Collecting for the Saints

What sort of giver are you? Are you a flint, sponge or honeycomb giver? Apparently some givers are like a piece of flint – to get anything out of a piece of flint you have to hammer it, and even then you only end up with chips and sparks! Other givers are more like sponges – to get anything out of a sponge you have to squeeze it and squeeze it hard, because the more you squeeze the more you get! But other givers are more like honeycomb – which just keeps overflowing with its own goodness and sweetness. If it's not too irreverent to say, I think God is a honeycomb giver! His generous mercy, love and grace just keeps overflowing – and this is how God gives to us through Jesus – generously overflowing with goodness – and it is how he wants us to give in return.

What's that got to do with 1 Corinthians 16? Well, Paul wants the Corinthian believers to be honeycomb givers. He doesn't want to hammer or squeeze them, but he does want to teach them to be ready and able to give generously to God-given needs, as and when they arise. Our passage is very short but there is a lot in it. In fact, I've got five principles that I think Paul wants all followers of Jesus to grasp so that we too, will be honeycomb givers – ready and able to give generously.

Principle 1: Giving is a Command (v.1)

Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do.

Friends, Paul doesn't say "as I suggested to the churches in Galatia, so I suggest to you". No! He gives a clear command – "you also are to do." Why? Well frustratingly for us, Paul is short on explanation here. He is obviously writing in response to a question about giving that has arisen - unfortunately, we don't know exactly what the question was. He obviously assumes that the Corinthian believers are aware of the direction he has given the churches in Galatia – unfortunately, we don't have that direction – it's not in what we know as the Letter to the Galatians. So Paul assumes they already know why giving is commanded by referring to another source, and therefore gives here a very brief and very matter-of-fact summary of how the Corinthians should give.

So let me do likewise. I'm sure sermons tonight and next week will cover our giving motivation in greater detail – but suffice to say for now though, that real Christian giving is a response – not to human pressure, but to God and what he has generously given us through Jesus' death and resurrection. That said, it is still a command. I read recently of whole armies baptised en-masse. When they went into the water some of the warriors kept their right hands above the water so they were thus able to say when they swung their swords in battle and killed people, that was okay as their hands had not been baptized! Bizarre story isn't it – but sadly the same is true of some Christians with their wallets. For some it can be as if they have embraced everything else that comes with the territory of submitting their lives to Christ, but they act as though their wallets were kept out of those baptismal waters - held aloft, under their control and somehow exempt from obedience to Christ.

Faithful Christians give as they are commanded to give. And boy are we not grateful to God collectively that we live amongst many faithful Christians in this area? When we look back to how much we have given, humanly speaking it is staggering. I praise God for the provision of many honeycomb givers here at JPC who have given faithfully and generously year after year after year. And the challenge for us now, at the start of 2016, is to heed this biblical command again…. and plan to give in such a way that we fund our projected costs and are not reliant on big end of year bailouts to do what we believe God is calling us to do. That is why Paul gives us a second principle:

Principle 2: Giving should be Regularly Set Aside (v.2)

On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up…

Paul's main point here in verse 2 is this: that for giving to be effective it has to be regular. Let me give you a silly example. I have a regular time for brushing my teeth, taking a shower and getting dressed. Hopefully, when you meet with me you see how effective that is – I still have all my teeth, I don't smell (usually) and I'm wearing clothes. I don't have a regular time to wash my car! And if you'd have seen it recently that would have been self-evident! Simple fact is that if we don't do something regularly it doesn't get done. In one sense this is Paul at his most practical! Putting something aside and storing it up is also really helpful as we don't know when needs are going to arise. So, for example, as well as regularly setting aside and giving money for the work God does through JPC, Debs and I also store up a small amount each month in a separate account so that as and when extra needs arise we can give accordingly, hopefully generously and without delay (e.g. with mission partners or Christian agencies working in in disaster relief).

But I think there's also a deeper significance to regular giving Paul is hinting at in this verse. You see he doesn't just say give weekly he stipulates the day – the first day of every week (a Sunday). And he does so, not because that was pay day or anything like that, he does so to stress that disciplined giving should be part and parcel of the regular worshipping life of the church in Corinth. As it was for them, so it should be for us.

How much do we see our giving as an act of worship? You see it's possible to give generously, but also reluctantly – and, in this day and age, forgetfully! One of the drawbacks of not having a regular weekly collection in church (we are not alone in this, many churches don't and for very good reasons) is that we lose the regular opportunity to praise and thank God for what he has blessed us with. And it's even worse in this high-tech age with Standing Orders, the money leaves our accounts and we get used to that and often then we don't even realise its gone. And with it has gone our regular chance to say "thank you God that I'm able to give!" Now I'm not for one minute saying that we must bring back collections or that standing orders are wrong. On the contrary, they are a very important and helpful tool for planning regular giving and on the church's part, planning expenditure. So if you don't currently give by this method, please would you consider doing so?

