Ian Calhoun, Author at Hot Springs Reformed Church

A sermon by Ian Calhoun on 1 Corinthians 16:1–4
Hot Springs Reformed Church · Hot Springs, SD

Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 16:1–4

Please turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 16. The title of our sermon today is “The Offering Is Our Duty.” Starting in verse 1:

Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come. When I arrive, whomever you may approve, I will send them with letters to carry your gift to Jerusalem; and if it is fitting for me to go also, they will go with me.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Introduction

So why this passage? We have recently added a time for offering in our public worship, which we will be doing shortly after the sermon. So we thought this would be a good opportunity to teach and explain why we have an offering and what it is for. This passage in 1 Corinthians 16 is probably the clearest instruction in the New Testament on what offerings should look like today for a Christian.

Offerings perverted, but not wicked

In our current culture, the idea of giving money to the church can almost be laughable to some people. The common worldly narrative is that churches are nothing more than financial scams, thieves tricking elderly women into giving away their last dollars so a wealthy pastor or priest can buy a private jet while his people can barely afford groceries.

While there have been wicked churches and wicked men abusing the offerings people make for their own personal enrichment, that is not because offerings by themselves are wicked. Scripture explicitly condemns leaders who exploit vulnerable people to get rich. Proverbs 22:16 warns us:

He who oppresses the poor to make more for himself
Or who gives to the rich, will only come to poverty.

God sees when men misuse the ministry to crush the poor for personal gain, and He promises it will lead them straight to ruin.

Consider modern marriage. Our culture has deeply perverted it from God’s original design, through same-sex unions, no-fault divorce, ignoring male headship, and so on. Yet we do not throw marriage away. The problem is not with the institution of marriage; the problem is with how man has twisted it. The same is true with offerings. Just because man has sometimes perverted them does not mean they are wicked. They, like marriage, are good and glorious. If any evil flows from them, it is because we have distorted them from God’s original purpose and meaning. Proverbs 3:9–10 commands us:

Honor the LORD from your wealth
And from the first of all your produce;
So your barns will be filled with plenty
And your vats will overflow with new wine.

When we do offerings according to the Word of God, Scripture paints a beautiful picture, the opposite of the world’s.

An offering, not a donation

Along this line of perverting them from God’s original purpose, we have to understand the difference between making an offering to the Lord and simply giving a gift to a religious nonprofit. When the treasurer passes the offering bags around today, you are not being asked to give a gift to this church. The local church is not merely a worldly charity, and this is not a common financial donation. It is a holy collection for the saints commanded by Christ. When you place your money in those bags, you are making an offering directly to the Lord. Let us read Malachi 1:11:

“For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD of hosts.

Malachi is showing us that under the new covenant, true worship would spread to the Gentiles, who would offer pure spiritual sacrifices of prayer, praise, and substance to the Lord. Malachi gives us a powerful picture of what an offering is meant to signify to God.

A gift is something you give to an equal out of your own personal discretion. You can give a gift whenever you want, to whomever you please, and however you see fit. But an offering is a tribute you bring before your King. It is a commanded ordinance of the Lord’s Day worship. When we treat the offering as merely giving a gift to a religious nonprofit, we strip it of its holiness and its power. The offering is not the act of financing a business. It is an act of worshiping the living God with our earthly substance.

So when those bags pass before you after we conclude this sermon, do not look at them as a financial transaction, or a tax, or a donation to a religious nonprofit, but see those bags as an offering of thanksgiving. God does not need your money, but He does command you to worship Him. He is correcting our hearts so that we desire to open our hands before our holy King.

To fully understand how Christians bring a tribute to the Lord, we have to look back at how God’s people have always done this. We have to see how the law taught us to rightly align our hearts to God’s, so that now, in the liberty of the gospel, we can truly worship our Lord.

