The Corinthian Collection
Several of the "Institutional" brethren here in California have contended that 1 Cor. 16:1,2 refers only to a specified obligation and that there is no pattern for the church to take a first day of the week collection for general purposes such as supporting the preacher, etc. They charge that preachers who insist on following the Divine pattern in evangelistic and benevolent work are inconsistent when they allow the church to support them out of the first day of the week collection. I have gathered the following material as a part of my debate notes on this passage, which I pass on for whatever it is worth. This has been gathered from several different sources over a period of six or eight months and I do not make any claims to originality. The arrangement is mine, and the arguments will stand.
No. 1 IF YOU CONTEND THAT 1 COR. 16: 1,2 WAS FOR BENEVOLENT PURPOSES EXCLUSIVELY YOU INVOLVE YOURSELF IN THIS DIFFICULTY:
This letter was written in A.D. 57 or 58. The church had been in existence for at least 25 years at this time. Will you affirm that there was no first day of the week collections during the first 25 years of the church?
No. 2. OTHER CHURCHES PAID PAUL WAGES BEFORE THIS: 2 Cor. 11:8
These churches were taking money from their treasuries and using it for a purpose other than charity — to support the preaching of the gospel.
No. 3. ACTUALLY THE CHURCH HAS SCRIPTURAL AUTHORITY TO USE ITS MONEY FOR:
1. Supporting a preacher in a distant field: 2 Cor. 11:8 2. Supporting a preacher at home: 1 Cor. 9:14
3. Edification in its own congregation: 1 Tim. 5:17,18 4. Helping the needy of its own congregation: Art 6:1,6 - 1 Tim. 5:16
5. Helping a needy sister congregation: 1 Cor. 161.2 So, 1 Cor. 16:1,2 is a Scriptural example for raising money for the church treasury. In the absence of any plan to the contrary would it not be presumptuous to deviate from this revealed example? Paul was here writing concerning No. 5 above. Had he been writing concerning any of the others the instructions would have been the same, "Upon the first day of the week . . . everyone of you lay by in store".
So far as I know we have always preached that the scriptural way for the church to raise its money is for the members to lay by in store on the first day of the week. Do we want to go back on this? If so we ought to apologize to the Christian church for anything we have said about the way they raise money.
No. 4. MacKnight renders 1 Cor. 16:2 "On the first day of the week, let each one of you lay somewhat by itself, putting it into the treasury." The word "Thesaurizoon" rendered in the common Version "in store" is a present participle, meaning, literally, "putting into the treasury". All church history testifies that the early church took up a weekly collection on the first day of the week. See Pliny's Letter to Emperor Trajan." — JOHNSON ON 1 COR. 16:1,2