Church Life Revisited- 1 Corinthians 13 — Ron Bailey

Edification as the Test of Church Ministry

You discover that Paul has a criteria for what he thinks is useful in the church and obviously that's what the Spirit of God is teaching him. And Paul's criteria for what is useful in the church it's a very simple question that Paul has, does it edify?

That's his question, that's his real test as to how useful this is in the church not how eloquent is the preacher, not how powerful is this healing ministry. His simple question that's running right the way through this section of Corinthians is does it edify, does it build people up, does it build the church up.

Is it building up, remember I've often referred in some of these sessions to the local church as a covenant community, does it build up the covenant community or is it just building up one individual.

And he says, there's a whole list of them through there. If you look at, just see these in the Bible as you go through this is 1 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 1 now concerning things offered to idols we know that we all have knowledge.

Have you found it? 1 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 1 concerning things offered to idols we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up but love edifies, love builds it, there's the first one chapter 10 and verse 23 all things are lawful for me but not all things are helpful.

All things are lawful for me but not all things edify. Chapter 14 and now four times in this chapter you'll get this chapter 14 and verse 3 for he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men.

Chapter 14 verse 12 even so you since you are zealous for spiritual gifts let it be for edification of the church that you seek to excel. Verse 17 for indeed you give thanks. Well, he's talking about giving thanks in tongues.

You indeed give thanks. Well but the other is not edified. And verse 26 how is it then brethren when you come together each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation that all things be done for edification.

That's Paul's bottom line for 1 Corinthians 14 there are some gifts which are a blessing but they're not. They don't have the e-factor, they're not edification gifts. These are edification gifts. Revelation, knowledge, prophesying, teaching and the interpretation of tongues those are edification gifts.

But there are other gifts which actually don't have the e-factor faith, gifts of healings, miracles, descending of spirit, different kinds of tongues. These are valid gifts. But when you come into 1 Corinthians 14 the whole purpose of this is that Paul wants the church to be built up.

And the simple question is does it build up the church? That's his question. And he's talking about these different things. I want to say something that I think Bob mentioned some time ago in maybe a Sunday morning or something like that in Pentecostal and charismatic circles there's a tendency quite often to refer to a thing that's known as a message in tongues.

Now nowhere in the Bible does it refer to a message in tongues. And to use the label a message in tongues actually begins to shape what your expectation is because once you've said it's a message in tongues you think it's coming from God to the church.

So your expectation is that when the interpretation comes it will be a message from God to the church. Now the Bible never talks about a message in tongues. It talks about some very interesting things in tongues.

Tongues as Prayer, Singing, Blessing, and Thanksgiving

If you look at 1 Corinthians 14 you'll see in verse 13 he says therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret if I pray in a tongue. So there's one of the things you pray in a tongue.

The point I'm making is the point that you'll see actually very clearly in chapter 14 verse 2 where he says. But he who speaks in an unknown tongue does not speak to men but to God. That's to say generally speaking the general direction of tongues are God words.

When a man speaks in an unknown tongue he's not speaking to men. He's speaking to God. This is the general direction of things. And then if you come on later on you'll see he says in verse 14 if I pray in a tongue now a tongue is a tongue isn't man words.

I don't pray at you. I know some people do do some horizontal praying but it's not not recommended. It's just usually a way of getting people to do things. You can't get them to do any other way. But prayer is supposed to be God words.

That's the way it's going to pray. And then he says here in verse 14 if I pray in a tongue my spirit prays but my understanding is unfruitful. What's the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding also I will sing with the spirit.

We sing. And one of the ways we sing of course is we sing. And we make melodies in our hearts unto the Lord. Part of our singing is God words. And then he says here then he talks about blessing. Verse 16 he says otherwise if you bless with the spirit he means in tongues when you bless with the spirit how will he who occupies the place of the uninformed say amen at your giving of thanks.

So you can give thanks in an unknown tongue. And he makes that quite plain. So the point I'm making is that if you look at the way he's referring to things in 1 Corinthians 14 tongues generally speaking are God words.

It's prayer. It's blessing. It's thanksgiving. It's singing. So what would we expect the interpretation of tongues to be. And in most circles and in most churches I guess we've been kind of part of the expectation is that tongues plus interpretation is really just another way of doing prophecy but using two people instead of one.

I don't think that's the normal function for tongues in the church. I think the normal function for tongues in the church is that it's people remember we go back to chapter 12 verse 2 it's people being led of the spirit people being carried in the spirit.

