1 Corinthians 16
McGeeCHAPTER 16THEME: Final exhortationsIn this chapter we will find a potpourri, that is, a collection of things. First Paul discusses the collection for the poor saints in Jerusalem, but then he goes on to discuss other things. He will talk about opportunities and opposition, about watching and praying, about the conduct of the church, about the acid test of doctrine, and about that which is ecclesiastical. The total church is in view here. Verses -4 concern the collection; verses 1Co_1:5-9 are personalPaul discusses his personal plans; verses 1Co_1:10-24 deal with personalities, folk who walked down the streets of corrupt Corinth and lived for Christ.
1 Corinthians 16:1
THE COLLECTIONPaul begins this chapter by talking about taking up an offering! You would think that after Paul had discussed the Resurrection, that most glorious doctrine of the Christian faith, he would say, “Brethren, we are up in the heavenlies, so let’s just stay up in the clouds.” Instead, all of a sudden it seems like he has pulled out the plug. We find that we have just gone down to the very bottom. He is talking about a collection of money for the poor saints in Jerusalem. Some pious folk say, “You shouldn’t talk about a collectionthat is a material matter. You should talk only of spiritual things.” Generally those people don’t want it talked about because the subject is a little bit embarrassing for them. Paul is going to lay out a method for Christian giving. Now I hope you have your Bible open and that you will watch very carefully because I am not going to read it correctly. “On the Sabbath day let every one of you give tithes and offerings so that there will not be an offering when I come. It may be that when I get there we will have a special offering or probably a retiring offering.” Somebody will say, “You surely didn’t read it like it is.” No, I didn’t. But I read it the way it is often practiced today. Now let us read it the way Paul wrote it.
1 Corinthians 16:2
“Upon the first day of the week.” If you don’t meet on the first day of the week to worship God, then you will want to meet on that day to make your offering, which is a part of worship. That is ridiculous, of course. When he says to bring your offering on the first day of the week, this was the day on which the church came together to remember the Lord Jesus in His death and His resurrection. He rose on the first day of the week, which is Sunday, not the Sabbath day. “Let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him.” He says nothing about tithes and offerings. They were to put aside their offerings as God had prospered them. When I was pastoring a church in Texas, one of my officers owned several Coca-Cola plants, and one of them was in our town. He was a man of means, and he owned a ranch where we used to go to hunt and fish. Often he would ask me why I didn’t preach on tithing. One day I said, “Why should I preach on tithing?” He said, “Because it is the Bible way of giving.” I agreed, “Yes, it was the Old Testament way of giving, but under grace I don’t believe tithing is the way it should be done.” So he asked me, “How do you think it ought to be done?” I took him to this verse: “As God hath prospered him.” Now this was during the depression. If you are as old as I am, you will remember that the depression in the 1930s was a very serious time. So I said to him, “For some strange reason, Coca-Cola is selling, and you are doing very well.
However, there are some members in our church who couldn’t give a tithe right now. I don’t believe God is asking them to give a tenth. There are a few people who are doing well, and they are to give as they have been prosperedand they are not to stop with a tenth. Probably they ought to give a half.” Do you know that this man never again suggested that I preach on tithing! The reason was that he was tithing, but he didn’t want to give as God had prospered him. “That there be no gatherings when I come.” Paul didn’t want his meeting with them to be spoiled by high pressure methods of taking up an offering. In my day I sometimes had to give as much attention to the offering as to dealing with new converts. Paul tells us how an offering should be collected.
1 Corinthians 16:3
Paul asks them to pick a committee to take the collection to Jerusalem with him. It is well for more than one man to be responsible for the offering. It is dangerous to turn the offering over to a single individual and let one man handle it. Is it that there is a doubt about a man’s honesty if he is a Christian? Well, there may be. Even if a man is honest, there is a certain temptation involved. Paul gives us the best way to handle a collection. He uses very businesslike methods. Paul talks here of their “liberality.” It is interesting to study the words used for Christian giving. In our passage here he calls it a logia or “a collection.” Then he speaks of their charis or “liberality"that is the word for “grace.” In Rom_15:26 a “contribution” is called a koinonia, a fellowship. In 2Co_9:5 it is called a eulogia, which means “a bounty” or “a blessing.” 2Co_9:12 calls it a diakonia, which is “an administration” or “ministry.” Act_24:17 speaks of alms-eleemosune, which is “a kind act.” All of these words refer to giving to the Lord, and each of these words can be used. The interesting word here is “liberality,” which should be grace giving. How has God blessed you? Could your giving to the Lord be considered liberality? In the Book of Leviticus instructions are given about tithing by God’s people in the Old Testament. In the beginning the nation of Israel was a theocracy, and the tithes that the Israelites were to give supported both the government and the temple. They added up to about 30 percent of their total income. This gives us an indication of what the Israelite gave in the Old Testament under the economy of the Law. What do you think would be liberality under grace?
