Welcome back to this final episode in Series Four of our study of 1 Corinthians.

Recap and Background

Series Four is all about public worship in the city of Corinth. Paul had received information from members of the church about things that were going seriously wrong in the public worship in Corinth. He spends a significant amount of time in the middle of the book dealing with these issues one by one, going into detail because he wants the meetings to change quite dramatically in the way they are conducted. All these problems go back to a lack of effective leadership and division in the church in Corinth. Paul is genuinely afraid that the church may collapse in a short time through division, lack of leadership, low morale and people leaving. His words are urgent; his advice is clear and specific. He is dealing with a number of issues that he is very concerned about.

At the beginning of this series, we saw him talking about men and women and how they relate in worship. We noticed that there were women who were acting disrespectfully towards their marriage and their husbands and the church community; there was a discussion about the Lord’s Supper and the way that was conducted. Then Paul went on to talk about the gifts of the Spirit and that the church really needed to see themselves as a corporate body, like a human body. They needed to see their responsibilities for each other and their care for each other. He spoke about the need for Christian love to be the most important characteristic of the way they related to each other.

Then in the last episode, Paul came back to specific advice about how to deal with spiritual gifts in the public meeting. Our episode today continues what Paul started in the first half of the chapter 1 Corinthians 14. In the last episode, in the first half of the chapter, Paul was particularly concerned about how three different spiritual gifts were operating in the church - prophecy, speaking in tongues, and interpreting the gift of speaking in tongues. If you haven’t listened to Episode Six, can I strongly encourage you to do that? It gives important background to the things that we are talking about today. In summary, Paul has explained that the gift of prophecy is particularly important for a healthy local church. It is a gift that should be cultivated and sought after. People should be praying to receive the gift, and they should be using the gift widely, because it has the effect of building up the church and making people feel stronger in their faith. Paul wanted the gift of prophecy to develop in the church in Corinth. At the same time, he pointed out that speaking in tongues is a prayer language. It is mostly for use in private prayer. He even made the amazing statement that he spoke in tongues himself more than all the Corinthians. His teaching indicates that it should be used almost always in private prayer and very rarely in public meetings, and when used in public meetings, it should be used alongside another gift, the gift of interpreting the tongues.

Our focus in this particular episode is orderly worship. Paul’s aim in chapter 14 is to help the Christians to know how to fit together the planned elements of the church meeting, and the elements of the church meeting that are spontaneous, that happen in the moment because God speaks to an individual person and gives them a prophecy or another gift to share. How does one balance these things together in a meeting? You may be in a church where this isn’t an issue because none of these things are practised in your public meetings but if you are in a church which allows and honours the spiritual gifts, there will be an understanding amongst the church members about how these gifts should be used. Paul gives us a framework here for how to manage these gifts which is really helpful for those who want to allow the Holy Spirit to move in church meetings, whether in a small house church meeting, or whether in a large meeting with hundreds of people in the congregation; we still want to see the Spirit moving and God speaking to us in public worship. How can this be achieved practically? Paul was reacting against the fact that in Corinth, people just stood up and said whatever they wanted, interrupted each other, and caused chaos in the meeting; it was a very negative experience for the people participating in the meeting. He is trying to help them do something much more positive than that.

A Healthy Church

“What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each one of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up. If anyone speaks in a tongue two - or at the most, three - should speak one at a time, and someone must interpret. If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God. Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. For God is not a God of disorder, but of peace, as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people.”

1 Corinthians 14:26-33, NIV

Verse 26, is very important. It describes a healthy church situation in terms of the contributions made during a church meeting. “What shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each one of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation.” These are the different contributions that people may bring. They may start to sing a hymn, lead in worship, bring a word of instruction - probably a prepared Bible message but perhaps a spontaneous one and very often this would be the pastor or one of the leaders who brings some teaching. Some may bring a revelation -probably a prophecy. Others may bring a tongue or an interpretation. Paul describes in this verse the kind of creative environment of the early church communities that he wanted, with different people bringing different contributions to the meeting, but he also wants it to be done in an orderly way.