And in the spirit with the spirit they pray or they sing or they give thanks. And of course the rest of the church wouldn't know what was going on except that God has added this dimension that we can have an interpretation to what is taking place in someone's spirit.

And so the prayer can be interpreted and the song can be interpreted. And the giving of thanks can be interpreted. And often you know when we give thanks to God we give thanks for things he's done. One of the things it says early on in the beginning is that God has given us the spirit so that we know the things that are freely given to us of God and only a man's spirit knows what is in the man.

So there are times when our spirit will express deep things that are beyond our understanding. They're beyond our knowledge. And it can be a tremendous blessing then if that is interpreted and the church and the people hear something that was deeper than the conscious level of a man's desires.

I'm not, I don't want to kind of put in place and I won't I don't have the power to put in place anyway. I'm not going to put in place a new law that says interpretations can only be God's. I just want to challenge us in a sense really in our expectation and just say when an interpretation begins to form in your mind in your heart as you're hearing these things just be open to the possibility that this may not be like a message from God but this may be actually someone who is lifting their heart to God and God is giving you an insight in the spirit.

Order and Edification in Corporate Worship

It says he speaks mysteries, the word mysteries you know the Bible doesn't mean mysterious it means secrets. So the secrets of hearts are actually being kind of revealed. Ok I want to go on to another difficult thing or another possible controversial thing and this time it's in chapter 14 of verse 26 this verse verse 26 how is it then brethren whenever you come together each of you has a psalm, has a teaching has a tongue, has a revelation has an interpretation that all things be done for edification.

Now here's the question when Paul says this in verse 26 is he making a statement about every church throughout the whole world and the whole history of the churches that whenever you come together that is each one of you has a psalm, a teaching a tongue, a revelation, an interpretation.

Is he making a kind of a general statement about all the churches or is he actually making an observation about the Corinthian church. Is he actually putting his finger on something about the Corinthian church.

In other words, is he approving of this statement or is he actually disapproving of this statement. Do you follow what I'm saying if you see the context that it's in where Paul is encouraging people to be disciplined in the way that they do and say things.

I think the context of this indicates that Paul is not approving of the fact that this is what's happening in the Corinthian church that when they come together it's a free for all, everybody has got something, everybody is bringing something and that's why he says let all things be done for edification.

Now I was interested having asked this question I was looking at John Wesley's notes on the New Testament and he's got this note on verse 26 and he says what a thing is it brethren this was another disorder among them, says John Wesley every one of them has a psalm that is at the same time one being interested in a psalm, another to deliver a doctrine another to speak in an unknown tongue another to declare what's been revealed to him, another to interpret what the former is speaking, everyone probably gathering a little company about him just as they did in the school of the philosophers, let all things be done to edification so as to profit the hearers.

What I'm saying here is I think in this section of 1 Corinthians 14 Paul is actually beginning to set down guidelines for the ordering of the way that things function in the church and you'll see he comes on very quickly in verse 27 and he says if anyone speaks in an unknown tongue let there be two or at the most three each in turn and let one interpret.

Now when he says each in turn you can see the implication it does sound as though John Wesley is right when he, John Wesley has this kind of concept that everyone was doing everything all at the same time and Paul is saying no you must be orderly in these things, there must be an order to this thing and when you speak in unknown tongues in these utterances two or at the most three in turn and let someone interpret, so again I'm not trying to kind of lay down hard and fast law but I do think that the spirit of this section is that Paul is cautioning us and that God is cautioning us in the way that exercises take place like this, that we are sensitive to one another we're sensitive to the moving of the spirit in the church, that we're sensitive to what is happening in the church and we're not over anxious to get our little bit in or to make our little contribution or to give the thing that we felt God blessed to us earlier on in the week or in the meeting or something like that but that we're conscious of the flow of what's happening and that we're moving in the flow of these things.

So I think as a principle not as an absolute rule. I do think as a principle that there ought to be no more than two or three utterances not messages, utterances in an unknown tongue and interpretation.

I don't think according to the way that Paul is expressing things here I don't think it would be seemly for the whole meeting to be taken up with twenty, thirty utterances in tongues and twenty or thirty interpretations.

I think he's saying there ought to be moderation in this for the sake of order and decency which is the way he concludes this section. Then we've got another one here in verse 29 let two or three prophets speak and let the others judge.