1. The Continuity of the Collection

This brings us to our first point: the continuity of the collection. Let us get back to 1 Corinthians 16. Look at how Paul begins here in the first half of verse 1: “Now concerning the collection for the saints.” Paul is not making up something new. He did not say, “Starting now, there will be a collection for the saints.” He is just assuming there will be, because there always has been.

This is not just for New Testament worship. Paul knows his Old Testament very well, and he is drawing a direct line to historic Old Testament worship. In ancient Israel, God had set up the tithe, which was mandatory. This tithe was used for taking care of the temple, the priests, and the poor among them, the widows and the orphans. In essence, it was mandatory for God’s covenant people to take care of one another. As we read in Numbers 18:21:

“To the sons of Levi, behold, I have given all the tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service which they perform, the service of the tent of meeting.”

And in Deuteronomy 14:28–29:

“At the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year, and shall deposit it in your town. The Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance among you, and the alien, the orphan and the widow who are in your town, shall come and eat and be satisfied, in order that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.”

General equity

So this raises a question: if the old national laws of Israel and the temple system are no more, then why are offerings still happening in the church every Lord’s Day? The answer comes down to understanding general equity.

General equity is the foundational moral principle underneath God’s Old Testament law. In everything God commanded in the Old Testament law, God revealed a moral truth. And since God is perfectly just and perfectly righteous, each moral truth reveals His personal character. So while specific methods might change, the general principle, or moral truth, behind it never changes. God is always the same. John Calvin wrote on general equity:

Equity, as it is natural, cannot but be the same for all. And therefore, this alone ought to be the proposed goal, rule, and limit of all laws. For the statement of Moses, although it varies from our civil law, yet agrees with that rule of equity.

In other words, Calvin is saying the specific civil laws change, but God’s standard of justice never does.

For example, in your house there is probably a rule that prohibits your three-year-old child from sticking anything into an electrical socket: you shall not touch any electrical socket. When that child grows up and turns 23, the literal, strict rule has expired. He is free to touch an electrical socket, because he now understands how it works and uses it correctly. But what was the general equity, the underlying principle of the rule? Protect human life and prevent the destruction of a home. That principle never changes. Even though the application can change, the moral truth does not.

Let’s look at a specific example from the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 22:8:

“When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you will not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone falls from it.”

A parapet, in our modern English, is a railing. In this building code God commanded for Israel, He is revealing a specific principle: if you build something that is a potential danger to someone else, it is your duty to make it safe, or safer, for other people. Otherwise, you will be at fault. This is where we get the idea of having a railing along stairs or balconies, a fence around a pool, or a cover for a well. All of this is driven by the underlying principle to preserve and protect human life. While the application has changed, the moral truth has not.

This raises another question: how do we know this is how we are to read and understand the Bible? Because that is how the writers of the New Testament constantly interpret the Old Testament. For example, in 1 Corinthians 9 Paul quotes Deuteronomy 25:4. Starting in verse 8:

I am not speaking these things according to human judgment, am I? Or does not the Law also say these things? For it is written in the Law of Moses, “YOU SHALL NOT MUZZLE THE OX WHILE HE IS THRESHING.” God is not concerned about oxen, is He? Or is He speaking altogether for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing the crops. If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share from the altar? So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel. (1 Corinthians 9:8–14)

So what did Paul just do here? He took the general equity of an Old Testament agricultural law and applied it to show that a gospel worker deserves to be financially supported.

So when Paul turns to the Corinthians and says, “Now concerning the collection,” he is doing the exact same thing. He is looking at the Old Testament system of mandatory tithes and taxes for Israel’s worship and pulling out its timeless moral truth. The church, and the spreading of the kingdom through the proclamation of the gospel, still require financial means to operate. The saints are morally commanded to support the new house of God and its ministry: the church, the elders, and the deacons. The saints are still morally commanded to support the poor among them, the widows and the orphans.

