Subscribe to our PODCAST here.The Collection for the Saints and the Common Treasury
The Collection for the Saints and the Common Treasury
Frank Jamerson 2-9-05
Intro.
A. The great struggle in the human heart is between God and gold. Will we love God - the root of all holiness and spirituality, or will we love gold - the root of all kinds of evil?
B. Denominational people have been taught to tithe - we have been taught not to tithe - but have not been taught to give.
1. Woman - recommended the church to friend “in the church of Christ, you can give if you
want to and do not have to give if you do not want to.”
2. One brother - “what I give is between me and the Lord” - so is your communing, praying and singing - but if you aren’t doing it right, it’s my job to tell you!
C. V.P. Black - wrote three workbooks on Giving - said “more is said in the Bible about giving than about faith, repentance, confession, baptism and church organization combined...If we
had been talking as much about money for the last hundred years as we have baptism, we would have evangelized the world” (Rust as A Witness). Billy Moore said: the Lord “taught more on giving than on the Lord’s supper and baptism combined” (True Worship, p. 54). (I arranged that and other materials into one workbook. Some brethren are surprised we had spent a whole quarter studying the subject.)
D. Imagine this speech following the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem - to Jews who have been converted: “You have a superior covenant and are no longer under the Old Covenant, you have a superior Priest and no longer need priests from the tribe of Levi, you have a superior sacrifice and no longer need to offer animals for your sins, you have a superior commission - teach the gospel to the whole world, rather than teaching the Jewish nation - and you no longer need to tithe - you can give if you want to and do not need to give if you don’t want to!” (Can you believe that Jews who were converted in the first century would have reduced their contribution to the Lord’s work?)
Body:
A. The local church treasury:
1. The church had a treasury from the beginning:
In Jerusalem, disciples “had all things common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need” (Acts 2:42-45); sold and “brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles’ feet (Acts 4:34,35).
2. Ananias and Sapphira sold a possession and “brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet” (Acts 5:2). Peter asked: “While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own CONTROL? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God” (v. 4). Acts 6:1-4 “...widows were neglected in the daily DISTRIBUTION...seek out seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.”
3. New Hermeneutics advocates said the N.T. could not have been a pattern in the first century, because the canon was not accepted until the fourth! The apostles’s teaching was a pattern when it was spoken - before it was written. I do not believe they spoke one thing and later wrote a different teaching.
Surely the apostles did not teach churches to raise funds on a different day (any day), or in different ways (bazaars and bake sales) - until first Corinthians was written. (Nor did they teach that the Lord’s supper could be observed any day - until Acts was written.)
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B. Objections to a church treasury:
1. In 1960's the no church treasury - ended in no local church and no N.T. pattern.
a. The leaders of the movement contracted with Chester Estes (Muscle Shoals) - to make
“The Better Version of the N.T.” (Published in segments in Sentinel of Truth.)
b. He translated 1 Cor. 16:1,2: “Now concerning the collection which is for the saints; you should also do as I gave orders to the churches of Galatia. Let each one of you, on every first day of the week, lay something by itself, treasuring it up, according as he has been prospered, so that no collections may be made when I come.”
c. If it is “treasured up” it is a treasury - whether in a box, a can or bank! If the first collection is at home - why not the second?
2. Charles Hodge scholarly commentary on 1 Cor., said: “The words do not mean to lay by at home but to lay by himself. The direction is nothing more definite than, let him place by himself, i.e. let him take to himself what he means to give. What he was to do with it, or where he was to deposit it, is not expressed (in that expression, fj). The word thesaurizon means putting into the treasury, or hoarding up, and is perfectly consistent with the assumption that the place of deposit was some common treasury, and not every man’s own house...If Paul directed this money to be laid up at home, why was the first day of the week selected? It is evident that the first day must have offered some special facility for doing what is here enjoined. The only reason that can be assigned for requiring the thing to be done on the first day of the week is that on that day the Christians were accustomed to meet, and what each one had laid aside from his weekly gains could be treasured up, i.e. put into the common treasury of the church...The end which the apostle desired to accom- plish could not otherwise have been effected. He wished that there might be no collections when he came. But if every man had laid by at home, the collection would be still to be made.”
