Law of Exclusion?

The Collection for the Lord’s People

 

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

 

For years I remember the church treasurer changed the weekly figures on the record board in the church auditorium. It was natural. Giving to the church budget was a measurement of one’s faithfulness to the church and to God. At the time, it seemed reasonable to believe that this was one of the five weekly “items of worship” and an essential part of God’s plan. But a closer look at Paul’s instructions to the church in Corinth leads me to believe this is not the case.

 

It is clear that Paul was saying to “set aside a sum of money,” for a special collection and to pool the funds for the 1^st-century church in a Jewish world. Have we taken specific instructions intended for a historical emergency and made it a universal law for all Christians of all times and all places?

 

While there are many unanswered questions there are some things we know with certainty:

 

• Paul’s instructions are addressed to individuals in the congregation at Corinth.
• These funds are to be put aside weekly.
• These funds were not used to fund overhead cost or salaries arising, from other ministries.
• These Sunday collections were only to help meet a special, temporary need related to congregations in the Jewish world.
• Collections were to be completed prior to Paul’s arrival. Once he was there, there no longer a need for funds to be collected.

 

Concerning 1 Corinthians 16:1-4 Albert Barnes said “It does not mean that Paul had assumed the authority to tax them, or that he had commanded them to make a collection. But that he left directions as to the best manner and time in which it should be done. The collection was voluntary and cheerful in all churches.”

 

I am unable to find a command where the Holy Spirit instructs the church to systematically contribute money to a weekly “church treasury.” This is a modern day extension of 1 Corinthians 16. It may be the most expedient way for the church to operate, but it not in the text.

 

For those who advocate the “law of exclusion” if you believe the silence of the scriptures demands that there be no deviations, additions, or subtractions, why not apply the rule here? It is clear Paul instructed these Christians to set aside on every first day of the week. Keep in mind that this collection was earmarked for the poor Christians in Jerusalem. What is the basis for using the weekly collection for anything other than benevolence? And on what grounds can it be said it is a sin to take up money on any other day except Sunday, when the weekly collection is not being used in the exclusive manner that Paul instructed the early church? It also seems somewhat hypocritical to accuse a congregation that gives to a Christian college of deviating from a supposed New Testament blueprint when the accusers are going beyond the only stated purpose for Bible giving? The supporters of the silence argument have twisted and bent the words to fit whatever they want to get into it, while their “law of exclusion” has been freely used to exempt whatever they want to exempt. It all seems more than a bit inconsistent.