But what I am saying is that we need to consider carefully how we fulfil the principle of worshipful, regular giving in the 21st Century. One simple way I try and do this is that I have a couple of bible verses written out in my finances folder! Whenever I check my accounts, which is normally monthly, I'm reminded to pray that I would give thanks and be content with what God has given me and so on. And I try to change those verses every so often. Giving should be regularly set aside and is part of our worship. But that's not all:

Principle 3: Giving should be Proportional (v.2 continued)

On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper…

In other words, it is not how much we give, more that we give, according to how God has prospered us in any period – be it weekly or monthly. And notice that Paul says "each of you". This is for everyone. He doesn't say "some of you". You see whether we have little or lots, we can all give as God has prospered us. Whether our income is pocket money or an allowance from parents; whether our income is benefits from the state, a student grant or whether our income is measured in thousands of pounds each month, we are to give.

So you say: 'Ok Jon, I get that. Giving is a command. It must be regular and proportional – but what proportion?' Well what Paul is saying here is it depends! It depends on how God has prospered you. Perhaps a better question to ask than 'how much should I give?' is 'how much do I need to keep?' I'm sure you'll have heard this chap mentioned before, but he's a good example. R.G. Le Tourneau was a famous French philanthropist. He dedicated his life to "being a businessman for God." He was hugely successful, designing and developing his own line of earth-moving equipment. He worked out what his standard of living needed to be and stuck to it even when his income increased. So as he succeeded financially, he increased his giving to the point where he was giving 90% of his income to the Lord's work. When asked how he had so much when he gave away so much he answered: "I shovel out the money, and God shovels it back—but God has a bigger shovel!" You may be thinking, 'I could give 90% too if I was a multi-millionaire.' Maybe so, but Le Tourneau didn't start out wealthy.

Our giving literature suggests 10% as a starter for 10 (literally!). Some of us could, and should, give more. For some of us though 10% might not be possible – the Lord knows and each of us must decide in private with God what to give – that's what Paul really means when he says each of you must put something aside – it's between you and God. So… giving is commanded, it should be regular, it should be proportional, and now Paul gives us:

Principle 4: Giving should not be done under Pressure (end of v.2)

On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.

The purpose of this arrangement is simple – Paul doesn't want a hammered or squeezed collection when he arrives! It's ironic that one of the reasons some of us find the Giving Review so uncomfortable is that we feel pressured - but the whole point of having a Giving Review and Giving Scheme like we do at JPC is so that that pressure is removed! Have you noticed how our culture deliberately hammers and squeezes people to give? It's the exact opposite of what Christian giving should be. If you've ever watched even ten minutes of something like Children in Need or Comic Relief, you'll know that barely five minutes goes by without there being some feature designed to make you cry and then reach into your pocket. Don't get me wrong – they do great work, but isn't it sad that this emotional manipulation is the main way of achieving generous giving in our culture?

Not so for Christians Paul says. Proper obedience and planning actually results in more generosity than giving under pressure does! Why? Because when you plan to give regularly and generously, you actually end up giving more! But let's not brush over the specifics of Paul's collection, because if we do we'll miss the fifth principle he gives us and that is:

Principle 5: Christian Giving is for Christian Purposes (v.1, 3&4)

Briefly back to verse 1: "Now concerning the collection for the saints". In other words, the collection is for Christians, who are in Jerusalem. Verses 3-4: "…when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me." The Jewish Christians in Jerusalem were suffering. We know from the book of Acts that there were many widows there and that a failure of crops had resulted in famine. And Paul is motivating the Gentile Christians to give in order to relieve their pain. But this is so much more than just a transfer of cash between two parties. There is a geographic significance (Greece to Judea); and an economic significance (rich to poor)… But more than both of those, there is a theological significance – because it was from gentile Christians to Jewish Christians. It was a deliberate self-conscious symbol of Jewish-Gentile solidarity in the body of Christ.

The same is true today – our giving should be done geographically and economically and theologically to glorify God. When we give geographically – we are showing we take the good news of Jesus seriously as we support our Christian brothers and sisters all over the word. When we give to evangelistic enterprises – we express confidence that the gospel is God's power for salvation. When we give to our local church we acknowledge its centrality in God's purpose to boldly proclaim truth to the community around it. As Bill Hybels likes to say – "the local church really is the hope of the world"! And so we need to support it – no one else will. Generally speaking no-one but Christians will support the work God is doing through JPC; no-one but Christians will support the work God is doing through organisations in the UK such as the Christian Institute; no-one but Christians will fund evangelistic initiatives or ensure that spiritual needs, as well as physical needs, are addressed the world over.

And so as Paul commanded the Corinthian believers, so across the gulf of time he does so to us. We are to take seriously the command to give to Christian work regularly, proportionally, not under pressure but generously and worshipfully!