3. Warren Wiersbe commented: “Each member was to come to the Lord’s Day gathering
prepared to give his share for that week. The early church met on the first day of the week in commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ...It is tragic when church members give only as a duty and forget that our offerings are to be ‘spiritual sacrifices’ presented to the Lord (Phil. 4:18 “Indeed I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God.”) Giving should be an act of worship to the resurrected and ascended Savior.”
4. It is interesting that many denominational scholars (Albert Barnes, Adam Clarke, Pulpit Commentary in two “Homilies” and Matthew Henry) - who would take a collection any time they met - understood this Scripture to teach what we practice....but some brethren who have practiced what the Bible teaches have decided that local church treasuries are not authorized and that you can take a collection any day of the week.
C. Must we know the specific need before we take a collection?
1. The disciples in Jerusalem knew the need there; the brethren in Corinth knew the need in Jerusalem - but was that always true?
2. The churches of Macedonia (Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea) sent support to Paul while he
was at Corinth (2 Cor. 11:8,9: “I robbed other churches, taking wages of them to
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minister to you. And when I was present with you, and in need, I was a burden to no one, for what was lacking to me the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied. And in everything I keep myself from being burdensome to you, and so I will keep myself” ).
a. Did they know he was going to need it before they took the collection? What passage teaches that?
b. Corinth had the money - and could have supported Paul (1 Cor. 9:11,12 “If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more? Nevertheless we have not used this right, but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ.” ).
c. He refused to receive support in order not to hinder the cause of Christ - not because it was not collected for him! False brethren used it against him - to challenge his apostleship (2 Cor. 11:4,5). 2 Cor. 12:13: “For what is it in which you were inferior to other churches, except that I myself was not burdensome to you? Forgive me this wrong!”) If it were wrong to use money collected - except for the specific purpose it was collected - it would have been wrong for them to supported Paul with that money.
3. When churches are charged with permanent relief of widows indeed (1 Tim. 5:9,10), did they have to take a specific collection for each widow? Could they have used what they
already had in the treasury when the need arose? (Would not a continuing responsibility to such widows necessarily imply a continuing treasury? Would the same be true of a continuing need to support preaching of the word?)
4. Robert Turner (Plain Talk, Feb., 1967) - responded to a question about this: “It is true that we give for specific purposes – i.e., the treasury is not the end or purpose of giving. As saints of God, we have obligations to meet, work to do...The treasury (pooled fund) is just a means to the end we may act collectively in whatever work is proposed....A fellow in Phoenix, Ariz. told me the church of which he was a member only ‘took up collection’ when they needed the money to do something. I asked when they had last contributed, and for what; and he said they had recently contributed to buy a window pane the storm had broken. I told him we operated on the exactly the same principle as his own brethren – only we felt God wanted us to do a lot more than fix a window pane in the meeting house.”
(Since preparing this speech - Midway has received 5 requests for help from worthy brethren - 3 in this country, 1 in Japan and one in need. Brethren who do not know of any need may be like my house cleaning - can’t see any need --- not looking!)
THERE IS ALWAYS A NEED TO SUPPORT THE TEACHING OF GOD’S WORD!
D. Four principles of Giving:
1. A matter of the heart
a. “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7). “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing” (1 Cor. 13:3).
b. The Macedonians “first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God” (2 Cor.8:5-6). The Corinthians were told “For if there is first a willing mind, it is ac- cepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have” v. 12.
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c. We sing: “Have thine affections been nailed to the cross? Is thy heart right with God?”
d. Believers in Macedonia had affections “nailed to the cross” and it was manifest.
e. The Psalmist said: “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein” (Ps. 24:1). “For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills...If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is mine, and all its fullness” (Ps. 50:10,12). The believers in Jerusalem realized “the things they possessed were not their own” (Acts 4:32). CLOSE YOUR EYES TIGHTLY AND EVERYTHING YOU SEE BELONGS TO YOU!
f. A steward manages what belongs to another, “moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful” (1 Cor. 4:2). Malachi condemned Israel for robbing God (3:8;
1:10,13). You can’t take it with you - but you can send it ahead! Will we give God according to what we have left over - or from our hearts, as we have prospered?
2. A matter of the will
a. The Corinthians had purposed to raise the gift a year before (2 Cor. 8:10). He told them
to “lay something aside” (purpose) and give on first day of week (1 Cor. 16:1,2).
b. Their gift was “the obedience of your confession to the gospel of Christ” (2 Cor. 9:13).
c. The rich young ruler decided to part with Christ rather than with his money (Lk. 18:18-27). (I suppose he couldn’t see any poor people!) That was an act of the will - and robbing God is a wilful act.
d. When brethren decide not to give to the Lord’s work because they need the money for a vacation or because they were sick on Sunday - out of town - so not attend not give - salaries go up each year - contribution remains the same!