Speaking in Tongues in the Public Meeting

He gives a specific instruction here concerning speaking in tongues. Bearing in mind he has already said, that speaking in tongues is almost entirely for private worship, he says it is appropriate sometimes for those with the gift of that prayer language - a language which they didn’t learn, and is not their mother tongue, which God the Spirit gives them in order to pray effectively - to stand up in the church meeting and speak in that unknown language. If you feel a sense inside that it is a healthy thing, a positive thing to contribute to the church meeting, Paul says in the context of the Corinthian church, where there would be one to two hundred people present, probably at that time, that it should be two or three only. In other words, not everybody, just a few contributions. One mistake churches sometimes make is there are too many contributions to be made, and it gets confusing; you can’t remember what has been said. Two or three, but only if there is somebody there, either the speaker themselves or somebody else, who has the ability, the gift of the Spirit to be able to interpret what has been said so that other people can understand what that person is speaking. It will either be prayer, or thanksgiving, or praise to God. Some people have imagined that a message in tongues is like a prophecy, a message to us from God. But Paul says the opposite in this chapter, and that is going to be an important point for some of us to think about, because we may have to change our thinking. When we interpret a tongue, we are describing for the congregation the nature and the words of a prayer, or a summary of a prayer, or a thanksgiving or a praise that somebody has given to God through using the gift of tongues, and that encourages the prayer and the devotion of the congregation. They feel a sense of God’s Spirit stirring that up within them. Paul makes the point, if there is nobody with the gift of interpretation, then don’t use the gift. This shows us that this gift is not something that takes over a person and they can’t control it; he makes it very clear that we control these things. We can decide when to speak and when not to speak. So, tongues should be used in an orderly way according to Paul.

Prophecy

When it comes to prophecy, we have something very similar. Two or three prophecies during a public meeting, is an appropriate number, just a small number. Prophets should speak one at a time. They should only speak when they have that sense of urgency from God that this is the right moment to deliver their words. Then Paul says, very particularly, when a prophet has spoken, what they have done is they have given a message from God to help us deal with something in the present or to prepare us for something in the future that is going to happen to us. When the prophet has given the message, Paul says, sit down. Get away from the centre of the meeting. You have delivered the message. Don’t comment on it. Don’t preach around it. Some people mix up prophecy and preaching. They are two different things. Preaching is preaching from the text of the Bible. Prophecy is delivering a message that you have been given in that moment for the circumstances. It is a very common mistake made by prophets that they give the message from God, and then they give a very extensive commentary on it and turn it into preaching. Paul says, no, sit down, a very interesting command! Let the others weigh or assess whether this is really a word from God. Just because you said it, it doesn’t mean that it is automatically fully inspired by the Spirit. Other people assess that. They pray; they think about it; they sense in their heart whether this is a message from God or just your personal thoughts. Prophets must be willing for that process to happen. It is the responsibility of church leaders, particularly, to assess the prophetic words that are coming, and perhaps occasionally to intervene if they feel that it is unhelpful or an inaccurate word. That is a heavy responsibility upon leaders. But you will notice in Corinthians we don’t have a description of exactly who the leaders are. There was a real risk that there wasn’t an assessment process going on. In some churches, the way this is done is that somebody who wants to make a prophetic contribution may come to the leader of the meeting and say, ‘I’d like to give a message about this topic,’ and the person assesses it before they have given the message. That can happen. You may have seen that happen in certain church contexts and in very big churches it is sometimes the only practical way of doing it. But sometimes the assessing, testing, weighing comes after the prophecy has been given, just as is described here. This helps us if we have the prophetic gift to stick to the particular task. I have often helped people who are developing this gift, and encouraged them to stick to a simple, short, straightforward message, the thing they feel God has given them and not to try to explain it, or preach about it, or give a commentary on it afterwards. Just give the simple message and let others assess what is going on.

Verse 32 is important. ‘The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets.’ The prophet can wait until the right moment. He or she does not need to insist that they speak at any particular time in the meeting and take over the meeting like what was happening in Corinth. This is not the way we should be conducting our meetings. There are many things to learn from the principles that Paul mentions here, but one of the most difficult issues in Corinth was that as people gave prophecies, it appears that there was then a lot of public discussion in the meeting amongst different groups about accepting the prophecy or not. There was disruption in the meeting.

Women to be Silent in the Public Meeting?

We have seen this disruption described all the way through Series Four as Paul has gone through the different topics. One of the disruptions that Paul has noticed becomes the focus of the next few verses. He has already pointed out, in 1 Corinthians 11, that some of the women in the church were behaving in a disruptive way having private conversations and adopting a dress code which was not in line with the culture of the ancient Greeks, by taking off their head coverings which represented their marriage status. One of the problems in the church was women talking and conducting private discussions about things, and not respecting their social status in the marriage and in the community. Keep this in mind because this issue comes back again. We see a different type of working of this in the next few verses because Paul then addresses the women in the church. The context is prophecy and what to do about prophecy that has just been given, weighing and assessing, prophecy. We know from Romans and from 1 Corinthians 11 that the women are praying and prophesying themselves. Some of them are the prophets. Paul is encouraging that. We know from 1 Corinthians 14: 26 that all the brothers and sisters might be giving a hymn, word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation - that includes the women. They are participating fully. But one thing that Paul does not want the women to do is to have a private discussion about weighing prophecy, and that is what he talks about in the next two verses.

