Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come. Upon the first day of the week - The apostle prescribes the most convenient and proper method of making this contribution.
1. Every man was to feel it his duty to succor his brethren in distress.
2. He was to do this according to the ability which God gave him.
3. He was to do this at the conclusion of the week, when he had cast up his weekly earnings, and had seen how much God had prospered his labor.
4. He was then to bring it on the first day of the week, as is most likely, to the church or assembly, that it might be put in the common treasury.
5. We learn from this that the weekly contribution could not be always the same, as each man was to lay by as God had prospered him: now, some weeks he would gain more; others, less.
6. It appears from the whole that the first day of the week, which is the Christian Sabbath, was the day on which their principal religious meetings were held in Corinth and the Churches of Galatia; and, consequently, in all other places where Christianity had prevailed. This is a strong argument for the keeping of the Christian Sabbath.
7. We may observe that the apostle follows here the rule of the synagogue; it was a regular custom among the Jews to make their collections for the poor on the Sabbath day, that they might not be without the necessaries of life, and might not be prevented from coming to the synagogue.
8. For the purpose of making this provision, they had a purse, which was called ארנקי של צדקה Arneki shel tsedakah, "The purse of the alms," or what we would term, the poor's box. This is what the apostle seems to mean when he says, Let him lay by him in store - let him put it in the alms' purse, or in the poor's box.
9. It was a maxim also with them that, if they found any money, they were not to put it in their private purse, but in that which belonged to the poor.
10. The pious Jews believed that as salt seasoned food, so did alms, riches; and that he who did not give alms of what he had, his riches should be dispersed. The moth would corrupt the bags, and the canker corrode the money, unless the mass was sanctified by giving a part to the poor.