The mandatory collection in the Old Testament was a shadow, like a father’s household rule for his three-year-old child. The collection in the New Testament is the fulfillment. The child is now 23 and makes weekly offerings freely, because he desires to obey God the Father and live a righteous life.

2. The Principle of Preparation and Proportion

This brings us to our second point, the principle of preparation and proportion. Let’s continue with 1 Corinthians 16, looking at verse 2:

On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come.

Now we are getting into the meat of the sermon. Here in verse 2, Paul lays out the blueprint for how Christians are to make their offerings. He reveals the when, the where, and the how.

When: the first day of the week

First, Paul addresses when these offerings are to happen. Look at the timing of these collections: “on the first day of every week.” We know that the first day of the week is the Lord’s Day, the Christian Sabbath, as Jeremy pointed out. Paul is commanding that our Lord’s Day gathering for public worship is to include the collection for the saints. This is entirely consistent with the timing of worship we find in the Old Testament, as we read in Numbers 28:9–10:

“Then on the sabbath day two male lambs one year old without defect, and two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering, and its drink offering: This is the burnt offering of every sabbath in addition to the continual burnt offering and its drink offering.”

Where: private preparation and public presentation

Second, Paul addresses where this is happening. Continuing in verse 2, he says, “each one of you is to put aside and save.” In the original Greek, the phrasing implies a deliberate two-step process for worship. This offering starts with private preparation, individually at home, throughout the week. We see the heart of this preparation in Leviticus 27:32:

“For every tenth part of herd or flock, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the LORD.”

But this private preparation is designed to end with public presentation. We bring what we have privately prepared and corporately cast it into the church’s treasury, just as God commanded His people in Deuteronomy 16:16:

“Three times in a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths, and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.”

How: as he may prosper

And lastly, Paul addresses how we are to give. He gives a specific proportional measurement: “as he may prosper.” The individual amount is distinct to each person, tailored to your household’s wealth, your age, and the stage of life you are currently in. The amount is unique to the individual and directly tied to how much God has materially blessed your labor. As we continue reading in Deuteronomy 16, now verse 17:

“Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you.”

Matthew Henry captures this perfectly when he writes:

They were to lay by as God had blessed them, in that proportion. The more they had, through God’s blessing, gained by their business or labour, their traffic or work, the more they were to lay by. Note, God expects that our beneficence to others should hold some proportion to his bounty to us. All we have is from God; the more he gives (circumstances being considered), the more he enables us to give, and the more he expects we should give, that we should give more than others who are less able, that we should give more than ourselves when we were less able.

Paul is using the general equity of the mandatory tithe from the Old Testament law as his blueprint for free, voluntary offerings under New Testament grace. While the outward application looks different, the underlying moral principle remains completely unchanged. Under the old covenant, God used the rigid law of the ten-percent tithe to train His people like young children. But under the new covenant we have grown up in the gospel. Now that the law has been written on our hearts, we give voluntarily. We look directly at the cross of Jesus Christ, who gave His entire life as an offering for us, not because He had to, but because He freely chose to. It is the liberty of the gospel that compels us to give. No longer are we bound by the shadow of a mandatory law to give a strict tenth. Now, in the clear light of the gospel, our hearts cheerfully desire to give in abundance for the expansion of the kingdom of Christ.

Planned, not last-minute

This brings us to the end of verse 2, where Paul says, “so that no collections be made when I come.” He is calling for deliberate thought and orderly religious practice to govern this part of our worship. This requires real discipline and organization.

To apply this directly to our lives: making an offering on the Lord’s Day is not some last-minute thing we throw together on our way out the door to church. Each offering is to be prepared throughout your week as you labor. In fact, a primary motivation for your labor should be the preparation of your offering for the coming Lord’s Day. Practically, this means knowing your household budget. It means looking at your income and making God’s portion a priority over non-essential spending, like vacations, entertainment, or the constant pursuit of having the latest and greatest version of everything. You do this private preparation so that you are fully ready to present your offering in our public worship to the Lord. Remember, we don’t have to make an offering. We get to make a joyful offering to our Lord and King.

