Wednesday,
July 22 –
It’s
the middle of the week, and we continue our reading thru the New Testament in a
year in 1 Corinthians 14:1 – 40. This passage of Scripture is the most extended
read of this week, and after today, we’ll slow down over the next three days.
After you’ve read the Scripture, please come back, and we’ll look at this passage
again.
John
Godfrey Saxe (1816 – 1887) was a politician who loved to write satirical
poetry. He once wrote a poem about six blind men and their attempts to describe
an elephant. Since they know nothing of what an elephant looks like, they each
begin their examination from different points. The first one walks into the
elephant’s massive side and thinks it’s a wall. The second felt the long
slender tusk and thought it was a spear. The third felt the moving trunk and
thought it was a snake. The fourth felt a massive leg and likened it to a tree.
The fifth man touched the large floppy ear and thought it was like a fan. The
sixth man felt a swinging tail and pictured something like a rope. Saxe ends it
by saying, “they disputed loud and long, ...and although each was partly right,
all were in the wrong”.
It’s an
apt description for our reading in 1 Corinthians 14. Tongues, prophecy, order
for worship is enough, and then Paul adds an issue of women who he said should
be “silent”. They are all pieces of something much larger, and to understand
what Paul is getting at, takes time, perspective, and prayer – i.e., hang in
there, it will get better.
The
Corinthian church had asked Paul a question about the proper use of gifts
(12:1). Paul began in chapter 12, to write about the general things concerning
gifts. Gifts are from God, sovereignly bestowed. Gifts were to be used to serve
the body of Christ, and we should value every person and the contribution they
bring to the church. The gifts are not singular in focus, but diverse. The
first part in chapter 12 leads to his admonition in chapter 13, that the
greater need is that love motivates, or rules over every gift. As chapter 14
begins, love is still on Paul’s mind as he segues into talking about these
revelatory gifts – tongues and prophesy. “Pursue love, and earnestly desire
the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy” (14:1).
The
language of prophesy, tongues, etc..., is not always easy for us to translate
to our modern church experiences. There is a crucial interpretive note to hang
on to when we get to a passage like this. This series of points Paul makes is
an example of descriptive and not necessarily prescriptive teaching. The
experiences of the first-century church do not always translate into the same
experiences of the 21st-century church. Please don’t read that as a way of
dismissing the teachings of Scripture. Instead, realize that the first-century
church was being built from the ground up. There was no completed revelation of
the Bible that we have. There were not two millennia of theologians, bible
scholars, teachers to get information from. Paul was one of several Apostles
whose oversight and teaching was imperative to keep the young church focused on
truth and essential practices. From passages like this, we learn much of what
first-century church looked like, and we gain insight into principles that are
still relevant for us today. Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 14 as a piece of a larger
whole (chapters 12 – 14), which was a piece of even a larger whole – the letter
to the Corinthian church. This was a young church, full of problems, and Paul
in his Apostolic role is both teaching and correcting.
There
are quite a bit of interpretation differences in the church (namely, the Church
as a whole) concerning both tongues and prophesy. Some church denominations
believe they are legitimate gifts for the church today. Others believe that as
the revelation of New Testament Scriptures (called the “Canon”) was finished
that those gifts were no longer needed. They believe the New Testament
Scriptures finalized the authoritative witness of God’s revelation to the
church – we do not need any other source. I have friends in both camps – and a
few other camps as well. I don’t know of anyone from differing sides who says
the gifts are not valuable, and I don’t know of anyone from the differing camps
who says that revelatory gifts such as tongues or prophesy can create new
Scripture. So, they are closer together than apart.
Tongues
is a spiritual gift of language. The debate is whether the language was a known
language or a “spiritual,” non-earthly, language. Prophesy is “speaking
forth a word from God,” and in Scriptures, it more often than not describes
preaching and teaching. Prophesy also is sometimes viewed as a word from God, a
right now revelation word. Again, no one I know who “prophesies” believes they
are creating new Scripture.
Prophesy
in the New Testament is – in many ways – different than Old Testament Prophets.
In the New Testament, it is a gift in the church under the authority of the
church’s Apostles and local Elders. In the Old Testament, a Prophet was an
office – a person whose call from God was to give revelation to the Kings and
nation to interpret current events and speak forth to a future under Messianic
rule. In the end, the nature of Prophets in both Old and New Testaments is not
much different at all.
To
prophesy is to give a “word from God, through the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, that explains what God has, or is, saying in the present” (my definition).
