In a recent discussion of church benevolence, the point was made that the church has a limited benevolent role (only to needy saints), while individual Christians can and should help all who are legitimately in need (Galatians 6:10). Someone offered this rebuttal:<\/p>\n
“Why maintain a division in the church over money when the money is God’s before it is given on the first day of the week, and is still God’s when it is not given? . . . If there is nothing that is not God’s then His money is still feeding the poor either through the elders’ hand or through individuals. It is God’s money, God’s people, doing God’s work.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
What we see here is a classic case of failing to recognize the difference between individual Christians and the church as a collective body. Notice these passages which make this clear distinction:<\/p>\n
\n
- The individual is not the church: “For the body is not one member, but many<\/em>” (I Corinthians 12:14).<\/li>\n
- The individual is charged when the church is not: “If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged; that it may relieve them that are widows indeed<\/em>” (I Timothy 5:16).<\/li>\n
- The individual has responsibilities that the church does not: “Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone … if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more … and if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church …<\/em>” (Matthew 18:15-17).<\/li>\n
- The individual’s money is distinct from the church’s: “But a certain man named Ananias … sold a possession, and kept back part of the price … and brought a certain part, and laid it, at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said … , Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost … Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power?<\/em>” (Acts 5:1-4).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Greg Gwin In a recent discussion of church benevolence, the point was made that the church has a limited benevolent role (only to needy saints), while individual Christians can and should help all who are legitimately in need (Galatians 6:10). Someone offered this rebuttal: “Why maintain a division in the church over money when…<\/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":[27],"tags":[154,193,1508],"class_list":["post-55854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-church-funds","tag-individual-vs-church","tag-institutionalism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":52572,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-benevolence-by-christians-limited-to-other-christians\/","url_meta":{"origin":55854,"position":0},"title":"Is benevolence by Christians limited to other Christians?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"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\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":29926,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/individual-duty-or-local-church-duty\/","url_meta":{"origin":55854,"position":1},"title":"Individual Duty or Local Church Duty?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 9, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Howard Justice During the past half-century, there has been a serious amount of confusion as to how a member of God's family relates to his role in the family of God and how this service involves the local unit known as the local church. It has presented problems 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":92681,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-children-be-bringing-food-donations-to-the-front-of-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":55854,"position":2},"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":50488,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/giving-to-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":55854,"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":16783,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wouldnt-a-new-testament-church-realize-that-we-are-our-brothers-keepers\/","url_meta":{"origin":55854,"position":4},"title":"Wouldn’t a New Testament church realize that we are our brothers’ keepers?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: On\u00a0the home page, it says that you really don't participate in community activities, fundraisers, home missions, or anything like that, in the way I interpreted it anyway. Wouldn't a New Testament church realize that we are our brothers' keepers? And that James said faith without works is dead? I\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":55854,"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). I am convinced that the verse\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\/55854","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=55854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}