TEXT : 1 Corinthians 14
TITLE: Biblical Worship :
In love and with Grace gifts
Date : The Lord's Day 12/02/2012
The last time we
looked at this first letter to
the Corinthians was in October last year . We really need to finish the study of this letter for there is nothing to help us grow in spiritual
knowledge as much as the
systematic pursuit of the logic of Scripture. Working through entire
books of the Bible helps us to
construct a biblical worldview
that will stabilize our thinking and therefore our lives. Even if the matter at hand does
not appear entirely relevant
to your situation right now , it
nevertheless produces a vital deposit
of truth , which will come in handy in due time. We are always tempted at every stage of our lives to forget
God and His Word. At such critical stages we need a deposit of truth to steer us through difficult and barren times. Let us
pray therefore for the Holy Spirit’s help to listen well, and hide his truth in our
hearts that we may not sin against Him (Psalm 119:11)!
We begin with
some review and some historical perspective on our passage .
Paul , the human agent of the Holy Spirit had ‘planted’ this church somewhere between AD 50 and 52
( see Acts 18) . First Corinthians was probably
written in AD 55
, which means that it was written to this church some 3-5 years after it was planted.
This church had a worship problem. It is a common problem in the modern church, and that makes this letter actually very relevant! The worship problem related
to a mind-shift which had taken place . The church
had moved from God centered thinking to
man centered thinking ( see 1:10ff
; Ch 3), a process which as you
see, can
happen very swiftly. Without solid feeding and meditating upon God’s truth we revert very quickly to our human default
thinking . So we see that the focus
shifted from sound doctrine –
God’s wisdom , to man- made solutions and man made wisdom . When sound doctrine is absent , unsound
thoughts easily flow from our unstable hearts and minds. This is what is happening here . The problems
translated themselves into a wide
spectrum of problems which the founding apostle needed to address :
- Divisions- party spirit – which is focusing on men rather than on Christ ;
- A questioning of the authority of the apostles as servants of Christ ( Ch4) which is really a rejection of God’s authority since the apostle’s teachings were given to the church for its spiritual health and stability .
- Sexual immorality- which is a giving into man centered, fleshly desires rather than to a mind controlled by the Holy Spirit (Ch5)
- Lawsuits among believers- by which they were trusting worldly court systems more than godly counsel from fellows believers (Ch 6)
- Marriage problems ; their eyes were on sex for personal gratification , and not in godly consideration of their spouses (Ch7)
- A return to idolatry by not being careful who they were associating with . Bad company corrupts good character (Ch 10)
- Abusing the Lord’s supper by not making the Lord but making food and drink the main thing- leading to gluttony and drunkenness ( Ch11) ;
- The self centered use of spiritual gifts in the church . They were using spiritual gifts not to glorify God and for the edification of one another . They were bragging and boasting in them and using them in a way that was hindering the church , and not building the church up.
At the heart of the
Corinthian worship problem was a
lack of God centered (agape) love. (Ch 13). Love for God and
neighbour (Mk 12:30,31) had been
replaced with self centered
attitudes. This is where we find
ourselves in our exposition . Chapters 12 – 14
are Paul’s response to what is lacking in the church in terms of the proper
use of spiritual gifts, applied in biblical love (Ch 13) .
Chapter 14
You will note the connecting statement between Ch’s 13 and 14
: v.1 “Pursue love” i.e. pursuit with persistence…. indicating a
never terminating action
in the way described in 14:4-7 . The key
to understanding the proper use
of spiritual gifts is to use them in Christian
love . We have learned previously in 1
Cor 13:1-3 that anything that we do
or say without love is empty or
meaningless, and that anything done in godly love is truly helpful AND God glorifying . To live in such attitude of love as is described in 1 Cor 13:4-7 is
to truly worship God .
… and earnestly desire
(covet earnestly) the spiritual gifts …. The point is that we must
be eager to love the church by the use
our spiritual gifts. You might have noticed that one of the key phrases in chapter 14 is
“to build up “ the church - see 14 :4, 5, 12, 26.
The goal of the use of our spiritual gifts in love is to build the church up . To build a church up by our spiritual gift
means , to improve our people , to leave them in a better
shape ; to make the church
( the bride of Christ) more beautiful
in the eyes of Christ. Once we
have understood this, our capacity to serve
others joyfully increases and
our happiness increases as we see others
built up. So ask yourself this question : How can I increase the joy of my
fellow church members and their ability to praise and serve God more through
that gift which God has put into
me ?
Now, we
notice that the apostle Paul focuses on two particular spiritual gifts : tongues and prophecy . These are by no
means the only spiritual gifts that edify and build up the church. We had previously seen that there are over 20
spiritual gifts listed in the Scriptures . We have reason to believe that these gift
lists may only be illustrative
and not exhaustive . There may be more spiritual gifts to build up the church than we think . So why
does he only mention these two controversial gifts here ?
We must remember
that this letter is written into a specific situation. It was to correct excesses in the church
with respect to these two gifts.
Also note
that Paul speaks about these two gifts as a matter of
fact. He considers “speaking
in tongues” and “prophecy” as a normal expression of church life. He
himself claims to speak in tongues (14:18).
Furthermore, he exhorts the Corinthians
in 14:39,40
to “… earnestly desire to prophesy, and
do not forbid speaking in tongues… reminding them also …. [40] But all things should be done
decently and in order.” .