3. The Principle of Accountability

Our third and final point is the principle of accountability. Let us now see how Paul concludes his instructions in verses 3 and 4:

When I arrive, whomever you may approve, I will send them with letters to carry your gift to Jerusalem; and if it is fitting for me to go also, they will go with me.

There’s a shift here in Paul’s writing. He is moving from the theology to the administration of the collection. The church handles not only the collection of the offerings but also the use of those offerings. Paul is establishing two principles for the church’s collection: first, congregational approval, and second, accountability.

Congregational approval

Let us look closer at verse 3, where Paul says, “whomever you may approve, I will send them.” Paul knows that the authority to select the right men to handle the collection belongs to the local congregation. Paul does not tell them, “Give me your collection, and I will do what I determine is best.” He knows this power is assigned only to the local church. This is entirely consistent with what we see in Acts 6:3 in regard to selecting the first deacons:

“Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task.”

Accountability

The handling of the collection is never to be done by one individual. It requires congregational oversight, both to avoid any potential temptation and to protect against false accusations. Having multiple eyewitnesses is how we protect the collection and the ones handling it.

Paul continues, “with letters to carry your gift.” In the ancient world these letters served as a paper trail. They proved authorization, helped prevent fraud, and verified these men as the church’s true representatives.

Let’s continue with verse 4: “and if it is fitting for me to go also, they will go with me.” Paul is again recognizing the church’s authority over the matter. He does not say, “I will go also.” No, he says, “if it is fitting for me to go also,” leaving the final say entirely up to the local church. Paul is setting the example of how each local church is to handle the offering in an ethical, professional manner. As we read in 2 Corinthians 8:20–21:

taking precaution so that no one will discredit us in our administration of this generous gift; for we have regard for what is honorable, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.

The church leadership must be honest before God, but also in the sight of men, which requires a real level of transparency and order. This is why we have set up a formal treasury with a treasurer. We do not hand the money to be counted and recorded by just one individual. We have at least one elder accompany the treasurer in the counting, and then we verify that the exact amount ends up in the correct bank account. We do this, ensuring that every dollar is accounted for, so that we, the church, are using the offering precisely for the advancement of the gospel, the honorable maintenance of its ministers, and the diaconal care of our vulnerable saints. We have a duty to make sure we do things in a way that protects Christ’s church from slander, so that the gospel is not hindered because of our apathy.

Conclusion

So as we close, I want you to remember these three points we learned from Paul:

The offering is a historical, continuous moral duty.
It is a deliberate, prepared act of Lord’s Day worship.
It is to be handled with the highest standard of biblical accountability.

Our confession reminds us that while the gospel frees our hearts from legalistic bondage, it does not free us from Christ’s appointed order. The elements of public worship are not left to human invention; they are instituted by God Himself. Therefore, when we bring our substance today, we are not performing an act of optional charity, but a commanded ordinance of the Lord’s Day. We bring a holy tribute, prescribed by our King, to be joyfully rendered by His subjects in the courts of His house.

Let us now transition from learning from God’s Word to actually applying it and living it out. Let us pray.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You for this opportunity to learn from Your Word. Lord, we thank You for Paul and his teachings on proper worship on the Lord’s Day. Lord, work on our hearts so they better align with Your giving nature and loving Spirit. As we come to our time of offering, set our hearts and minds on Your glory. Accept our offerings not as works, but as thanksgiving for Your works. Give wisdom to the leadership of this church to be good stewards of the saints’ collection. Help us to use these offerings for Your glory, for Your kingdom. Bless these offerings, that through them more would come to know Christ. Help our hearts, Lord, to view our things not as our own but as Yours. You bless us with abundance, Lord. You are too good to us. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Copyright notice

(Editor’s note: This transcript may have been lightly edited for clarity and/or condensed for internet attention spans.)