“1 Corinthians 14”

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

One of the problems connected with the first century spiritual gifts was jealousy over who had the better gifts. The most popular gift was speaking in tongues. Most of those in Corinth to whom Paul was writing seemed to think that this was the very best gift.

Paul shows them that prophecy (inspired preaching) was the more valuable gift. Tongues were a sign for unbelievers, but prophecy was for those who believe (verse 22). If they were to be zealous for spiritual gifts, they should excel “for the edification of the church” (verse 12; see also verse 26).

God did not give these gifts to make some Christians superior to other disciples. The gifts were all given by the Lord, through the Spirit, to equip the church so that it might function more smoothly in its early days.

Today, if there are problems in the church, we solve them by looking into the New Testament to determine God’s will. But, before the New Testament was completed, they had spiritual gifts to help them know what God wanted them to do.

Another problem in the Corinthian church is discussed in the closing verses of chapter 14. Besides the misunderstanding of the importance of each gift, they also were not regulating the gifts properly.

He gives the example that some were speaking in tongues (which meant that they were speaking in real foreign languages that they had never studied and could not have known how to speak without God’s Spirit working in them), but they did not have an interpreter present to tell anyone what was being said. Modern day tongue speaking involves an unintelligible, meaningless gibberish that no one can interpret.

Also, many of them were speaking out of turn and, therefore, it was confusing because several people would be trying to talk at the same time.

In addition, during their worship services, the Christians were being loud and sometimes out of control in their exercise of these gifts. It was rather chaotic and so Paul gives them guidelines about how to use the gifts properly and reminds them, “Let all things be done decently and in order” (verse 40).

-Roger Hillis

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