Giving...More Than A Tithe

1 Corinthians 16:1-3 -   Now about the collection for the Lord’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.  Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem.

Paul has one last teaching before he closes his letter to the church at Corinth.  He stresses the importance of helping the Christians that are struggling in Jerusalem by putting a small amount of their weekly income away to send to them when it can be arranged to take it safely to them.  He wanted them to feel a responsibility for Christians that struggled in other places….and understand that what God gave them was meant for more than just their church.

Paul is going to talk more about this humble practice later in 2 Corinthians 9….telling them not just to give…but give cheerfully. God means for us to internalize the concept of helping others so deeply that it is second nature to us…not a duty or routine we follow simply for the sake of following a tithing rule.

The giving that Paul is explaining to these Christians is more than the tithe that we should give to care for the church we have become a part of.  It is extra…an amount that God lays on your heart to go to a need that the Spirit leads to you to be a part of. It sometimes becomes a routine practice that supports something for your entire life… or sometimes a onetime thing that blesses someone in need.

I will testify that giving feels very good to the soul….and that the times I have withheld a gift I have always wondered if I missed a blessing. Giving to what God leads me has never left me without… God replacing what I gave in amounts way more that I gave. When you give from your heart to everything God lays on your heart…the blessings that you get to witness as your gift is received swells your soul with a humble love for all things.

Father…thank you for the reminder that you I am called to help others with the resources you allow me to manage for you.  Forgive me for the times that I have mismanaged what you gave me…and not cheerfully used it to help others. Help me to always remember to actively channel a portion of what you give me each week to help someone else that the Spirit leads me to help.  Amen.