1 Corinthians 16:1-4

May 12, 2019

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

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The sermon starts at 17:40 in the audio file.

Or, Collection by and for the Saints

If I’m not mistaken, I don’t think that I’ve preached a full sermon about giving yet at TEC in our eight and a half years together. I would have talked about Abraham giving a tithe to Melchizedek when we were going through Genesis. I’ve talked about our offering as part of the liturgy, why we don’t pass plates and why we bring forward the bucket of collection during the consecration part of our service. And we talk about giving and money and budgets at all of our bi-annual family meetings. Yet I don’t think there has been a message entirely devoted to tithes, offerings, or fundraising.

It is something I’ve thought about doing during one of our beginning-of-the-year refresh sermons on liturgy. Maybe 2020 will be the time; today won’t be, at least not exactly. Because while 1 Corinthians 16:1-4 is about a collection of money, and taking that collection following a Sunday by Sunday pattern, this paragraph is talking about a special collection for the poor rather than a collection for the ongoing operations of a church itself. I’m not convinced that this paragraph is a prescriptive passage, as in, all Christians in all churches in all times and places must do it like this, while, on the other hand, 1 Corinthians 15:58 has no such limitation. I believe 16:1-4 is more descriptive, as in, showing some principles that may have various applications for us.

There was a severe shortage of supplies in Jerusalem when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians. He was in Ephesus but he knew about the problem in Jerusalem; he had known about it for some time (Luke wrote in Acts 11:28 that there would be a famine under the Roman Emperor Claudius). It had been a problem when Paul went to Jerusalem and the council told him that he should care about the poor, “the very thing I was eager to do” (Galatians 2:10). He mentions the problem in his letter to the Galatians, in his letter to the Romans, and again in 2 Corinthians, more than a year later (2 Corinthians 8:10) after writing 1 Corinthians. The needs of the Jews were critical, but in a chronic way.

Paul must have already communicated about this collection project to the Corinthians before writing this letter. That’s because 1), he seems to assume a lot of background as he starts this section of his letter, and 2) he starts the section with “now concerning,” a formula which previously indicated that he was answering something that they had written to him about. So it is reasonable to suppose that he is replying to some question they had. We don’t know what exactly it was that they wanted to know, but we do have what Paul thought would answer it.

Chapter 16 is the final section of this letter which includes some comments on his own travel plans and intention to visit them (verses 5-9), some comments about the upcoming visits of Timothy and Apollos (verses 10-12), some final exhortations (verses 13-14), and a variety of greetings from others before a final good-bye and benediction (verses 15-24).

In the first part of the chapter he talks about the fundraising they should do prior to his arrival. There are three parts to it. We’re going to consider what he has to say and then consider a way we could apply it.

A Need for Collection (verse 1)

There is a connection between this paragraph and the last verse of chapter 15, but I’ll suggest that connection in a bit. Paul clearly switches subjects and appears to be answering something they were concerned about.

Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. There are some important clues and perhaps even more important pieces that aren’t included.

The collection is an interesting[...]