Our Gift for God's People

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What makes the difference between wanting to do something and actually doing it? Very often, the answer is: planning. ‘Failing to plan is planning to fail,’ as they say. And that’s true in the Christian life. Things we ought, and want, to do don’t just happen – they take planning. And one of them is: giving. Which is why every year we have this Giving Review. So would you open the Bible at1 Corinthians 16. Now this passage is aimed at Christians to help them give money for God’s purposes. So can I say if you wouldn’t yet call yourself a Christian, please don’t think we’re asking anything financial of you. But do stay tuned. Because this will give you a good idea in one area of life what it means to be a Christian – ie, to try to live for Jesus as Lord.

And for those who are Christians, this part of God’s Word tells us to give God’s money for God’s purposes in God’s way. Let’s break that into two points, so


Firstly, GIVE GOD’S MONEY FOR GOD’S PURPOSES… (v1)

Look down to 1 Corinthians 16, v1:

Now about the collection for God's people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do.

What was this collection? Well, the apostle Paul (who’s writing here) knows, from visiting Jerusalem, that the Christians there are suffering real hardship – just like, in some years, our brothers and sisters in our Kenyan link-church do, when harvests fail. So ‘God’s people’ are the hard-up Christians in Jerusalem, and the collection is to relieve their poverty. But why should the Christians in Corinth part with their money for people miles away who are nothing to do with them? Well the answer is: in fact, it’s not their money; and these people are everything to do with them.

Like all of us, by nature, before becoming Christians the Corinthians thought of their lives as their own – to do with as they pleased. Which included their money. But then they’d heard about Jesus – that he’s risen from the dead and is the rightful Lord of our lives, and that he died in order to forgive us back into relationship with him. And they’d accepted that. So that earlier in this letter Paul wrote, ‘You are not your own; you were bought at a price’ (1 Corinthians 6.19-20) So they now thought of their money as God’s money. And of his people world-wide as their people. And of God’s concerns as their concerns. And that should be our attitude too, if we’re Christians.

Now according to the Bible, God gives us money for four main purposes. Number one: to meet our needs and the needs of our dependants. Number two: to give to enable the spread of the gospel and the growth of the church. Number three: to give to relieve poverty. And number four: to pay taxes. Now this Giving Review is definitely about number two: giving to enable the spread of the gospel and the growth of the church – through this church, and the churches and missionaries we support. But it’s also about number three: giving to relieve poverty. Eg, that in part is what our giving to our Kenyan link-church does and what our giving to the Navajeevana clinic in Sri Lanka does. In fact those two projects combine the two – the meeting of spiritual and physical needs.

And in our giving literature you’ll see a suggestion which is a starting point for your planning. The suggestion is to give 10% of our income – 5% to the ministry here, and 5% to world mission, like the things I’ve just mentioned. And you may want to do some or all of your world mission giving by supporting one or more of our JPC missionaries. And you can find out more about them in the World Mission leaflet from the Welcome Desk, and on the information boards at the back.

But as you plan your giving to various things, do remember: non-Christians will also give to relieve poverty – like giving to the appeals for Haiti. But only Christians will give to the spread of the gospel and the growth of the church. So that’s got to be our priority – not to the exclusion of other things, but it must be our priority. Because if we don’t pay the price of getting the gospel to people so they can be saved – like laying on this coming week of Christianity Explored Tasters – no-one else will.

So, that’s the first thing: give God’s money for God’s purposes.


Secondly, DO IT IN GOD’S WAY (vv2-4)

Let’s read from v1 again:

1Now about the collection for God's people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do [ie, these are principles Paul taught all the churches, which is why I take it they apply to us, too]. 2On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. (vv1-2)

Notice that word, ‘each’ in v2. This applies to every one of us here who’s a Christian, however new our faith in Jesus is. People often treat giving as a kind of advanced Christian activity – as if we all do ‘spiritual GCSE subjects’ like Bible reading, but treat giving as a kind of ‘spiritual A-level’, for the few who are further on. But Paul says, No! When Jesus becomes Lord, he becomes Lord of all from the start. So if you’ve not yet begun to let him take charge of this area and started planned giving, the time to start is now. Equally, if you’re a Christian who’s moved to this church but not yet started giving to what you’re benefiting from, the time to start is now – Paul says elsewhere that you’re meant to be a partner (see Philippians 1.6, 4.14-16), not a passenger.

So what does giving done in God’s way look like? Well, I’ve got a string of 5 Ps – or maybe I should say a podful.

The first P is: planned. So Paul says, v2:

On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.

So Paul knows he’s not going to reach Corinth for months. And what he wants to avoid is a flurry of unplanned giving when he does arrive. Because that would have two bad effects. One is that they’d probably give out of a sense of guilty compulsion – as people often do when a charity tin is rattled at them. Whereas God wants us to give willingly in response to him, rather than grudgingly in response to being leaned on. And the other bad effect is that they’d probably give less than they could and should. Whereas God wants us to give thoughtfully and appropriately, which takes a long look at your bank and Building Society statements and so on, not just a quick dip into what happens to be in your pocket. So that’s why, like Paul, we encourage serious, planned giving.

