I want to know whether sharing or any act of benevolence by Christians should be limited to the body of Christ alone.<\/p>\n\t
There are two standards for benevolence work.\u00a0 One concerns what the church can do and the other concerns what individuals are expected to do.<\/p>\n
The easy one is what is commanded of individuals.\u00a0 Galatians 6:10 says that we are to do good to everyone (although our brothers and sisters in Christ still come first).\u00a0 There are other passages, but they just reinforce that Christians are expected to help whom they can.<\/p>\n
Some people are of the opinion that the money contributed to a church continues to just be a convenient pool of the members’ money and, therefore, subject to the desires of those members.\u00a0 Thus, as an example, they see no difference between using the church treasury to send flowers to a sick person and someone collecting a few dollars from everyone to send flowers from “the church.” However, the two are not the same in the Bible.<\/p>\n
In Acts 5, Ananias and Sapphira died because they did not make a distinction between God’s money and their money.\u00a0 What Ananias did was sell some land and give part of it to the church. But he told Peter that they were giving the full price of the land.\u00a0 He wanted more credit for sacrificing than he should have gotten.\u00a0 If there is no real significance in the treasury of the church, then all Ananias did was brought money and lied to the people there.\u00a0 Peter, however, specifically said that Ananias did not lie to the people but lied to God.\u00a0 The only way that Peter’s statement can be true is if the money, once given, no longer belongs to the people who gave it but immediately transfers to God.\u00a0 If giving to the church was a man-to-man transaction, then the lie would have still been to men.\u00a0 However, Peter is saying once the money is given to the church, it is not a pooled resource of the members, but it is a resource belonging to God.\u00a0 Once we realize that the money now belongs to God, the church has an obligation to spend it only on those things that conform to how God wants His treasury spent.\u00a0 The church no longer owns the money — the church is just the steward of the money.<\/p>\n
For example, let’s say that the whole congregation decided to go to a national park to see wild animals and rent a bus in order to go together.\u00a0 As individuals, they are certainly free to spend their money in this way.\u00a0 It would probably be convenient for them to pool their money to rent a bus.\u00a0 Those going to a park are not the “church” in its religious sense, even if all getting on the bus are members of the church.\u00a0 If the church treasury is just a pooling of the money, then there would be no difference if the money came from the treasury or if the money came from the members all paying into a pot away from the church setting.\u00a0 However, if the money in the treasury is actually God’s money, then the obligation would be to determine if using the church’s funds to pay for the bus lines up with what God said the money could be used for.<\/p>\n
Some people will make the argument that any instruction to the individual is acceptable practice for the church, but that would not make sense when we look at I Timothy 5:9-16 and Paul’s instructions about widows.\u00a0 Paul said that there were specific qualifications that a poor widow had to meet before she could be put on a list to be helped by the church.\u00a0 Among those qualifications was her status in regard to believing relatives.\u00a0 Believing relatives (specifically mentioned are believing women relatives) are instructed to care for their poor relative widow so that the burden would not fall on the church.\u00a0 This tells us that the role of the individual is different from the role of the church.<\/p>\n
What this also sets up is a conundrum.\u00a0 If the church is not allowed to help certain poor believing widows, but other verses allow the church to help all the poor regardless of whether they are Christians or pagans (assuming that such a verse exists), then we have a situation where the church must help poor pagan widows but is barred from helping certain poor believing widows.\u00a0 Since the Scriptures don’t lead to these kinds of problems, it has to be rooted in how we are looking at the verses and not with the verses themselves.<\/p>\n
For the church to act with God’s money, it has to do those things that God authorizes.<\/p>\n
Acts 4:34-35 specifically says that the distribution was so that they would not have any needy “among them.” Those under discussion were the church, so that passage does not extend this type of benevolence to those outside the church.<\/p>\n
Acts 2:44-45 is similar.\u00a0 Those under discussion were all believers.\u00a0 Note that it says, “All the believers were together and had everything in common.\u00a0 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.<\/em>”\u00a0 It specifically says that all the believers had everything in common.\u00a0 Extending this pooling to those outside of the body of Christ would require the use of some other phrasing than “in common.”\u00a0 It could be “pooled resources” or something similar.\u00a0 “In common” says that the collected money was used exclusively for those in the collective.\u00a0 Therefore, giving to those in need would also have to be in the collective.\u00a0 Added to that, the whole paragraph is talking about the behavior of these new believers.\u00a0 Introducing poor pagans would not make sense in the overall context.<\/p>\n Romans 15:26-27 specifically says that the money coming from Macedonia and Achaia was for the “poor among the Lord’s people.”\u00a0 Saints are the people of God.\u00a0 If they are the people of God, they would do what God said.\u00a0 No one is arguing that Christians (as individuals) should have no compassion for the poor who aren’t Christians.\u00a0 The context, though, is what was planned for the money that was collected by the church.<\/p>\n Luke 10:27-37 which is sometimes used to prove that the church can do anything the individual can do, is this time aimed at the individual.\u00a0 In fact, I would suggest that those who want to see church action in an individual’s conduct are in some way trying to “ride the coattails” of the church.\u00a0 The Samaritan saw a need, and he fulfilled it.\u00a0 He did not go to the town and ask the town to contribute.