Prophecy, Discernment, and the Flow of the Meeting

For if anything is revealed to another who sits by let the first keep silent. I think I've said to you before I find verse 30 a real challenge because it obviously means that people were sensitive to one another.

It means that people were watching one another so that even if they were in the midst of a revelation, if they were in the midst of a prophecy, if they saw that someone else wanted to share something, they were willing to stop what they were saying and make way for that other person which I think shows that these people were not in intensity they weren't desperate or they oughtn't to be it oughtn't to be possible for people to see what's happening to have the same care one for another to be mindful not only of what God has given us but to be mindful of what God is doing in other parts.

And he says let two or three prophets speak. He doesn't actually say two or three prophecies. He actually says two or three prophets. But I think there's a similarity here as well that I know that there are times when people might say well there's a spirit of prophecy in the meeting anyone can prophecy.

And we sometimes come to this verse 31 where it says you can all prophesy one by one that all may learn, all may be encouraged. But there's a pattern in understanding scripture when you you need to understand a verse in the light of what has gone before and what's gone before in the previous chapters is that Paul has asked a very specific question he said are all apostles.

Are all prophets. Do all speak with tongues. And obviously the answer to those questions was no so that's one of the limitations to you may all prophets, you can only prophesy if you've got a prophecy you can't just prophesy because you've got some kind of right to prophesy and then everyone may one by one within the general terms of this that two or generally at the most by three, in other words I do think there's a pattern here and I said these things were controversial and I'm not laying down any laws.

I'm just saying I think that in this chapter Paul is concerned with what he refers to in verse 40 this thing's been done decently and in order so there's not an unseemly rush and there's not kind of a pandemonium.

Women's Silence and Authoritative Doctrinal Teaching

And then the next thing and I must finish this now let you get home to your bits, verse 34 he says let your women keep silent in the church for they are not permitted to speak but they are to be submissive to the law as the law also says he talks about the women being silent and this is the third time in this section that Paul's talked about silent.

For example he said that if someone speaks in their own tongue they ought to be silent unless there's an interpretation and talking about prophecy. He says one prophet ought to be silent so that another prophet can speak.

And this silence is not the absolute silence of someone not being able to open their mouth at all. The word silence in these passages is context sensitive. The first one has to do with speaking with tongues and interpretation.

The second one has to do with prophecy. The third one has to do with learning. And the other side of learning is teaching. And we're into the realm here of authoritative teaching and you know we won't look at it now because we haven't got the time.

But you know that Paul when he wrote to Timothy said that he did not give permission for a woman to teach and to exercise authority over a man in the Old King James Version it actually says usurp authority, the idea of usurping, that's wrongly taking authority isn't there at all.

It's just simply authority. Paul did not give permission for a woman to teach and have authority over a man. This has to do with the patterns that God has set into the world itself and patterns which are to be endorsed and strengthened in the church.

So what does it mean? Well remember this this isn't banning a woman from giving a testimony, this isn't banning a woman from standing up and sharing what a verse means to her. What this is really talking about is it's not appropriate for a woman to have a key role in doctrinal teaching in the church because that has to do with authority.

And God has decreed that in the church because Jesus is the head of the church and he's the man that in the pattern, the way the church works out, it is to the man that God will give authority to give authoritative teaching.

The Nature of First-Century Teaching and Passing on Truth

We need to remember that in these days we need to understand really what the word teaching means. It didn't mean for example that someone was going to stand up and expand 1st Corinthians or Ephesians because 1st Corinthians and Ephesians didn't exist also texts of the Bible were very very expensive.

It could cost. It would probably have cost to get something like the New Testament. It would probably have cost something like 8 or 10 years salary to buy a New Testament or the equivalent of it in Bible days.

So they didn't have these things. What was happening is that these teachers were people who were this is my phrase, they were systematizing truth as truth came in. They were balancing truth with truth.

They were combining truth with truth. They were putting truth into order. That's what they were doing. But it was by revelation. There would be the prophetic element in it. But they were bringing truth through.

So they were really setting teaching standards. They weren't just sharing what had been a blessing to their own heart. They weren't sharing something that they thought might encourage somebody. They were actually laying down truth.

What would be the truth for the church what would be passed from one generation to another. And Paul is saying that it is not appropriate for a woman to have that role. And that's how I understand these things.

So I've taken a controversial line on each of these three things here, each of the things that's come through, I've taken I've gone against the stream with every single one and I'm going to stop now, I'm going to have a word of prayer.

And then if you've got some questions you can ask them.