2nd Corinthians – Godly Social Order

The Ministry of the Saints

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Godly Social Order

Lesson: 17-25

Genre: Talk

Track: 17

Dictation Name: RR4169B

Location/Venue:

Year: 1998-2000

[Mark Rushdoony] …He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near, let the wicked forsake His way, and the unrighteous man His thoughts, and let Him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon Him and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.

Let us pray. Our most good and gracious God and heavenly Father, we come before you now to praise you for your goodness to us each day, we thank you that you have given our life meaning and purpose and hope, in terms of your eternal purpose. Help us not to be consumed with our purposes and our wills, but help us to understand our day to day activities, and our lives and our times in terms of your eternal will. We pray that you would help us to understand our role in your will in terms of obedience to your revealed word. We pray that you would give us grace to do what we know is right, and give us the humility to go to your word when we do not understand our responsibility. We pray that you would be with those members of this congregation, we think especially of those who are not present, we pray that you would keep them safe and free from all harm, both physical and spiritual, we pray that you would encourage them; we pray that you would encourage our families, encourage us as a congregation in faithfulness to you. We thank you for the opportunity we have to serve you, we pray that you would be with your church everywhere, we pray that you would encourage them, especially those who are persecuted by those who would seek to destroy your kingdom through destroying your saints. We pray that you would preserve them and give them a greater sense of your love to them, through your preservation and your provision for their daily needs. Bless now this time we have together in your word, in Christ our saviors name, amen.

[R.J. Rushdoony] Our Scripture lesson is 2nd Corinthians 8:10-24. Our subject: The Ministry of the Saints. 2 Corinthians 8:10-24.

“10 And herein I give my advice: for this is expedient for you, who have begun before, not only to do, but also to be forward a year ago.

11 Now therefore perform the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also out of that which ye have.

12 For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.

13 For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened:

14 But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality:

15 As it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack.

16 But thanks be to God, which put the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you.

17 For indeed he accepted the exhortation; but being more forward, of his own accord he went unto you.

18 And we have sent with him the brother, whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches;

19 And not that only, but who was also chosen of the churches to travel with us with this grace, which is administered by us to the glory of the same Lord, and declaration of your ready mind:

20 Avoiding this, that no man should blame us in this abundance which is administered by us:

21 Providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.

22 And we have sent with them our brother, whom we have oftentimes proved diligent in many things, but now much more diligent, upon the great confidence which I have in you.

23 Whether any do enquire of Titus, he is my partner and fellowhelper concerning you: or our brethren be enquired of, they are the messengers of the churches, and the glory of Christ.

24 Wherefore shew ye to them, and before the churches, the proof of your love, and of our boasting on your behalf.”

Now Paul continues in this passage the question he had raised before; that of giving, charitable giving to the churches of Palestine who were in great need. Now, this is an important text, and Paul is very greatly concerned. He sees this giving as a test of the church in Corinth, but he does not say it is a necessary gift.

Now, this fact is very, very important, and we have something in this text that is neglected by the church today, has been neglected most of its history. There is here the basic question of giving. Now in our century, ending, we have seen a great deal of controversy on the subject, in fact the first half of the century and well into the second half, there was a question of what was called by many, storehouse giving. The idea was, “put your tithes in the storehouse” scripture had said, meant the church.

Well, the storehouse was literally a storehouse or a barn. There are still many surviving, from the colonial and early constitutional era, throughout the eastern portion of the United States, places like Indiana and Ohio. What were they? They were, literally, an old stone barn that had been built by Christians. It was controlled by Christians, it was literally a storehouse. After all, in those days if you are a farmer, you could not readily tithe everything, and easily. How were you going to tithe ten cows to the church? Or ten sheep? Or ten goats? And what if you had in the village church a dozen or more men who were tithing the same way? It was not a cash economy, basically.

Well, what you did was to build a storehouse. You and other Christians. Into this storehouse, you brought your grain, and your livestock. This livestock then was sold in due time, and the amount of tithe you had therein was credited to you. It was an excellent system, it was a Biblical one. When the Americans followed that practice they were following an ancient one.

Now, Paul refers to this same type of giving, not the form of it, because they were urban peoples that he was writing to in Corinth, but the same premise, you were going to give. And that giving was to go for the work in Palestine, where there was great need. So this was charitable giving. This is important for us to recognize, as a basic form of Biblical giving. We are not aware of this as much today as we were in the first half of the century, we do not realize, especially because the states control so much giving, how much giving there has been by Christians. When World War 1 ended, the amount of giving by Christians to the needs in the various parts of the world was enormous. One of the things notable to me was the near-east relief. This dealt with immediate help to the victims of massacres, Armenian, Greek, and other. The giving was incredible, thoroughly Godly.

But you also had remarkable giving by the state, Hoovers relief in Soviet Russia, the famine of the post-war era. It was unlike Federal aid today, it still had the favor of Christian charitable giving.

Now, Paul in this passage is urging such giving. Giving to the hungry in Palestine. They were in desperate need of food, they had had famine there. Now, when we face up to a situation like that, we have to face up to a fact that Paul in these verses calls attention to, that such giving was not mandatory. It was required that Christians be charitable, but no amount was set, it did not equal a tithe or a half a tithe, it was something in the way of response from the heart. Well, this necessitates that we immediately understand what Christian giving and requirements to give are, in the New Testament as they were in the Old.