\u00a0 He did not go to the synagogue to ask for money from the treasury.\u00a0 He did it.\u00a0 What I have seen is that some people like to give to God a small portion of their income and then whenever the congregation acts to help, they want to believe that they are fulfilling their obligation through the church.<\/p>\n That brings me to James 1:26-27.\u00a0 The context is the individual and verse 26 proves that the church, as an institution. is not being discussed.\u00a0 In fact, the context left any discussion of the church as a collective back at verse 1.\u00a0 Everything in the context is talking about us as individuals.\u00a0 Each of us has an obligation to orphans and widows.\u00a0 Paul said as much in I Timothy 5.\u00a0 If we have widowed relatives, we are to take care of them.\u00a0 The same would apply to orphaned relatives.\u00a0 We have an obligation to take them in.\u00a0 It is just what being a Christian is all about.\u00a0 To the credit of our society, we in general don’t have a problem with the concept of caring for orphans.\u00a0 In Roman times, it was just not so.\u00a0 Being an orphan (or widow) was considered a sign of disfavor by the gods.\u00a0 The reasoning was that if the gods don’t care about you, then neither should I.\u00a0 James is trying to get the Christians to see that such was not to be our attitude.\u00a0 Where I see a problem is when people see that James was talking to them, they brush off their personal responsibility to the “church”.\u00a0 I’ve seen churches that had a $5 contribution to an “orphanage” on their list of donations and everyone in the congregation was of the opinion that such was enough to relieve them of any further responsibility to take care of orphans.\u00a0 God did not place the care of orphans on the church — He placed it on our backs.\u00a0 Just like the case of the poor widow in I Timothy 5.\u00a0 There are circumstances where the church may need to support a poor widow but never was it to be used to relieve the obligations of the individual.\u00a0 James is addressing the individual’s responsibility and is saying nothing either positive or negative about the church’s money.<\/p>\n Darrell Hamilton<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: I want to know whether sharing or any act of benevolence by Christians should be limited to the body of Christ alone. Answer: There are two standards for benevolence work.\u00a0 One concerns what the church can do and the other concerns what individuals are expected to do. The easy one is what is commanded…<\/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,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[194],"class_list":["post-52572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-benevolence"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19669,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-church-pay-school-fees-as-an-act-of-benevolence-if-the-student-has-no-family\/","url_meta":{"origin":52572,"position":0},"title":"Can a church pay school fees as an act of benevolence if the student has no family?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Please, brother, can a church pay school fees as an act of benevolence if the student has no family? Answer: \"Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the\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":85696,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-work-of-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":52572,"position":1},"title":"What Is the Work of the Church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Kyle Ellison Recently, I came across a discussion where community members discussed the need for churches to expand their activities. More physical fitness facilities, more sports options for Christian families, more clothing drives, more dinners, more food drives, more bookstores, improved coffee facilities for first-time guests, and on the\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":36850,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-far-can-a-church-go-in-assisting-a-congregation-in-a-disaster-area\/","url_meta":{"origin":52572,"position":2},"title":"How far can a church go in assisting a congregation in a disaster area?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 23, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How far can a congregation go to help another congregation in need? For example several states away a congregation's building gets destroyed by a hurricane along with several members homes. Because of the devastation, they have no access to building supply stores and the like. They are not just\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":92681,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-children-be-bringing-food-donations-to-the-front-of-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":52572,"position":3},"title":"Should children be bringing food donations to the front of the church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I am hoping you can help us with some insight into a situation happening in our local body. During the worship service, during the time of offering, the children of the congregation are invited to come up and donate food items to the church's pantry. Many members of\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":36657,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-acts-2-justify-churches-helping-the-poor-in-the-general-population\/","url_meta":{"origin":52572,"position":4},"title":"Does Acts 2 justify churches helping the poor in the general population?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Acts 2 Christians were selling their property and giving to those in need. Were these individuals giving to individuals or individuals giving to the church and the church giving? If it was the church giving, were they giving to non-Christians or Christians only? I've heard this scripture used\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":56869,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/helping-the-needy-in-our-community\/","url_meta":{"origin":52572,"position":5},"title":"Helping the Needy in Our Community","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew Allen \"My kingdom\u00a0is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not\u00a0of this realm\"\u00a0(John 18:36). 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