First Corinthians Chapter 14
Originally posted Wednesday July 23
First Corinthians Chapter
14:1-25 Gifts of Prophecy and Tongues
As
a summary of the previous passage on self-giving love Paul urges the
Corinthians to pursue love and "strive for the spiritual gifts,"
especially prophecy. It is noteworthy that love has not been
mentioned as a spiritual gift as we might have expected it to be. Using a
later terminology unknown to Paul, he might locate love as the apex of the
Christian trinity of faith, hope and love. Without love nothing else is
possible and Christianity dies under its own ponderous weight. This is why he
urges us to pursue it. He would be comfortable with John's revelatory truth
that God is love.
Paul
has established the interdependent nature of God's Spiritual gifts in the
church, the Body of Christ. He has addressed the issues arising from those who
would differentiate and rate the gifts in relative importance which
had caused some dissension. Two of the most potent gifts were prophecy and
tongues. They were verbal, related to worship and some took the
opportunity to "show off" their gifts in worship, especially the gift
of tongues (ecstatic speech). In this passage Paul writes of the misuse of this
gift and provides guidelines for understanding and using it in an appropriate
and orderly way. He is not, as some writers have claimed, relegating tongues to
an inferior position relative to prophecy, his hyperbole not withstanding. Both
are important and both must abide by the key requirement of all gifts, that
they serve the common good.
Paul's
major concern regarding speaking in tongues as a part of community worship is
that it is personal and not communal. It is one person speaking to God and not
to the church. By its nature ecstatic speech is unintelligible even to the
speaker. The person is "speaking mysteries" unless there is an
interpreter. Prophecy is in plain language, understood and received by the
community for its "upbuilding and encouragement and
consolation." Paul suggests they consider how useless it would have been
if he had spoken in tongues to them instead of bringing understandable "revelation
or knowledge or prophecy or teaching." Like an instrument which does not
"give distinct notes," no one will know the song. Preparation for
battle is confusion without a clear sound of the bugle. The use of tongues is
like that, Paul writes. It is "speaking into the air." It is an
alienating sound which separates the speaker from the hearer who cannot
understand. The hearer becomes as if he were an outsider. We can well imagine
the possibility for community conflict in such circumstances.
If
a person speaks in tongues he should pray for the gift of interpretation. As a
gift of the Spirit, tongues arise from the human spirit not the mind. In Paul's
understanding the active centers of human action are body, mind and
spirit. In the case of ecstatic speech the human spirit acts
as the medium or conduit through which the
Spirit speaks the "words." When speaking in tongues the mind is
idle - unproductive. He does not rule out the value of tongues, but he puts it
in the proper perspective of private rather than public use. He affirms his own
spiritual speaking. But he will pray and sing praises in the community with his
mind so that he can be understood by all. As an example of the confusion caused
by the public use of tongues he refers to the saying of a blessing or thanksgiving
in public. The rest of the community, not knowing what was said cannot join in
with the amen. They are outsiders to the private expression of another.
Although Paul gives thanks that he speaks in tongues "more than all of
you," while in the church he "would rather speak five words with
[his] mind . . . than ten thousand words in a tongue" that no one understands.
In
an interesting use of Isa. 28:11 Paul
adds another caution of the negative affect speaking in
tongues would have in worship when outsiders (Christian's who neither
use tongues not interpret them) or unbelievers are present. They are apt to
think everyone else is "out of their mind," which of course they are
since tongues are not a product of the mind. But if unbelievers are
present and hear someone prophesy they will be "convicted"
and the secrets of their hearts, being disclosed to them, they
will "bow down before God and worship him." For Paul, while
prophesy will open a person to the Christian message, tongues will drive them
away.
First Corinthians Chapter
14:26-33a Orderly Worship
Having
made clear his feelings about the use of tongues in worship, Paul proceeds to
give an outline of the content of an orderly worship experience: a hymn, lesson
(probably from the Greek Old Testament), and revelation (prophesy); no more
than three people speaking in tongues but only if there is an interpreter present; two or three prophets may
speak one by one while other prophets are present and to whom
the speaker's words are subject. All in all, Paul has provided
instructions for an orderly gathering, "for God is a God not of disorder
but of peace."
The
segment on orderly worship continues in vs. 37. Paul writes that any true prophet or person with
spiritual powers (leader) will affirm that what Paul has written comes as a
command from the Lord (Christ). Not to recognize this is a sure sign of
one's disconnect from the Spirit. He is not a legitimate prophet and
should not be recognized as one. Paul closes with one last reminder of the
importance of prophecy. Speaking in tongues is not to be forbidden but must fit
into the whole of worship so that all is done in an orderly and decent way.
First Corinthians Chapter
14:33b-36 The Silence of the Women
Most
Bibles have this section in parentheses. It is considered an
"interpolation." In terms of Biblical manuscripts,
an interpolation is an "insertion into an existing manuscript."
In this case it is an interpolation based on 11:3 in which Paul sets forth the Jewish notion of
the husband being the head, and so the authority, of the
wife. It is immediately transparent as misleading - being inserted in the
worship section. We remember that Paul has already affirmed a woman's
right to speak in the church in Corinth. Both men and women pray and
prophesy out loud and in public worship. Prophesy is considered to be
revelation from God which is always meant to instruct and teach
others in the community as well as unbelievers who might be present. Elsewhere
in scripture we find a number of examples of women prophets, speaking God's
word to the community. The idea that such spiritual inequality of the
sexes is part of Paul's understanding of the church contradicts his strong
affirmation of women: "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer
slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in
Christ Jesus." We should also think of Prisca in Ephesus, a teacher of
Apollos, and Lydia who led the church in her house in Corinth. Many women
are mentioned as church leaders in Romans
16.
Why
and when has this later addition to the manuscript been made? Toward the end of
the first century, some thirty years after Paul's death in Rome, his letters
had been collected and were circulated among the churches. By that time the
role of women had changed in some locations. The church had become organized
with an all male leadership of bishops, deacons, presbyters and elders. In this
approximate replication of a patriarchal society, women as prophets and
teachers had been replaced. We will read about these changes as we read
the later Pastoral Epistles such as in I Timothy, written by disciples of Paul.
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