3. A matter of faith
a. “But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Cor. 9:6).
b. The context is “giving as we purpose in our hearts” - we need to “abound in this grace also” (2 Cor. 8:7) - which was “this gift which is administered by us to the glory of the Lord Himself and to show your ready mind” (v. 19).
c. When God told Abraham to give your son, whom you love - was it Isaac that God wanted? (Gen. 22:2). He told the two young men: “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you” (v. 5). How? He accounted (believed) “God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense” (Heb. 11:19).
d. If we do not have the faith to believe that God will bless us for bountifully giving of material possession - what if He gave us Abraham’s test? Does God have us???
4. A matter of emotion
a. In addition to bountifully - must not give grudgingly or of necessity “for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7). The Greek word hilaros means “readiness of mind, that joyousness, which is prompt to do anything; hence cheerful (Eng. hilarious)” (Vine).
b. Brethren in Macedonia, out of deep poverty gave from “the abundance of their joy”
(2 Cor. 8:2); and Paul told the Corinthians - it was “proof of your love” (v. 24).
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Barclay on “logia” (collection, 1 Cor. 16:1) - “The opposite of a tax...a free gift freely given.”
c. Men at Southwest in Lakeland often thanked God that we had a part in supporting the teaching of the gospel in other countries, as well as our own.
d. Harry Pickup, Sr. - member said “I could afford to give $5, but could not do it cheerfully. I can give $.50 cheerfully, which should I do?” Said “save your money, you’re going to torment anyway!” Christians who have their hearts right - hilariously!
E. Three problems over money (How Raised, Used and Saved):
1. The church may raise money any way the individual may do so.
a. Individuals (Eph. 4:28 - to saints in Ephesus; 2 Thess. 3:10 - to church at Thess.) - not church working or eating!
There is nothing wrong with individuals going to a city, or the country, and spending a year or longer to “buy and sell and make a profit” (Jas. 4:13).
b. Churches - raise their treasuries by individuals giving of their free will on the first day
of the week. When individuals “lay the proceeds at the apostles’ feet” they are no longer under the individual’s control (Acts 4:34,35; cp. Eph. 1:22 under Christ’s feet).
2.The church may use its money for any good work - just as an individual.
a. Some argue that the church can do, or does, any good work the individual does/may do.
b. Mt. 18:15-18 shows a distinction between the good work of restoring a brother - twice it is individual/individuals, and then may become congregational. (Singular, plural and collective - Every member shops at Publix - so use the church tax exempt number?
Teacher at Florida School of Preaching asked me if every member of a congregation gave to that school wouldn’t that be the local church?)
c. Gal. 6:10 - individuals may do any “good work” - not just benevolence! V. 12 “they
compel you (churches or individuals?) to be circumcised;” v. 13 that they “may glory in your (churches or individuals?) flesh.”
d. 1 Tim. 5:16 - the good work of caring for your widow in not church work when done by the individual. (V. 10 - calls bringing up children, lodging strangers, washing saints’ feet and relieving the afflicted - good works). Secular education, recreation, washing saints’ feet, etc. are good works for individuals. (Jas. 1:27 - “can the church practice pure religion, or impure?” 1 Tim. 5:10 - Can the church do “good works, or bad?” The church does what it is authorized to do - not everything individuals may do.)
e. 2 Cor. 9:13 has been used to try to justify church benevolence all men. Notice: it was
Collected for the saints (1 Cor. 16:1), it ministered to the saints (2 Cor. 8:4; 9:1), it supplied the needs of saints (9:12), Paul went to Jerusalem to minister to the saints (Rom. 15:25), and he asked brethren to pray “that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints” (15:31). The gift to the needy among the saints was proof of fellowship between Jewish and Gentile Christians. (Lenski commented: “It is this fellowship of the Corinthians which extends not only to these saints, who are being helped, but to all God’s saints, whether they are helped or not.”)
f. 2 Cor. 8:13-15 Churches sent to other churches when they had needy members that they could not care for. No authority to send to one promoting something it cannot
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afford. A church has the responsibility to care for its needy - whether it can afford to do it alone or not (just as an individual does). It does not have the responsibility to support preachers when it cannot afford to do so (if so - how many, how long?).
