| “Upon the first day of the week [the Lord’s day] let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him” (1 Corinthians 16:2). |
| Sometimes Christians ask the question, How much of my money should I use for the Lord? In the Old Testament the nation of Israel was commanded to give one-tenth of what they had been given. In their case it might not always have been money, but perhaps some of the produce from their farms. But in the New Testament we are not told how much to give; it simply says, “As God hath prospered him.” |
| When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian assembly about Christian giving, he reminded them twice of how much the Lord Jesus had done for them. When we think of how much it cost the Lord Jesus to bear our sins on the cross, it is not hard to give our money to the Lord. We will want to be generous! |
| Most of you are familiar with Colgate products — things such as soap and toothpaste. The company was started by William Colgate, who emigrated from England to the United States in 1795, at the age of twelve, along with his family. By the age of twenty-three he had started the Colgate Company, which in those days made only soap. Later his younger brother joined the business, and they began to make other products. |
| William Colgate was an earnest Christian who lived to please the Lord. When his business got larger, he had to hire a bookkeeper. In looking through the company’s ledger books, the bookkeeper was surprised to find that right from the beginning, one-tenth of all the money the company took in had been transferred to a place in the books called “God’s column”. That money was to be used only for the Lord; never for company expenses, or for personal use. When the bookkeeper asked William Colgate about it, he explained it, and told the bookkeeper, “Make sure you always put one-tenth of all the company income in that column. See that God is never cheated!” Later, William Colgate increased this percentage, so that much more than one-tenth of his money was used for the Lord. |
| Even when we are young, it is good to get in the habit of using some of our money for the Lord. Sometimes giving one-tenth of our money is referred to as “tithing,” and while the New Testament does not specify this amount, yet someone has said, “Tithing is the ‘training wheels’ of giving.” We have all seen training wheels on bicycles for small children. They help them to learn to ride, yet prevent a nasty fall. Later, when they can maintain their balance, they do not need the training wheels. If we become accustomed to putting aside some of our money for the Lord, it becomes a good habit that we can carry into our adult lives. Then, when we get older, perhaps we may able to give more than one-tenth, for as we have already seen, everything we have belongs to the Lord, and we are only stewards of it. |