“Women should remain silent in the churches. They’re not allowed to speak, but they must be in submission as the Law says. If they want to inquire about something they should ask their own husbands at home, for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.”

1 Corinthians 14:34-35, NIV

Paul is talking here about private conversations going on amongst the women. They are not talking to their husbands. We can see that from the verse. The wider context is about weighing prophecy and the other wider context is the women being disruptive, but also contributing positively to prayer and prophecy in some cases. He encourages them to be quiet and not have private discussions about the weighing of prophecy, but to listen to the wider conversation led by the leaders of the church. This passage is sometimes misused because it is taken out of its very specific and particular context - the weighing of prophecy. It was not to be done by private discussion amongst the women, but to be done in the church, as a whole.

Paul’s Conclusion

“Did the Word of God originate with you, or are you the only people that it has reached? If anyone thinks they are a prophet or otherwise gifted by the Spirit, let them acknowledge that what I’m writing to you is the Lord’s command. But if anyone ignores this, they will themselves be ignored. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy. Do not forbid speaking in tongues, but everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.”

1 Corinthians 14:36-40, NIV

Paul now comes to the conclusion of this very long discussion that has gone all the way through this long chapter, 1 Corinthians 14. He reminds them that his authority is very great. They should listen to what he says. Look at verse 37. “Let them acknowledge that what I’m writing to you is the Lord’s command.” He is writing as an Apostle. He is laying down principles for the conduct of public meetings in churches, which should be followed by all the churches to avoid disorder and the failure of church meetings. He says, ‘Do not forbid the speaking in tongues.’ Some churches have literally forbidden the speaking in tongues and tried to prevent it taking place in their church community. This is entirely against the New Testament, the Apostles and the will of God. This is a very precious and important spiritual gift. Paul uses this gift and encourages people to speak in tongues, as I encouraged you very strongly, and to pray for that gift at the end of the last episode. Paul is not suggesting that speaking in tongues should be stopped, but rather he is saying it is not primarily for the public meeting; it is for private devotion. It is to be used in public only in small amounts, two or three people speaking in any meeting as long as they are interpreted. He says again, seek the gift of prophecy. Just because the prophecy is difficult sometimes to manage in the public meeting, just because the weighing or testing of a prophecy can be complicated, it does not mean that we shouldn’t use the gift. God speaking to us personally, day by day, week by week, in church meetings is a dynamic and exciting reality that stimulates Christians when they really feel they have heard from God. Paul wants everything done in a fitting and orderly way. That is his underlying principle.

To have an orderly service there needs to be some meaningful leadership. We have to respect the leaders who are leading our church services and the style and the approach that they adopt. If they are wise pastors, leaders and elders, they will adopt the principles of 1 Corinthians 14 and consciously allow church members to contribute, especially prophecy, in a responsible way, into the public meetings. This will bring the presence of the Spirit; it will strengthen the church; and it will encourage us to believe that God’s supernatural activity is in our lives. Paul wants that with all his heart. That is part of New Testament Christianity. That is part of how we should be living in our churches in all parts of the world. Wherever you are, whatever culture you come from, take a look in at this extraordinary story of 1 Corinthians. Take a look at Series Four and at this issue of the use of spiritual gifts and seek those spiritual gifts. If you are a leader, ask yourself the question, am I leading my church in a way that allows the spiritual gifts to function effectively?

Reflections

The Holy Spirit does not take people over with the gifts of the Spirit so that they lose control of their ability to communicate, and they have to dominate the scene. It is a mistake to believe this. This is how some demonic activity operates; this is not how the Holy Spirit operates. Everything can be done in an orderly and fitting way. Paul’s instructions were for a church of maybe a hundred or two hundred people. The practicalities of how you bring the spiritual gifts will depend on the size of your congregation. The larger the congregation, the more difficult it is to get individual participation. But take the principles of 1 Corinthians 14 and you can apply them in churches of different sizes. If you are a pastor, an elder or a church leader, can I encourage you that these two episodes, Episodes Six and Seven, are very much for you. These ways of bringing in the gifts of the Spirit can only happen effectively through your leadership. The responsibility lies with you, and the Scripture is here to assist you in that process.

We come now to the end of Series Four as we have looked at public worship. Thank you so much for being with us during this series, but don’t leave us here because in the final series of 1 Corinthians, we have a most wonderful theme, the theme of the resurrection. Paul comes back to gospel basics. He started explaining at the beginning, in chapters one and two, the power of the cross and here he deals with the doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus and the resurrection of the body of the believer. This is the longest, fullest and most important explanation of the Christian doctrine of the resurrection in the whole New Testament.