In an attempt to justify the church using money out of its treasury to send flowers to sick or bereaved members, an argument has been made that it is a “gift” meant to encourage, like the gifts sent to Paul in\u00a0Philippians 4:15-19.\u00a0 In comments I have read in discussions and debates, it seems as if all participants understood the “flower fund” to be an individual (and not a collective) responsibility. Isn’t that the rationale of having a “flower fund” in the first place? To keep it separate from the church treasury?<\/p>\n\t
\n“Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but you only. For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account. Indeed I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus<\/i>” (Philippians 4:15-19).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The Philippians were not involved in sending flowers to Paul to uplift his spirits. They were sending funds to finance his ministry in other areas of the world. “I robbed other churches, taking wages from them to minister to you. And when I was present with you, and in need, I was a burden to no one, for what I lacked the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied. And in everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and so I will keep myself<\/i>” (II Corinthians 11:8-9). While their help was an encouragement to Paul, the Greek word doma<\/i>, which is translated “gift,” means that a present was given to Paul that he did not earn by giving the Philippians something in return.<\/p>\n
It is a responsibility of the church to finance the teaching of the Gospel. “Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel<\/i>” (I Corinthians 9:14). What has not been established is the church’s responsibility to make someone feel nicer by sending flowers.<\/p>\n
It is good that brethren, individually or in groups, wish to cheer their brothers and sisters. But they cannot offload their desire on the church and make it financially responsible. I would be hard press to locate a verse that would even require individuals to send flowers, let alone the church. The Scriptures teach that we should “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep<\/i>” (Romans 12:15), but that is a shared time together and not a remote token of sympathy.<\/p>\n
Flowers are nice. They are considered a polite expression of “thinking of you” in American society, but let us be careful not to consider them a requirement of Christianity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: In an attempt to justify the church using money out of its treasury to send flowers to sick or bereaved members, an argument has been made that it is a “gift” meant to encourage, like the gifts sent to Paul in\u00a0Philippians 4:15-19.\u00a0 In comments I have read in discussions and debates, it seems as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[194,154],"class_list":["post-2822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-benevolence","tag-church-funds"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31132,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-church-treasury-only-in-an-emergency\/","url_meta":{"origin":2822,"position":0},"title":"A Church Treasury, Only in an Emergency?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 24, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Gordon J. Pennock via\u00a0Truth Magazine\u00a0- January 1961 It seems that considerable controversy has arisen regarding what we call the church treasury, meaning of course the funds contributed by the members of local churches. This controversy seems to be a by-product of the discussion of scriptural and unscriptural ways in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27184,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-church-treasury\/","url_meta":{"origin":2822,"position":1},"title":"The Church Treasury","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry W. Benton Consider the following quote from a house-church denominationalist: It is true that the disciples were instructed to treasure up some things, \"And concerning the collection that [is] for the saints, as I directed to the assemblies of Galatia, so also ye -- do ye; on every\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51467,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-reasonable-to-ask-the-church-to-fund-projects-that-are-not-sustainable\/","url_meta":{"origin":2822,"position":2},"title":"Is it reasonable to ask the church to fund projects that are not sustainable?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good afternoon, Brother Hamilton: You were very kind to answer a question for me a few years back, and your answer gave me such clarity. I'll be ever-grateful for your guidance. I have another question with which I'm struggling. It regards funding for church-related projects. Our elders have established\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50488,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/giving-to-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":2822,"position":3},"title":"Giving to God (Owen)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dan R. Owen, Ph.D. via\u00a0The Gospel Advocate, June 2017 Since the time of Abraham, dedicated followers of God have given of their wealth to the One who provides all wealth. God blessed Abraham with much and Abraham gave a tenth to Melchizedek, priest of God Most High (Genesis 14:20).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60458,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-the-church-may-use-its-money\/","url_meta":{"origin":2822,"position":4},"title":"How the Church May Use Its Money","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 24, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Andy Sochor \"Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31129,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-local-church-treasury\/","url_meta":{"origin":2822,"position":5},"title":"The Local Church Treasury","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 24, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"by Robert F. Turner via\u00a0Guardian of Truth\u00a0XXX: 15, August 21, 1986, pp. 486, 505 My first experience with one who questioned a \"church treasury\" was in 1943, in Phoenix, Arizona. While taking some exercise, I made a chance acquaintance with an elderly gentleman and we walked along together. When we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}