On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.

1 Corinthians 16:2

Paul now comes to the final order of business which he needs to cover in his letter to the church at Corinth.  Christians in Judea were suffering from a famine, and so Paul and his fellow missionaries went around the Roman empire collecting money from various churches to send them relief (Acts 11:27-30; Rom. 15:25-28).  This is the “collection for the saints” discussed by Paul in this letter and also in his subsequent letter to Corinth (16:1-4; 2 Cor. 8-9).  He directs the Corinthian brethren to “put something aside” (tithemi, “lay aside money,” basically give money) and “store it up” (thesaurizo, “store up, keep in store, reserve,” to basically keep the money which is given stored up in savings or a treasury – cf. Matt. 6:19-20; Lk. 12:21; 2 Cor. 12:14; James 5:3), so that when he arrived at Corinth he would not have to go from house to house collecting it.  The Corinthians would choose someone to accompany the financial gift to Jerusalem whom Paul would vouch for with a letter, and Paul himself might also make the trip if advisable (16:3-4).

He directs them to give “as he may prosper,” meaning that they were expected to give according to what God providentially had given them through their incomes (cf. 2 Cor. 8:12).  They were to do so sacrificially, liberally, and cheerfully, true (2 Cor. 8:1-7; 9:6-7).  However, God did not expect them to give what they did not have.

Why did the Holy Spirit inspire the apostle to direct the Christians both in Corinth and Galatia (16:1) to give money and save up the money which was given “on the first day of every week”?  The kingdom of God – the church of Christ (Col. 1:13; Heb. 12:28) – came into existence on the Jewish holy day of Pentecost, also called the Feast of Weeks, which always took place on a Sunday (Acts 2:1, 36-41; cf. Lev. 23:15-16).  This was the day to which Christ referred when he promised to partake of communion with his disciples (Matt. 26:29; Mk. 14:25; Lk. 22:18).  This is why the New Testament church was “gathered together to break bread” – i.e., partake of communion (1 Cor. 10:16-17; 11:17ff) – “on the first day of the week” (Acts 20:7).

On that first Sunday on Pentecost, the very first baptized believers immediately “devoted themselves” to not only “the apostles’ teaching” (preaching), “the breaking of bread” (communion), and “prayers,” but also to “fellowship” (Acts 2:41-42).  “Fellowship” (koinonia) is translated as “contribution” in Romans 15:26, the very contribution Paul was collecting for the needy saints in Judea.  The early disciples who had been baptized on Pentecost Sunday had been contributing money to the care of each other from the very beginning (Acts 2:44-45; 4:32-5:11) and doing so in an organized way in that they gave the money to the apostles (Acts 4:36-37; 5:1ff).  They did this on Sundays when they assembled together as a church as they had done starting on Pentecost Sunday (Acts 2:42; 20:7).

Thus, we see that God through Paul directed Corinth and Galatia to continue the practice of giving every Sunday to support needy brethren in Judea.  Since we see that this is how the New Testament church collected the funds needed to do the work God wanted them to do, we must do the same today and give of our means every Sunday when we assemble to worship together (cf. Gal. 1:6-10; Rev. 22:18-19; 1 Cor. 4:6; Prov. 30:6).

— Jon