g. Churches involved in providing social meals, recreation, secular education and other good works that individuals are authorized to do are acting without apostolic authority. (While I lived in Columbus, Ga., a preacher identified with the institutional brethren told me about asking a church in Tennessee for help in supporting a preacher in Georgia. He said they had the most beautiful billiards tables and couches in their recreation room that he had ever seen. But they couldn’t help in supporting preachers in Georgia. He said that when he went out to the parking lot he nearly vomited thinking about what they were doing. I reminded him that when he went along with churches providing kitchens and “fellowship halls” he couldn’t consistently say a thing about their pool room - and they know it!)
h. The primary work of the church is to support and uphold the gospel (1 Thess. 1:8 “from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say anything.”) The church in Philippi was commended because it supported Paul both in Thessalonica and in Rome (Phil. 4:15-23).
1 Cor. 9:13,14 “Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.” In first part - Jews gave a tenth to Levites to serve one nation; in the second - we have a greater mission (the whole world) and some see no need for Christians to give to God’s work!
3. The church may save money as the individual saves for retirement.
a. An individual may earn money (Eph. 4:28), invest it for profit (Mt. 25:26,27), and save for the future (2 Cor. 12:14 - “...For the children should not lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children” - or his own retirement).
b. The church is not in the business of working for - nor saving money for retirement.
c. A church may save for a purpose (2 Cor. 8:10,11; 9:1,2). This is not the same as saving money to make money, or simply refusing to use the money for the purposes for which it was given.
d. Churches are sitting on huge bank accounts while workers beg for support or cannot spend their time teaching the word because brethren are “saving for a rainy day.”
e. Brethren - it is just as wrong not to use it as it to use it wrongly.
Concl.
When we consider the sacrifice of Christ, the superiority of the New Covenant, the generous giving under the Old Covenant and of the Jews under the New Covenant - as well as the generous giving by denominational people (tithing) to support error - we should cheerfully give bountifully to spread the greatest message ever revealed for the greatest benefit - salvation of souls. If Jesus were “sitting opposite the treasury” and watching how much you give (Mk. 12:41), how would you feel? Well, He is watching!
Frank Jamerson 2-9-05
Intro.
A. The great struggle in the human heart is between God and gold. Will we love God - the root of all holiness and spirituality, or will we love gold - the root of all kinds of evil?
B. Denominational people have been taught to tithe - we have been taught not to tithe - but have not been taught to give.
1. Woman - recommended the church to friend “in the church of Christ, you can give if you
want to and do not have to give if you do not want to.”
2. One brother - “what I give is between me and the Lord” - so is your communing, praying and singing - but if you aren’t doing it right, it’s my job to tell you!
C. V.P. Black - wrote three workbooks on Giving - said “more is said in the Bible about giving than about faith, repentance, confession, baptism and church organization combined...If we
had been talking as much about money for the last hundred years as we have baptism, we would have evangelized the world” (Rust as A Witness). Billy Moore said: the Lord “taught more on giving than on the Lord’s supper and baptism combined” (True Worship, p. 54). (I arranged that and other materials into one workbook. Some brethren are surprised we had spent a whole quarter studying the subject.)
D. Imagine this speech following the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem - to Jews who have been converted: “You have a superior covenant and are no longer under the Old Covenant, you have a superior Priest and no longer need priests from the tribe of Levi, you have a superior sacrifice and no longer need to offer animals for your sins, you have a superior commission - teach the gospel to the whole world, rather than teaching the Jewish nation - and you no longer need to tithe - you can give if you want to and do not need to give if you don’t want to!” (Can you believe that Jews who were converted in the first century would have reduced their contribution to the Lord’s work?)
Body:
A. The local church treasury:
1. The church had a treasury from the beginning:
In Jerusalem, disciples “had all things common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need” (Acts 2:42-45); sold and “brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles’ feet (Acts 4:34,35).
2. Ananias and Sapphira sold a possession and “brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet” (Acts 5:2). Peter asked: “While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own CONTROL? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God” (v. 4). Acts 6:1-4 “...widows were neglected in the daily DISTRIBUTION...seek out seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.”
3. New Hermeneutics advocates said the N.T. could not have been a pattern in the first century, because the canon was not accepted until the fourth! The apostles’s teaching was a pattern when it was spoken - before it was written. I do not believe they spoke one thing and later wrote a different teaching.