The Old Testament prophet Isaiah
wrote – “The Sovereign LORD has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know
the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my
ear to listen like one being instructed” (Isaiah 50:4). The New Testament
gifts Paul explained in chapter 12 included Apostles, Prophets, and Teachers
who all taught the word of God – both the Old Testament Scriptures as well as
the Revelation God, through his Spirit, was giving to them at that time. Our
entire New Testament of Gospels, History (Acts), Letters were written by
Apostles to churches and individuals, and along with the final book called
Revelation, are a new covenant (Testament) revelation from God to the church –
and are final even to today.
Paul,
as all the first century Apostles, knew that church order was essential.
Looking at the overview of 1 Corinthians 14, we can see that this concern was
genuine. Prophesy was a more valued gift than tongues (14:2-6). As such,
tongues needed boundaries. Paul says that some tongues are unintelligible
(14:9), and therefore, no one understands what the tongues speaker is saying.
Speaking Chinese might be an excellent thing to know, but speaking Chinese to
an American church audience in the Midwest wouldn’t usually help anyone. The
point Paul makes is clear – “...Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit,
try to excel in those that build up the church” (14:12), and later on, adds,
“...in the church, I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct
others than ten thousand words in a tongue” (14:19). There are several
interpretations of what “tongues” means. Some believe tongues is a prayer
language, spoken from an individual directly to God...an angelic language.
Others believe tongues is a human language supernaturally given by God...a
missionary language. Still, others believe that tongues is God speaking through
someone that needs interpretation...a revelation language (14:13-17).
An
essential part of 1 Corinthians 14 is in the middle of the chapter. There Paul,
having given some examples concerning the value of prophecy and tongues, gives
a rebuke, or command – “Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children.
In regard to evil, be infants, but in your thinking, be adults. In the Law it
is written: ‘With other tongues and through the lips of foreigners I will speak
to this people, but even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.’
Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy,
however, is not for unbelievers but for believers” (14:20-22). The text he
quotes is from Isaiah 28:11-12 and follows Paul’s conviction (think back to the
book of Acts) that the Gospel was preached to the Jew first, but when they
refused to listen to it, or believe, Paul always turned to the Gentiles.
What
Paul has in mind, he reinforces in 14:21 – 36, there is a need for decency and
order when “the whole church assembles” (14:23). Corinth was a chaotic
church, and clearly, the gifts contributed to the chaos. The problem isn’t the
gifts. The problem is the character and maturity of those who are gifted.
Paul
describes these church gatherings in a usual way to include “a hymn (sing
the Psalms), a lesson (read the Scripture), a revelation (ESV) or word of
instruction (NIV, i.e., teaching), a tongue and interpretation (prayer and
understanding it for everyone).” The goal was never to parade a group of
ego-gifted people, but to worship God and grow in the faith.
Paul
puts limits on how many at once should pray in a tongue (14:27-28). Among the
many things this passage clarifies is that the gifts were not uncontrolled
phenomena. The people using their gifts were aware of what they were doing, and
most importantly, supposed to be under submission of the Elders of the church.
Prophesy was also included – “For you can all prophesy one by one, so that
all may learn and all be encouraged, and the spirits of prophets are subject to
prophets. For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the
churches of the saints” (14:31-33).
The
last part concerns some women and church order. This section has brought
“Paul-haters” to say Paul despised women. That’s nonsense. A fair reading in
context (always crucial) shows that the issue of “order” was pertinent to some
women who were married. We don’t know the “descriptive” matter that brought
this to Paul’s attention. What seems evident is that the behavior, whatever it
was, was out of line, and submission and authority were undermined to the point
that Paul said, “it is shameful” (14:35). Rather than trying to create a
doctrine out of this rebuke by Paul, we should instead see a very localized
issue that he felt needed to be firmly dealt with.
The
entire section that began in 12:1 now ends, “what I am writing to you is a
command of the Lord” and, “all things should be done decently and in order”
(14:37-40). I have written this before, but it’s a good reminder – Corinth
was a young, immature, and often disorderly church. Paul does not wish to “shut
them down,” but instead “grow them up.” In every church, there are problems,
and in every experience, we can grow.
Jesus
said to his disciples – “...I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall
not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). Two truths that are opposed to each
other: Jesus is building His church, and Hell is fighting against it! It’s
important because – in the end – we are all a bit blind – not seeing the bigger
picture, and we need to be led by God to do the work of church building. If we are honest some of it is like trying to
describe what an elephant looks like.
Peace
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