Giving

DEVOTION

1 CORINTHIANS

GIVING

1 Cor 16:1-4

16:1 Now about the collection for God's people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. 2 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. 3 Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem. 4 If it seems advisable for me to go also, they will accompany me.

NIV

It would seem this is one of those verses that prove we should be tithing on a weekly basis. Yet if we inspect exactly what is happening here, that is not the case. No money is being given for the operation of a church, for salaries of staff and for expenses of certain pet projects or building funds. This is all about helping out the less fortunate in the body of Christ. We can see that the sum of money, which it does not say what percentage that sum is, goes directly to other people who need it, to meet their daily needs. This is where we might be failing miserably. We are pressured to tithe to the church, almost made to feel guilty if we are not. All that pressure is so we can build a huge building, have the very best sound system money can buy, as well as the best visual aids system we can get and we can hire a pastor for every age group we can think of, in fact over staff our churches with salaried ministers who are the very ones pressuring us to tithe in order to support this money devouring monster we created. Such a very small percentage of anything actually goes to the cause which is outlined here. We might even be driving to church in our fancy cars, wearing our best attire, expecting breakfast out after church, all the while someone in our midst is struggling to meet their daily needs and we simply go on our merry way thinking good about ourselves because we put something in the passing tray to feed our monster. If we were truly in fellowship with each other, we would know who needs what and we would be generously giving according in keeping with our income. We might also rid ourselves of this monster and return to the ways the church was designed by Jesus. We may have failed to see the truth, and we might have simply bought into this newer way of doing things, because it is easier, all we have to do is show up on Sunday morning and pay the piper. If we were to follow this truth we would set aside a sum of money in keeping with our income saving it up and when we see someone in need we would, if needed, collaborate with a few others, and give, not borrow, to the one in real need, but we would be setting it aside within the framework of our own home, not bringing it to pay for the monster each week. So what will we do, continue with the collections, or set it aside? Will we continue to pay for the monster, or give to those in need? Some say we should do both. Some say paying for the monster is so it can give to the poor. Yet the point is clear.