1 Corinthians 16:5
PERSONAL COMMENTS"Whithersoever I go” means that Paul doesn’t know where he is going. Do you mean to tell me that the great Apostle of the Gentiles didn’t have a blueprint or a road map from the Lord telling him everywhere he was to go? No, he says that the Lord just leads him along. Paul is in the wonderful position of being gloriously unsettled. He is not sure what he is to do. This is a great satisfaction to me because I don’t know about the future either.
There are folk in Christian service who tell me where they are going and what they will be doing five years from now. This worries me because I have never received directions like that from the Lord, and I hate to think they have a private line to the Lord that I don’t have! Then when I read about Paul’s not knowing what was ahead for him, it is a great comfort. To Paul and me the Lord doesn’t give a road map; He just leads us from day to day. We are gloriously unsettled.
1 Corinthians 16:7
Paul is saying here that he does plan to go to Corinth, but only if the Lord permits it. Shouldn’t we have plans? By all means we should make plans, but those plans always should be amenable to the will of God. We should be willing to change them. We should be willing to shuffle things around. When Paul went out, he did not have a rigid schedule for his missionary journeys. He went as the Lord led him. We see in the Book of Acts how the Lord just practically detoured him on the second missionary journey. Paul was going down into Asia; the Spirit of God sent him over to Europe. He didn’t know he was going to Europehe didn’t have a visa for Europebut in that day he didn’t need a visa. He went where the Holy Spirit led him.
1 Corinthians 16:8
That was his plan.
1 Corinthians 16:9
This is a wonderful verse that I have put with Rev_3:8, (which is Christ’s message to the church in Philadelphia): “…behold, I have set before thee an open door….” And Paul says, “A great door and effectual is opened unto me.” These two verses I have found to be true in the ministry God has given to me. Also it is true today that there are many adversaries. Any man who will stand for the Word of God has many enemies. That was the experience of Paul, and it has been my experience also. However, the Lord opens the door and no man can shut it. Thank God for that! So we see Paul, gloriously happy, rejoicing in the will of God. If the lord wants him to go to Corinth, he will go.
1 Corinthians 16:10
PERSONALITIESNow we come to the personalities. These were the folk who walked down the streets of Corinth. Corinth was a most corrupt city, a sensual city given over to immorality. They knew more about illicit sex than this generation knows today. Yet here were folk, walking the streets of Corinth, who knew the Lord Jesus and who lived for Him. They kept themselves unspotted from the world. Why would they despise Timothy? Paul wrote in 1Ti_4:12, “Let no man despise thy youth….” So he is telling the church in Corinth to accept Timothy although he is a young man. He is a preacher of the Word of God.
1 Corinthians 16:12
Remember that the Corinthian church had divisions over Paul and Apollos and Peter. But Paul loved Apollos, and he makes it clear that they are serving the Lord together. He assures them that Apollos will come to visit them at a later time.
1 Corinthians 16:13
What words these are for us today!
1 Corinthians 16:15
When we read that word addicted, we immediately think of drug addiction. But these people were addicted to the ministry of the saints. That was a great ministry! He urges the Corinthians to submit to those who come to serve them.
1 Corinthians 16:17
They apparently made up the delegation that brought the letter from the Corinthian church over to Paul. Paul tells the folk in Corinth that these three Christian fellows were so wonderful that they made up for the whole church.
1 Corinthians 16:18
Paul is saying, “Give them a vote of thanks when they get back.”
1 Corinthians 16:19
That is where many of these people came to know about Christ.
1 Corinthians 16:20
Is this a permit for kissing? It certainly isif it is a holy kiss. Most kisses are not!
1 Corinthians 16:21
Paul dictated this epistle and then signed it.
1 Corinthians 16:22
The Lord Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Do you love Me? (see Joh_21:17). He didn’t ask Peter if he would deny Him again. He just asked “Do you love Me?” That is the acid test today. Do you love Him? Anathema means “accursed.” Paul is saying, “If any one does not love the Lord, let him be accursed.” Maranatha means “our Lord cometh.”
1 Corinthians 16:23
If you love the Lord Jesus, you will love the saints. The epistle closes on the high note of love.