This is important, and it is not much taught in the Church. We have first of all one general classification of giving, called tithes. Tithes, TITHES. Tithes literally meant tenths, or taxes, and it required that a man give to the Lords work a tenth of His income.

But at the same, although this was the basic tax of the church, or for the church, it was not required that the church collect it forcibly, or that the church use the state to collect it. Every time, whether in Catholicism or Protestantism, the idea of a compulsory, mandatory tax be made, there has been trouble. The trouble has been the decline of Christian faith. It is no longer a matter of faith and character, it becomes a matter of: “The Federal government is going to take this from you, because supposedly God requires them to.” But the requirement God makes is of you, not of the state. So it is a mandatory tax, but it is given by the individual, not collected in any strong-arm way. Not collected with a state tax collector, or some Christian officer who had the right of the sword and could come at you with a gun and say: “I am here to collect your tithe.” Every time that happened in the church because of an over-zealous desire to be scriptural, the result was disaster, because God said: “The tithe is mandatory of you, but I am not including anyone else in this, it is my law-word spoken to you, you keep it, I will punish you if you don’t.”

Caesar and the church have no punishment right. Now, a second kind of giving, in order that we can put into context what Paul is saying here, was what was often spoken of as gifts or offerings. You often read in the Old Testament of Tithes and Offerings. The tithe was a flat percentage of your income that you gave because God required it. Nobody interfered, it was between you and the Lord.

The offering was a gift over and above the tithe, so that if you had a tithe of 2,000, and you gave 500 above and over that, the 2,000 was your tithe, it was your tax. Then the 200 that you gave, or whatever amount, was your gift to the Lord. So you had two kinds of giving here.

But there was a third kind, and this is what Paul in much of 2nd Corinthians is dealing with, and this is to supply the needs of the saints. ‘Is there a famine in Palestine? Why, these people are your Christian brothers. They may be Gentiles, they may be Jews, but you provide for them as much as you are able.’

Now this has been the Biblical pattern over the centuries. Not always well kept, but always very, very important, because it bound the churches together. In times when they were so widely separated they had no way of knowing even the nationalities of the people involved. In the last century, needs in various parts of the world, famine, were met by Christians. Met by them readily. One of the things that came into being in the last century was a little wooden box with a slot in it, and it was on the kitchen table, and that continued into this century, some of you may remember this kind of giving. And at every meal it was passed around, and even the children gave of what little they had. And those wooden banks of course would have the pennies of the children, and larger silver and paper money of the adults. And when they were filled they were taken to the church or the missionary offices, and exchanged for empty ones. This was to me a very familiar form of giving. It was a wonderful form, because it made one mindful, even though it was on a voluntary basis entirely, and Paul stresses this voluntary aspect, and yet how important it is; and why he has ‘Great confidence in you, that you will give. That you will become messengers.’ And so he says: ‘I have been boasting to other churches on your behalf, because I do believe whatever your sins and faults are, you are a people of faith with a generous spirit.’

Well, we have thus, three types of Christian giving that we need to familiarize ourselves with; the tithe, the gift or offering, and then ministering to the needs of the saints. Well, now look at these three, fully and carefully. In the third volume of Institutes of Biblical Law, I call attention to the fact that in terms of scripture, Gods plan is that the needs of society be met by Christians. And these free-will offerings of funds for charitable purposes, are to govern a vast area which we know as welfare. Meeting the needs of the community. That the Bible does not envision an order in which the state is taking care of everything, but the Christian. And when you realize that through the tithe, the church takes care of worship, and of education, and much, much more, and then charity through this third form of giving, how Gods provision is that you create a social order as Christians in which the state is merely the policing power.

You also realize from the nature of this kind of giving, the three ways provided for in the Bible, how Gods plan is for the government of the world by His saints. And when you look to certain areas when Christians did their duty in this respect, how wide and powerful their government was; they took care of health, education, and welfare. And the state took care of justice, criminal justice. Gods plan from the very beginning has been a marvelous one. We can understand therefore why Paul pleads so much with the Corinthians to meet their responsibilities here, and how grateful he is that they are doing so, because they were manifesting their belief that God is the king, the ruler of all creation, and therefore, He has a requirement of us His citizens to meet the needs of government, His government.

Let us pray. Our Lord and our God we thank Thee for this Thy word, and we thank Thee that Thou hast summoned us to take part in Thee government of the nations and of all things, as a part of Thy ministry. Make us mindful of our duty in all things, in Christ’s name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes.

[Audience Member] Rush, is man required to tithe from his gross income, or his net income?

[Rushdoony] Was the family required to…?

[Audience Member] Tithe, is a man required to tithe from his gross income or his net income?

[Rushdoony] Oh. Well, that is pretty much a modern question, I would say from the gross income. Because otherwise the net income is going to get smaller and smaller as the state takes over, because the Christians are retreating from that area. When you realize that at times you have had such extreme statism, and yet Christians have worked their way out of that era by their tithes and offerings or gifts; they can do it again. Any other questions or comments?

Well, if not, let us conclude with prayer. Our Father, we thank Thee that Thy word speaks plainly to the kind of government Thou wouldst have over men and nations; that it is through Thy word and Thy purposes that we are to rule and prevail. Give grace oh Lord to Thy kingdom now, that they may be mindful of the needs of the world, might meet them with grace, and might triumph against all the powers of darkness through Thy holy word; in Christ’s name, amen.