He says a similar thing to the Thessalonians (1 Thess 5:19-22) with respect to
prophecies : [19] Do
not quench the Spirit. [20] Do not despise prophecies, ….
reminding them also … [21] but test
everything; hold fast what is good. [22] Abstain from every form of evil.
Notice that
in both cases he also issues warnings against excesses ! These gifts were
easily abused in the church ,
because they belonged to the realm of
the mysteries in the Spirit (14:2)
.
Next , I want you to see that Paul makes a quality distinction between ‘speaking in tongues’ and ‘prophesying’ . In fact , the whole chapter is really an argument of the supremacy of prophecies over the use of tongues. Interesting!
The logic of his
argument is as follows : Since
tongues (speaking in other languages) are unintelligible to the
hearer they cannot build up the
church unless they are interpreted (14:13).
Tongues appear to be mostly
for personal edification ( 14:4).
By way of contrast he argues that
prophecy edifies the church. Paul says
that the act of prophesying produces “upbuilding , encouragement and consolation (comfort)” for the church (4:3). Therefore Paul says that he prefers intelligible speech (14:9) to language that no one can understand .
Paul’s point is consistent : the church must be helped by gifts (14:12). If people are not being helped by tongues , the chief goal of worship cannot be attained. God must be glorified in the building up of the church ! It appears then as if these man centered Corinthians were seeking to speak in tongues , but not for the building up of the church.
At this point it may be helpful to seek to understand the Greek culture of the day. Greek culture was steeped in the so called “mystery
religions” - in the mystical and the
metaphysical. Many converts came from
such backgrounds .
African culture and religion is by and large also pervaded by the fear , awe and seeking after the “spirit world“. The world of the ancestors forms a big part of African mind and culture.
African culture and religion is by and large also pervaded by the fear , awe and seeking after the “spirit world“. The world of the ancestors forms a big part of African mind and culture.
Since we are born into a cultural setting we are steeped in cultural preferences. It is very hard to separate ourselves from this , since it is so much a part of our identity. Returning to the Greek mindset (obsessed with the metaphysical world ) they were forever seeking for the key to higher knowledge[2] – the key that would open up the world of the unknown, the world of the gods. The Greek mystery religions also practiced glossolalia – ‘speaking in tongues’ … in fact many other modern religions (Muslims , Buddhists , Hindu’s , Occult) have mystic offshoots that claim to speak in tongues . It is by no means a Christian phenomenon .
Paul’s desire was for intelligibility ; clarity! The Christian faith is not about keeping secrets. The Christian faith is open. “We speak the truth plainly”, says Paul (2 Cor 4:2)
! Christianity is about revelation. The Christian faith is
about the fact that God has not kept himself hidden and unapproachable. In the OT He revealed
Himself through His prophets ! In the NT
He has revealed Himself in Christ and then through the apostles. He has revealed
Himself by the Holy Spirit who was clearly announced and who Himself
manifested as a mighty , rushing
wind at Pentecost . From that perspective we need to remember that Pentecost is
a unique, once for all , never to be repeated event.
At Pentecost the Holy Spirit was sent by Jesus to give gifts to the church. In Chapter 12 we learn that the Holy Spirit is the sovereign dispenser of spiritual gifts . “ He … apportions to each one individually as He wills .” (1 Cor 12:11) .
At Pentecost the Holy Spirit was sent by Jesus to give gifts to the church. In Chapter 12 we learn that the Holy Spirit is the sovereign dispenser of spiritual gifts . “ He … apportions to each one individually as He wills .” (1 Cor 12:11) .
Spiritual gifts
and in this context , tongues and prophecy are not chosen to be used by us – they are to be corporately desired among us (14:1) , but in themselves they are
sovereignly given to us, and when
the Holy Spirit gives them , you cannot resist
them or ignore them !
We still have to do a lot of work in this passage , but
I need to wrap up for today and
make some important comments
with respect to the modern phenomenon
of spiritual gifts ,and especially tongues . I will comment on “prophecy“ next time.
1. The
Sovereign Holy Spirit can do whatever He chooses. He is God. He can
therefore give and withhold any gift
at any moment .
2. Just because the gifts are mentioned in Scripture , this does not mean
that there must be tongues or prophecy or routine healings today . God decides – not we ! There was a time in the OT when
God even withheld the preaching
of the Word (Amos 8:11-12) . There was a time of 400 years before the coming of
Christ (The Inter-testamental period
) when there was no prophecy – no word from the Lord. Preaching was not heard. This is unthinkable for Reformed Baptists ! We may well be in such a time today, when
the true word of God is rare!
3. Any
attempt by people to manipulate the gifts of the Spirit
will ultimately play into the hands of Satan, who thrives
where there is disobedience and chaos,
and who uses trickery and deceit
to confuse and divide the church . This is precisely what has happened
in the Corinthian church and it has happened to the 20th
century church. I warn you , as did Paul . Do not seek to manipulate spiritual gifts .
Desire ( you all – plural) to have
spiritual gifts in the church by
all means (that is the plain meaning of 14:1) . But do not
trivialize tongues through babbling
or claim to prophesy
spuriously. To do that means that you will put out the Spirit’s fire .
To do that means to treat prophecies
with contempt . I am afraid that as in the day of Jeremiah ( e.g. Jer
5:30,31 ; 8 :11 ; 14:13ff) , there are far too many false prophets in
our churches and in our society and they are not building our people up . They
are destroying and dividing churches. That is not the work of the Holy Spirit .
4.
Spiritual
gifts bless , heal , unite and build up the church . That is
their mark !
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