In addition to worship and the sacrifice of praise at the Lord’s table, the monetary offering given at that time is also an important privilege and responsibility. We believe 1 Corinthians 16:2 is the divine authority for the collection on the first day of the week. The inspired Apostle had been dwelling upon the most sublime and precious truth at the close of chapter 15, and we may be sure he deemed it no interruption to communion to pen the words, “Now concerning the collection.” The Lord puts, as it were, His basket into our hands and enables us to contribute to His cause. It is the most suited opportunity we have, as an assembly, of so doing. Besides, it is morally comely — yea, it is simple righteousness — to contribute. How is the rent to be paid? How are all the expenses to be met? And then there are the Lord’s poor and the Lord’s work at home and abroad. How are these to be met? Is it not a holy privilege for all to have fellowship? And what more suited occasion than when we are seated at the table of our Lord, feasting, in holy communion, upon the rich provision of His love?
Some may think that the words, “Let every one of you lay by him in store,” go against the idea of a public collection. But why say, “On the first day of the week,” if it were merely a private matter? We believe that laying by in store sets forth the calm, deliberate, devoted nature of the offering. We should determine, before the Lord in secret, what we are able to give, and then in the public assembly deposit our offering in the Lord’s treasury, remembering that His eye is upon us. Let us not forget the words, “every one of you” and “as God hath prospered him.”
We come and avail ourselves of the room and its accommodation —the assembly and its privileges; then should we not consider how all these things are to be provided? And this is simply taking the very lowest possible view of the matter. Were we merely to view it as a question of common righteousness, we are morally bound to contribute, according to our means, to the expenses of the place where we meet and where we may enjoy some of the richest privileges that Christians can taste upon earth.
We have no right to suppose that one or a few wealthy members of the assembly will defray all the expenses. To act on such a supposition as this is to deny our individual responsibility and surrender a most precious privilege. When we consider that the box on the Lord’s table is His treasury, out of which He pays the rent of the room for His people to meet in and out of which He would meet the need of His poor and the demands of His work, we have the correct idea “concerning the collection.” No doubt, those who take it upon them to manage the Lord’s money need much grace and wisdom, and they should seek to act in full fellowship with grave and godly brethren in the distribution of the offerings of the assembly. These things being so, the collection at the Lord’s table is an orderly follow-up to the worship and communion at the Lord’s table and is evidence of a spiritual mind and largeness of heart.
Adapted from
Things New and Old, 19:27