Surely the apostles did not teach churches to raise funds on a different day (any day), or in different ways (bazaars and bake sales) - until first Corinthians was written. (Nor did they teach that the Lord’s supper could be observed any day - until Acts was written.)
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B. Objections to a church treasury:
1. In 1960's the no church treasury - ended in no local church and no N.T. pattern.
a. The leaders of the movement contracted with Chester Estes (Muscle Shoals) - to make
“The Better Version of the N.T.” (Published in segments in Sentinel of Truth.)
b. He translated 1 Cor. 16:1,2: “Now concerning the collection which is for the saints; you should also do as I gave orders to the churches of Galatia. Let each one of you, on every first day of the week, lay something by itself, treasuring it up, according as he has been prospered, so that no collections may be made when I come.”
c. If it is “treasured up” it is a treasury - whether in a box, a can or bank! If the first collection is at home - why not the second?
2. Charles Hodge scholarly commentary on 1 Cor., said: “The words do not mean to lay by at home but to lay by himself. The direction is nothing more definite than, let him place by himself, i.e. let him take to himself what he means to give. What he was to do with it, or where he was to deposit it, is not expressed (in that expression, fj). The word thesaurizon means putting into the treasury, or hoarding up, and is perfectly consistent with the assumption that the place of deposit was some common treasury, and not every man’s own house...If Paul directed this money to be laid up at home, why was the first day of the week selected? It is evident that the first day must have offered some special facility for doing what is here enjoined. The only reason that can be assigned for requiring the thing to be done on the first day of the week is that on that day the Christians were accustomed to meet, and what each one had laid aside from his weekly gains could be treasured up, i.e. put into the common treasury of the church...The end which the apostle desired to accom- plish could not otherwise have been effected. He wished that there might be no collections when he came. But if every man had laid by at home, the collection would be still to be made.”
3. Warren Wiersbe commented: “Each member was to come to the Lord’s Day gathering
prepared to give his share for that week. The early church met on the first day of the week in commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ...It is tragic when church members give only as a duty and forget that our offerings are to be ‘spiritual sacrifices’ presented to the Lord (Phil. 4:18 “Indeed I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God.”) Giving should be an act of worship to the resurrected and ascended Savior.”
4. It is interesting that many denominational scholars (Albert Barnes, Adam Clarke, Pulpit Commentary in two “Homilies” and Matthew Henry) - who would take a collection any time they met - understood this Scripture to teach what we practice....but some brethren who have practiced what the Bible teaches have decided that local church treasuries are not authorized and that you can take a collection any day of the week.
C. Must we know the specific need before we take a collection?
1. The disciples in Jerusalem knew the need there; the brethren in Corinth knew the need in Jerusalem - but was that always true?
2. The churches of Macedonia (Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea) sent support to Paul while he
was at Corinth (2 Cor. 11:8,9: “I robbed other churches, taking wages of them to
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minister to you. And when I was present with you, and in need, I was a burden to no one, for what was lacking to me the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied. And in everything I keep myself from being burdensome to you, and so I will keep myself” ).
a. Did they know he was going to need it before they took the collection? What passage teaches that?
b. Corinth had the money - and could have supported Paul (1 Cor. 9:11,12 “If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more? Nevertheless we have not used this right, but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ.” ).
c. He refused to receive support in order not to hinder the cause of Christ - not because it was not collected for him! False brethren used it against him - to challenge his apostleship (2 Cor. 11:4,5). 2 Cor. 12:13: “For what is it in which you were inferior to other churches, except that I myself was not burdensome to you? Forgive me this wrong!”) If it were wrong to use money collected - except for the specific purpose it was collected - it would have been wrong for them to supported Paul with that money.
3. When churches are charged with permanent relief of widows indeed (1 Tim. 5:9,10), did they have to take a specific collection for each widow? Could they have used what they
already had in the treasury when the need arose? (Would not a continuing responsibility to such widows necessarily imply a continuing treasury? Would the same be true of a continuing need to support preaching of the word?)