Now look at v2 again, because this translation naughtily misses out two words – I guess because the translators thought they were just a minor detail. Literally, v2 reads:

On the first day of every week, each one of you at home should set aside a sum of money…

(I did in fact find one English translation that (rightly) says, ‘at home’.) So Paul was not saying to them, ‘Have a collection in church every Sunday.’ He was saying to them, ‘Every Sunday, set aside a sum of money at home.’ And save it up at home. (This, of course, was before they had a banking system to lose it all for them; they had to risk it under the mattress – so the principle here still applies today, although our exact practice will differ.) Now why labour that? Well, because some Christians think v2 says churches should have a collection every Sunday. In fact, it doesn’t say that. And we don’t do that because it would probably encourage less-planned giving – which usually amounts to less giving. That’s why it says in our giving literature, ‘Unplanned giving using the box at the door is intended for visitors only. Anyone who considers JPC to be their church should not be using this method.’ You might then wonder why we have a Missionary Collection at communion services. Well, partly it’s a way of keeping our missionaries and their needs in our minds. And partly it’s a way of bringing giving into our services from time to time, to remind us that money is part of discipleship, and an intensely spiritual matter. (But you can do all your world mission giving directly through the Giving Scheme, which is what I do.)

So, giving done in God’s way is planned. For Tess and I, that involves reading our giving literature, reading appeals and information from other Christian work we support. And then deciding what to give to in the coming year.

Next P: giving done in God’s way is private. We’re to do it, like this (NIV) translation doesn’t say, ‘at home’. Because it’s a matter between each of us and the Lord. As the Lord Jesus himself said, it’s to be done in secret (see Matthew 6.1-4). That’s another reason in general for avoiding open collections. And it’s important to know that any giving you do through our giving scheme is as secret as possible. Two people – our administrator and our giving scheme co-ordinator – have to know. But no-one else does. None of us on the staff except our administrator knows anything about individuals’ giving.

Next P: giving done in God’s way is proportionate – middle of v2, ‘in keeping with his income’. So Paul recognises that different people have different incomes. And that the same people have different incomes and outgoings at different times – eg, depending on – whether they’re single or married; whether or not they’ve got children; what stage the children are at; whether they’re employed or unemployed, students, or retired; the size of their pension; and so on. We’re all in different financial circumstances. So if the Corinthians had asked Paul, ‘How much should we each give?’ he’d have said, ‘There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. It depends how much you’ve got to give from. But give a proportion of that – a proportion of your income.’
As I said earlier, our giving literature suggests 10% of our income as a starting point for planning, based on the Old Testament pattern for giving. Some of us can and should give much more than that; others might not be able to do that right now. But give a proportion of what you have to give.

Now what we have to give depends on our income, but obviously also on what we spend and save. And it has to be said that we are almost all, if not all, spending and saving above what we need – living in some degree of luxury. And we may need to discover or rediscover the discipline of justifying our use of money in the Lord’s eyes. And it may be that there are house-plans or retirement plans or holidays or cars or a range of other things that, to be blunt, we need to repent of.

Giving done in God’s way is proportionate. So Tess and I work out our income before tax for the year (including things like big gifts and gain from investments) and then decide a percentage to give. If you’re a tax-payer, doing it by Gift Aid is a must, since the government than adds to what you give. Do read the giving literature about how to give. What’s important for strategic planning is to have an early idea of what each of us can give, which is why there’s a Response card – for which the motto is: the sooner received, the better for planning.

Let’s look at vv3-4 to finish:

3Then, when I arrive [says Paul, looking ahead to his visit to Corinth], 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.

Which gives us two other Ps: the next is that giving done in God’s way is protected. Paul wants the Corinthians to approve some trustworthy men to take the money to Jerusalem. So if v2 is about the whole church giving money in a way that pleases God, v3 is about its leadership handling it in a way that pleases God. It must be handled with integrity, protected from waste or misuse, and used as it was said it would be used. We try to guarantee that, eg, by having accountants on the staff and all sorts of systems to comply with charity law and good practice; our accounts are made public and professionally audited. But if you’re ever concerned about the use of money here, please do make that known to one of the staff or church wardens. But applying this more widely, all of us use the money that’s given as we use the buildings and resources and equipment it provides. So we’re all to be careful with what we share and steward here on God’s behalf.

My final P is that giving done in God’s way is personal. My question about vv3 and 4 was this: why didn’t Paul just take the money to Jerusalem himself? Why get the Corinthians to go? And the answer is that, for Paul, giving is not just an impersonal transfer of money.

When I get our gas bill, they tell me that a certain amount will be taken from our bank account on a certain date. And it is – and it’s completely impersonal – the ‘Dear Mr Garrett’ at the top means precisely nothing. I’m not dear to them, and they’re not dear to me (except in the sense of seeming quite expensive). Whereas Christian giving is personal. So Paul wants the Corinthians to take their gift to the Jerusalem Christians in person because giving to fellow-Christians and Christian ministry is an expression of love and of belonging to the same world-wide family of God and of partnership in the cause of the gospel.

So Paul’s keen that alongside the giving of money, goes real relationship. He wants us to give to people and ministries, but also to care about them and be personally involved with them. I think I can speak for the staff in saying: I’m certainly conscious of not just being paid for by you, but cared for by you, and involved with you in the life of this church family. But thinking further afield, it may be that you do give to one of our JPC missionaries but don’t really pray for them or communicate with them. Well, let’s make our giving personal by starting to pray and getting their prayer-letter and e-mailing them from time to time. And maybe even visiting, as some of us already have. That costs money – but so did getting a gang of Corinthians from Corinth to Jerusalem and back, and Paul clearly thought that was worthwhile to express real relationship and partnership in the gospel.

Time’s up. It’s a little passage, but with a lot to say, to help us this coming year to give God’s money to God’s purposes in God’s way. Because, remember: ‘You are not your own; you were bought at a price’ (1 Corinthians 6.19-20) – you, and everything you have.

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