Problems Plaguing a Local Church, Part 25
In our message, REGULATING SPIRITUAL GIFTS IN LOVE (1 Cor. 14:1-19), the Holy Spirit continued to answer the Corinthian question on how to use spiritual gifts in corporate worship. After describing the nature and purpose of these special endowments from God- given to each of His children as He decides (chapter 12), and the superiority of love (i.e. becoming more like Jesus) which is what the gifts are to be used for (chapter 13), the Lord then begins to discuss how some of these specific gifts used by the Corinthian church in that day should be administered in love (chapter 14).
After reminding the church of the need to “pursue love” above all else, the two gifts God then focuses on in Corinth that the church was having the most trouble with were “prophesy” and “tongues” (1 Cor. 13:1-2; 14:1-2, etc.). In that time, New Testament “prophets” came and spoke God’s Word verbatim to the congregation as did “apostles” laying the “foundation” of the church (Eph. 2:20; 3:5; 4:11; 1 Cor. 3:11, etc.). Some even predicted future events which is the traditional definition of a prophet (i.e. speaking new revelation from God verbatim and predicting the future with 100% accuracy, Acts 11:28; 21:10-11; Deut. 18:20, etc.). This occurred until the New Testament was complete (Heb. 12:1-2; Rev. 22:18, etc.). “Tongues” on the other hand, was also a sign gift in the first century that allowed a person to supernaturally speak a foreign language he did not know for the purpose of sharing the Gospel and God’s Word (1 Cor. 14:10-11, etc.). It was also specifically a sign to non-believing Jewish people that their Messiah had come and they needed to repent (Gen. 3:15; Acts 2:3-16, etc.).
These gifts, like all our gifts today, are to be REGULATED… IN LOVE (through the power of the Spirit) so the lost can be saved and Christians can become more like Jesus (1 Cor. 13; John 17:21; Acts 4:15-16, etc.). We should “desire” the gifts God has given us to use them to their fullest potential in love and/or desire the gifts most primary to take precedence over any gifts we might have (1 Cor. 12:31; 14:1, 12, etc.). Love “does not seek its own” (1 Cor. 13:5), so this would include, in this case, letting “prophets” speak over those who may have had the gift of tongues because the gift of prophesy was primary for the laying the foundation of the church in that time (i.e. the Bible was still being written down in that day- 1 Cor. 12:28, etc.). Paul says tongues could be used too, providing a translator was present so others could be built up in the truth (1 Cor. 12:5, 13, etc.). When a translator was present to share what a language was saying that was unknown to the hearers of that day, it then acted like God’s Word because the church could agree with what was being said and be built up in love (1 Cor. 12:16, 18, etc.). Note: some scholars today will apply these verses to our lives by defining “prophesy” as teaching or preaching what the Bible says. We should always worship the Lord with not just our human “spirit” (i.e. emotions which can lead us astray) but with our minds too basing our lives completely upon God’s trustworthy Word- the Bible (1 Cor. 12:14-15, 19; Ps. 119:105; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27; Heb. 4:12-13; 2 Pet. 3:17-18, etc.).
*For more details on this topic, please see SBFC’s message above.