What does 1 Corinthians 16:2 mean?

Paul begins to give the church in Corinth specific instructions about collecting money for suffering Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. Many Bible teachers apply these as ground-level principles for how modern Christians should give to local churches and other needs.

This tells the Corinthians to give to this collection weekly, individually, and proportionally. Specifically, each person—or household—is to set aside some amount of money on the first day of every week. It's not clear if this money is meant to be brought to the weekly gathering of the church and held in a central location. Or, it might be simply set aside, person by person, to be delivered together when Paul arrives.

The Christians had adopted the first day of the week—Sunday—as their time to gather together, likely because Christ was raised from the dead on a Sunday.

Paul told everyone to contribute to the collection, rich and poor alike. His letter had already revealed a potential rift between the wealthy and the working poor in the church (1 Corinthians 11:20–22). Paul insisted this gift for their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem should come from all of them together.

That universal command to give, however, is qualified by the phrase "as he may prosper." Paul encouraged proportional giving, meaning that each person should give a percentage of their income instead of a set amount. Notably, Paul does not instruct them to give ten percent, also called a tithe. In fact, the New Testament never commands Christians to tithe in the way the Old Testament required (Leviticus 27:30; Numbers 18:26). Jews living under the Old Testament law were obligated to tithe, in addition to other required contributions to the temple and the priests.

Instead, Paul commands to give as each has prospered. This means out of any surplus income above their needs. Historians tell us that many in Corinth among the poorer classes were likely just barely surviving from week to week themselves.

Finally, Paul tells the Corinthians to set aside the money week by week so that no collecting will need to be done when he arrives to organize the delivery of the gift. He does not explain why, but Paul likely wanted to avoid the awkwardness of demanding that the Corinthians come up with some money on the spot when he came and to encourage them to develop the habit of setting aside for the needs of others as a regular practice.