4. Robert Turner (Plain Talk, Feb., 1967) - responded to a question about this: “It is true that we give for specific purposes – i.e., the treasury is not the end or purpose of giving. As saints of God, we have obligations to meet, work to do...The treasury (pooled fund) is just a means to the end we may act collectively in whatever work is proposed....A fellow in Phoenix, Ariz. told me the church of which he was a member only ‘took up collection’ when they needed the money to do something. I asked when they had last contributed, and for what; and he said they had recently contributed to buy a window pane the storm had broken. I told him we operated on the exactly the same principle as his own brethren – only we felt God wanted us to do a lot more than fix a window pane in the meeting house.”
(Since preparing this speech - Midway has received 5 requests for help from worthy brethren - 3 in this country, 1 in Japan and one in need. Brethren who do not know of any need may be like my house cleaning - can’t see any need --- not looking!)
THERE IS ALWAYS A NEED TO SUPPORT THE TEACHING OF GOD’S WORD!
D. Four principles of Giving:
1. A matter of the heart
a. “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7). “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing” (1 Cor. 13:3).
b. The Macedonians “first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God” (2 Cor.8:5-6). The Corinthians were told “For if there is first a willing mind, it is ac- cepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have” v. 12.
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c. We sing: “Have thine affections been nailed to the cross? Is thy heart right with God?”
d. Believers in Macedonia had affections “nailed to the cross” and it was manifest.
e. The Psalmist said: “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein” (Ps. 24:1). “For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills...If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is mine, and all its fullness” (Ps. 50:10,12). The believers in Jerusalem realized “the things they possessed were not their own” (Acts 4:32). CLOSE YOUR EYES TIGHTLY AND EVERYTHING YOU SEE BELONGS TO YOU!
f. A steward manages what belongs to another, “moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful” (1 Cor. 4:2). Malachi condemned Israel for robbing God (3:8;
1:10,13). You can’t take it with you - but you can send it ahead! Will we give God according to what we have left over - or from our hearts, as we have prospered?
2. A matter of the will
a. The Corinthians had purposed to raise the gift a year before (2 Cor. 8:10). He told them
to “lay something aside” (purpose) and give on first day of week (1 Cor. 16:1,2).
b. Their gift was “the obedience of your confession to the gospel of Christ” (2 Cor. 9:13).
c. The rich young ruler decided to part with Christ rather than with his money (Lk. 18:18-27). (I suppose he couldn’t see any poor people!) That was an act of the will - and robbing God is a wilful act.
d. When brethren decide not to give to the Lord’s work because they need the money for a vacation or because they were sick on Sunday - out of town - so not attend not give - salaries go up each year - contribution remains the same!
3. A matter of faith
a. “But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Cor. 9:6).
b. The context is “giving as we purpose in our hearts” - we need to “abound in this grace also” (2 Cor. 8:7) - which was “this gift which is administered by us to the glory of the Lord Himself and to show your ready mind” (v. 19).
c. When God told Abraham to give your son, whom you love - was it Isaac that God wanted? (Gen. 22:2). He told the two young men: “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you” (v. 5). How? He accounted (believed) “God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense” (Heb. 11:19).
d. If we do not have the faith to believe that God will bless us for bountifully giving of material possession - what if He gave us Abraham’s test? Does God have us???
4. A matter of emotion
a. In addition to bountifully - must not give grudgingly or of necessity “for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7). The Greek word hilaros means “readiness of mind, that joyousness, which is prompt to do anything; hence cheerful (Eng. hilarious)” (Vine).
b. Brethren in Macedonia, out of deep poverty gave from “the abundance of their joy”
(2 Cor. 8:2); and Paul told the Corinthians - it was “proof of your love” (v. 24).
5.
Barclay on “logia” (collection, 1 Cor. 16:1) - “The opposite of a tax...a free gift freely given.”
c. Men at Southwest in Lakeland often thanked God that we had a part in supporting the teaching of the gospel in other countries, as well as our own.
d. Harry Pickup, Sr. - member said “I could afford to give $5, but could not do it cheerfully. I can give $.50 cheerfully, which should I do?” Said “save your money, you’re going to torment anyway!” Christians who have their hearts right - hilariously!
E. Three problems over money (How Raised, Used and Saved):
1. The church may raise money any way the individual may do so.
a. Individuals (Eph. 4:28 - to saints in Ephesus; 2 Thess. 3:10 - to church at Thess.) - not church working or eating!
