"Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered
him" (1 Cor. 16:2).

It is an interesting fact that immediately following the great resurrection chapter in this first epistle
to the Corinthians, the apostle gives instruction to the saints concerning the use of their money.
With many this is always a touchy question, and yet he who sings from the heart,

"Naught that I have my own I’ll call;
I hold it for the Giver:
My heart, my strength, my life, my all
Are His, and His forever,"

should surely not be averse to facing honestly in the presence of God what He has said in His
Word concerning the Christian and his money.

In the Old Testament God gave to Israel very definite instructions as to this. The tithe of all that
they received was to be definitely set apart for Himself and devoted to the upkeep of His house
and the support of His priests; but even before the law was given, God indicated His mind in
regard to the tithe by what He caused to be recorded concerning Abraham. When the patriarch
returned from the slaughter of the kings and the deliverance of his nephew Lot, he was met by
Melchizedek, King of Salem, who was priest of the most high God. In response to the blessing
of this mysterious personage, who was a type of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are told that Abraham
"gave him tithes of all." Our attention is directed to this in the Epistle to the Hebrews as indicating
the preeminence of the Melchizedek priesthood over the Levitical, inasmuch as Abraham was the
father of all the Hebrews and therefore of the sons of Levi who, in him representatively, paid
tithes to Melchizedek.

When God’s earthly people were going on happily with Himself they gladly brought their tithes,
together with additional offerings, thus honoring the Lord and recognizing His authority over their
lives and possessions. When declension set in and they drifted away from Him and followed the
ways of the surrounding nations, they selfishly kept the tithes for themselves, robbed God of what
properly belonged to Him, left His priests to suffer, and neglected the upkeep of His temple.
Whenever there was a return to Himself, there was always a new recognition of their
responsibility regarding the tithe.

In the last book of the Old Testament, the little book of Malachi, God speaks scathingly of their
neglect of the law of the tithe. He says in Chapter 3, verses 8 and 9:"Will a man rob God? Yet
ye have robbed Me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed Thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are
cursed with a curse:for ye have robbed Me, even this whole nation." It was not that God needed
their money. He Himself had told them in the fiftieth Psalm that every beast of the forest was His
and the cattle upon a thousand hills. The world was His and the fulness thereof. He had no need
of anything that His people could bring to Him, but their faithful observance of the law of the tithe
was an evidence of their loyalty to Himself, and their neglect of it told out their indifference to

His will. In the verse following those we have quoted from Malachi, He calls upon them to bring
their tithes, and promises blessing when they obey. We read:"Bring ye all the tithes into the
storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord
of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there
shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall
not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the
field, saith the Lord of hosts." Material blessing always followed obedience to the command of
the Lord.

When our Saviour Himself was here on earth, He sternly rebuked certain hypocritical legalists for
observing great care in tithing while neglecting true spirituality toward God and charity toward
men. He speaks scornfully of their habit of tithing the smallest possible herbs and yet forgetting
the weightier matters of the law such as loving their neighbors as themselves. But He does not
thereby deliver from the law of the tithe, or in any sense decry tithing, for He immediately adds,
"These ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone." That is, He did not relieve them
of the responsibility of tithing even mint and rue, insignificant herbs as they were, but He stressed
their responsibility to keep the whole law and put His special emphasis upon its spiritual side.

When we pass out of the atmosphere of the four Gospels into the Book of Acts and thence into the
epistles of the New Testament, we never again read of tithing, except in the passage already
referred to_Hebrews 7:5-8. Hence some have jumped to the conclusion that the law of the tithe
in no way affects Christian responsibility, and at first sight it might seem that they who so reason
are correct; but there is a passage often overlooked which would appear to negate this conclusion.
In Romans 8:3,4, we are told:"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the
flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin [that is, as a sacrifice
for sin], condemned sin in the flesh:that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

Here is a principle of all importance if one would so live as to glorify God in this dispensation
when believers are not under law but under grace. The Christian standard of righteousness is not
a lower one than that of the Jew in the legal dispensation. It is really a far higher standard.
Therefore, we may well say, if we were Jews living under law, we would be obligated to give to
God a tenth of all our income as recognizing His Lordship over all our possessions. Shall we then,
as Christians in the reign of grace, allow ourselves to be outdone in this respect by a Jew under
law? Shall we not rather gladly render to God as the very minimum a tenth of all that with which
He entrusts us and, as He enables, gladly give more in order to show our appreciation of His
loving kindness?

When Paul called upon the Corinthians to lay by in store as God had prospered them, he
necessarily had in mind some kind of standard. What is that standard? Surely it cannot be less than
that which was ordained under law, but it is evident that some definite proportion of our income
must be taken into consideration if we are to give as God hath prospered.

He who says, "I am not under law, and therefore I am not concerned about tithing my income;
I will give as I feel led of the Lord," generally winds up by giving the merest pittance as compared

with what the Lord entrusts to him. He, on the other hand, who says, "I shall begin with a tenth
and, as God enables, will do better," becomes a consistent giver and finds joy in thus rendering
glad obedience to the Word of the Lord.

Let no Christian think that he gains by withholding from God, but rather remember that He who
has said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive," will always have the most blessed part. He
will be no man’s debtor. As we give to Him we can be certain that He will fulfill to the letter that
word which says, "My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory through
Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:19).

One thing our text suggests that we are often inclined to overlook is that there is an orderly
method both as to the time and place of setting aside that portion of our means which we devote
to the work of the Lord. This work, of course, is of a two-fold character. It involves the care of
His servants who are entirely engaged in the ministry and thus have to live of the gospel as
Scripture tells us (1 Cor. 9:14); but it also includes helping to meet the needs of those in difficult
circumstances. In fact, it was this latter phase of giving to God which was particularly in the
apostle’s mind when he gave the Corinthians the instructions as to systematic and proportionate
giving. Our Lord has said that anything done for one of His own is reckoned by God as done for
Himself.

But what I want especially to draw attention to is the time element referred to in the opening
words of the verse:"Upon the first day of the week.” Most of us receive our income on a regular
weekly or possibly monthly basis/The import of this passage clearly is that when we thus receive
our wages or other form of income, we should at that time set aside a proper proportion for the
work of the Lord. It is not necessary that it should all be immediately contributed to any particular
cause, but he who consistently lays by in this sense will always have something that he can
contribute when occasion demands. There is the laying by in store at home, but there is also the
"collection for the saints." This, of course, suggests bringing our gifts to the assembly of God’s
people where we join with others in making up a collection of our varied offerings.

Thus, he who learns to act in partnership with God in money matters can be assured of the divine
blessing when he himself has to face times of stress and difficulty; but even if this were not so,
it should be our joy and privilege to fulfill our responsibility in these things to the glory and praise
of God.