the same directions. And not only on matters of the greatest importance — sound doctrine, holy discipline, and the institutions Christ gave to bear witness to Himself, so that the worship and public ways of the saints would give the same testimony everywhere. Here too, as we see, he gave the same direction even in the way they gave.
Some say the verse covers only a local matter of that day. The answer comes back as a question.
Now, someone may say that this passage referred to a certain local matter. On that view it gives no warrant for gatherings of Christians everywhere taking up collections every Lord's Day. Yes; but are there not poor believers now as there were then?
- Last. Money comes at the end of this letter, not the start. It still comes in, and it carries instructions of lasting value.
- Same. Paul gives Corinth the order he had already given Galatia. Different places, same rule — even for something as ordinary as giving.
- Poor. The believers in Jerusalem had sold what they owned to meet each other's need. Their own generosity is part of why they were now poor.
- Fair. The gospel went out from Jerusalem to the nations. Sending material help back was only right.
- Now. The question the verse leaves is simple: are there still poor believers to care for?
On [the] first of [the] week let each of you put by at home, laying up [in] whatever [degree] he may have prospered, that there may be no collections when I come.
The apostle closes this letter with money — a relief fund for believers in Judea who had fallen into need. In a few short clauses it settles who gives, when, how much, and from what motive.
One writer draws out two habits packed into the verse: regular giving, and giving measured against income.
The apostle's last direction in this letter concerns the special collection they were making at that time for poor believers in Judea. Today in many religious circles money is so often the first topic. Here it is the last. Still it comes in, and it carries instructions of lasting value. Verse 2 urges systematic giving instead of haphazard giving. Proportionate giving is also what God expects — in proportion to the prosperity which God Himself may have given. In Jewish days God fixed the proportion at one tenth. He has not fixed any proportion for us who are under grace. But be sure of this. We shall hear something pretty serious at the judgment seat if we fall below the standard the law set.
The day is not chosen at random. It is the day Christ rose and the day the disciples met.
In due time that day was to receive its fitting name, "the Lord's day" (Revelation 1:10). It marks out the Christian as the Sabbath marked out the Jew. What set it apart was not only the gathering of the saints, but the presence of the Lord among them. So it was again at the beginning of the following week. Later the Holy Spirit marks it out as the day when believers break bread (Acts 20:7), and when the needs of the holy poor rise up in remembrance before Him and them (1 Corinthians 16:2).
Each one is to "put something aside and store it up" — a private act. Older translations render it "lay by him in store." One writer reads both sides together: each settles the amount at home, then brings it when the assembly meets.
The collection for the saints was bound up with the solemn and gracious associations of the first, or resurrection, day. It was to go on regularly, not now and then. Each was to do it with conscience, according as he might be prospered. No one was to give under influence, or pressure, or haste, still less with indifference, or on merely human grounds… It seems that each was to lay aside at home what he judged right according to the means given. But the mention of the first of the week, or Lord's day, points to their bringing their contributions together when they met, as every disciple did, to break bread.
Scripture names no sum. It names the reach — each one — and the standard: how God has prospered that person during the week.
It is well to see that the Lord has not laid down the proportion to be set aside. He has not asked you to give half of your goods to the poor, as Zacchaeus was in the habit of doing, nor a tenth as in the case of Israel. But it appears to me from the words — "every one of you" — that each, however poor, is bound to give something. How much that is you must each settle for yourselves before the Lord… Say plainly, "Here is my sixpence, Lord; it is all I can spare You this week;" and then wait to see whether conscience cries "Shame" at you or not.
The last clause guards against one danger: giving stirred up by a visiting personality rather than by conscience.
He wished to avoid a special collection during his visit. It was not only, as it seems to us, that his time could be better used than in such service. He felt it was a matter for the Christian conscience and heart, not for influence of his own, still less for rivalry, or for the gusts of some passing impulse. What a contrast to getting a popular man to come and preach a moving sermon to work on people's feelings!
The verse commands the act. It says nothing about how the money should be collected.
Scripture is totally silent on the point. It simply says, "Let every one of you lay by him in store." It does not say where or how. It says that "every one" was to do it — and to do it according as God had prospered him… Now, if the Holy Spirit has not laid down any rule about the way of collecting for the poor, why should we?
- Day — Giving belongs to the first day of the week, the day Christ rose. Believers gather, and the needs of the poor come up before God with them.
- Everyone — The reach is total: "every one of you," so that even the poorest has something to bring, and no one is a spectator.
- Measure — Grace imposes no tenth. The standard is how God has prospered you that week, and you settle it alone with Him.
- Motive — Conscience, not pressure. Paul rules out a collection timed to his own arrival. No personality, rivalry, or passing impulse should do the work.
- Method — Scripture fixes the act and leaves the method free. Where God has made no rule, we should not invent one.