There is nothing wrong with individuals going to a city, or the country, and spending a year or longer to “buy and sell and make a profit” (Jas. 4:13).
b. Churches - raise their treasuries by individuals giving of their free will on the first day
of the week. When individuals “lay the proceeds at the apostles’ feet” they are no longer under the individual’s control (Acts 4:34,35; cp. Eph. 1:22 under Christ’s feet).
2.The church may use its money for any good work - just as an individual.
a. Some argue that the church can do, or does, any good work the individual does/may do.
b. Mt. 18:15-18 shows a distinction between the good work of restoring a brother - twice it is individual/individuals, and then may become congregational. (Singular, plural and collective - Every member shops at Publix - so use the church tax exempt number?
Teacher at Florida School of Preaching asked me if every member of a congregation gave to that school wouldn’t that be the local church?)
c. Gal. 6:10 - individuals may do any “good work” - not just benevolence! V. 12 “they
compel you (churches or individuals?) to be circumcised;” v. 13 that they “may glory in your (churches or individuals?) flesh.”
d. 1 Tim. 5:16 - the good work of caring for your widow in not church work when done by the individual. (V. 10 - calls bringing up children, lodging strangers, washing saints’ feet and relieving the afflicted - good works). Secular education, recreation, washing saints’ feet, etc. are good works for individuals. (Jas. 1:27 - “can the church practice pure religion, or impure?” 1 Tim. 5:10 - Can the church do “good works, or bad?” The church does what it is authorized to do - not everything individuals may do.)
e. 2 Cor. 9:13 has been used to try to justify church benevolence all men. Notice: it was
Collected for the saints (1 Cor. 16:1), it ministered to the saints (2 Cor. 8:4; 9:1), it supplied the needs of saints (9:12), Paul went to Jerusalem to minister to the saints (Rom. 15:25), and he asked brethren to pray “that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints” (15:31). The gift to the needy among the saints was proof of fellowship between Jewish and Gentile Christians. (Lenski commented: “It is this fellowship of the Corinthians which extends not only to these saints, who are being helped, but to all God’s saints, whether they are helped or not.”)
f. 2 Cor. 8:13-15 Churches sent to other churches when they had needy members that they could not care for. No authority to send to one promoting something it cannot
6.
afford. A church has the responsibility to care for its needy - whether it can afford to do it alone or not (just as an individual does). It does not have the responsibility to support preachers when it cannot afford to do so (if so - how many, how long?).
g. Churches involved in providing social meals, recreation, secular education and other good works that individuals are authorized to do are acting without apostolic authority. (While I lived in Columbus, Ga., a preacher identified with the institutional brethren told me about asking a church in Tennessee for help in supporting a preacher in Georgia. He said they had the most beautiful billiards tables and couches in their recreation room that he had ever seen. But they couldn’t help in supporting preachers in Georgia. He said that when he went out to the parking lot he nearly vomited thinking about what they were doing. I reminded him that when he went along with churches providing kitchens and “fellowship halls” he couldn’t consistently say a thing about their pool room - and they know it!)
h. The primary work of the church is to support and uphold the gospel (1 Thess. 1:8 “from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say anything.”) The church in Philippi was commended because it supported Paul both in Thessalonica and in Rome (Phil. 4:15-23).
1 Cor. 9:13,14 “Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.” In first part - Jews gave a tenth to Levites to serve one nation; in the second - we have a greater mission (the whole world) and some see no need for Christians to give to God’s work!
3. The church may save money as the individual saves for retirement.
a. An individual may earn money (Eph. 4:28), invest it for profit (Mt. 25:26,27), and save for the future (2 Cor. 12:14 - “...For the children should not lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children” - or his own retirement).
b. The church is not in the business of working for - nor saving money for retirement.
c. A church may save for a purpose (2 Cor. 8:10,11; 9:1,2). This is not the same as saving money to make money, or simply refusing to use the money for the purposes for which it was given.
d. Churches are sitting on huge bank accounts while workers beg for support or cannot spend their time teaching the word because brethren are “saving for a rainy day.”
e. Brethren - it is just as wrong not to use it as it to use it wrongly.
Concl.
When we consider the sacrifice of Christ, the superiority of the New Covenant, the generous giving under the Old Covenant and of the Jews under the New Covenant - as well as the generous giving by denominational people (tithing) to support error - we should cheerfully give bountifully to spread the greatest message ever revealed for the greatest benefit - salvation of souls. If Jesus were “sitting opposite the treasury” and watching how much you give (Mk. 12:41), how would you feel? Well, He is watching!