Thursday, November 24, 2016

1 Corinthians 14

1 Corinthians 14

Corinthians
Above image from:
https://www.insight.org/resources/bible/the-pauline-epistles/first-corinthians

Key verse: 14:1: Let love be your highest goal! ...

Key word: Strengthen (edify) - verses 3, 4, 5, 12, 17 and 26. I have capitalized the word in the verses to bring your attention to its frequent occurrence.

The Concordia Bible With Notes (1946) says: "It is plain from the present chapter that the Corinthians measured the worth of the several spiritual gifts not so much from their power to edify the church, as from their adeptness to strike the beholders with wonder.  For this reason they were ready to put the gift of speaking tongues above that of prophecy. This erroneous judgment the apostle now proceeds to correct."

(1) Let love be your highest goal! But you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives - ESPECIALLY the ability to PROPHESY.

  • Love is to control spiritual gifts - leading to edification, building up someone else.
  • Prophesy:
    • GotQuestions.Org: "The spiritual gift of prophecy is listed among the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:10 and Romans 12:6. The Greek word translated “prophesying” or “prophecy” in both passages properly means to “speak forth” or declare the divine will, to interpret the purposes of God, or to make known in any way the truth of God which is designed to influence people. Many people misunderstand the gift of prophecy to be the ability to predict the future. While knowing something about the future may sometimes have been an aspect of the gift of prophecy, it was primarily a gift of proclamation (“forth-telling”), not prediction (“fore-telling”).
      A pastor/preacher who declares the Bible can be considered a “prophesier” in that he is speaking forth the counsel of God. With the completion of the New Testament canon, prophesying changed from declaring new revelation to declaring the completed revelation God has already given. Jude 3 speaks of “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (emphasis added). In other words, the faith to which we hold has been settled forever, and it does not need the addition or refinement that comes from extra-biblical revelations.
      Also, note the transition from prophet to teacher in 2 Peter 2:1: “There were false prophets among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you” (emphasis added). Peter indicates that the Old Testament age had prophets, whereas the church will have teachers. The spiritual gift of prophecy, in the sense of receiving new revelations from God to be proclaimed to others, ceased with the completion of the Bible. During the time that prophecy was a revelatory gift, it was to be used for the edification, exhortation, and comfort of men (1 Corinthians 14:3). The modern gift of prophecy, which is really more akin to teaching, still declares the truth of God. What has changed is that the truth of God today has already been fully revealed in His Word, while, in the early church, it had not yet been fully revealed."
    • Micaiah defines of prophecy for us in 2 Chronicles 18:13: But Micaiah replied, “As surely as the Lord lives, I will say only what my God says.
    • Forms of the word for "prophesy" appear 13 times in this section. Beck's American Translation translates the idea as "speak God's Word" which brings out the meaning much better than to leave it at "prophecy".
    • It could be that what Paul calls prophesying is nothing more or less than a public reading of a portion of Scripture in the congregation, with or without comments on the text. The church in Corinth probably included many converted slaves and the poor, many of whom could not read. To have some in the church who could read the Old Testament and letters from the apostles and explain clearly what was read was certainly the Spirit’s gift to the church. Today, prophesying is basically the explaining and expounding of the Word of God and applying it to our lives.
    • Paul urged the Corinthians to value prophesying above speaking in tongues, because prophesying can edify believers and or lead to unbelievers' conversion
    • Ephesians 2:19-20 explains why there are no prophets giving direct revelation from God today: “So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself.”
      2 Peter l:19 gives another reason why we don’t have authoritative and inerrant prophets today. We don’t need them because, Peter says, “Because of that experience, we have even greater confidence in the message proclaimed by the prophets. You must pay close attention to what they wrote, for their words are like a lamp shining in a dark place...”
    • Romans 12:6-8: In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you.  If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.
    • 1 Corinthians 13:8: Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!
    • 1 Corinthians 12:28: Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church: first are apostles, second are prophets, third are teachers, then those who do miracles, those who have the gift of healing, those who can help others, those who have the gift of leadership, those who speak in unknown languages.
    • Ephesians 4:11: Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.
      • By the way, do you notice any significant differences between the verses in 1 Corinthians and Ephesians?

(2) For if you have the ability to speak in tongues, you will be talking only to God, since people won’t be able to understand you. You will be speaking by the power of the Spirit, but it will all be mysterious.

  • Tongues:
    • The word “tongues” here is the Greek word glossa and it is actually singular here, not plural. In this section of chapter 14, when Paul uses the word in the singular, he is talking about the false use of the gift. When he uses the word glossa in the plural he is talking about the legitimate expression of the gift of languages. Whenever we see people in the Scriptures pray, they pray in their everyday language. When Jesus prayed His high priestly prayer in John 17, He prayed in either Greek or Aramaic, He prayed in His everyday language. There is no indication anywhere in Scripture that one should pray in a special prayer language. The lack of the article in 1 Corinthians 14:2 indicates that it should be translated: “For one who speaks in an ecstatic utterance does not speak to men but to a god.” That is what the Corinthians were doing, they were speaking to their god as in the pagan mystery religions.
    • At Pentecost, Jews from around the empire heard the disciples praising God in their native languages - not unknown languages. This was a remarkable sign, not only to the unbelieving Gentile hearers, but also to the unbelieving Jews. Notice that the word “unknown” is italicized in many Bibles because it was not in the original text.
    • Turn to Paul's prison epistles written shortly after the end of the Book of Acts, while he was a prisoner in Rome and we find not one word about tongues. Even where we might have expected Paul to write of tongues in the passage about being “filled with the Spirit” in Ephesians 5:18, he has nothing to say about tongues or healings. The sign gifts were no longer operating at the time that Paul wrote the Prison Epistles. When Paul gives Timothy and Titus instructions regarding the choice of men to be elders in the churches, Paul says nothing about the desirability of these men having a gift such as prophecy, or healing or other sign gifts. The sign gifts, tongues, prophecy, the gift of healing, etc. were operating all through the Book of Acts, and these gifts are mentioned in the letters that Paul wrote during the Acts period. What Paul could do in Acts 28, he could no longer do in Philippians, or in 1 and 2 Timothy. He could heal all the sick on the island in Acts 28:9, but he couldn’t heal any of his closest co-workers - Timothy, Epaphroditus, Trophimus - after the close of the Book of Acts. With the close of Acts, God set aside Israel for a time and the sign gifts passed out of His program.
    • In Acts chapter 2, we have the first historic occurrence of the gift of tongues. What was spoken on the day of Pentecost? There is no question but that it was real languages: When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. ... and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! (Acts 2:6,8). From this passage we can formulate a definition of the Biblical gifts of tongues: The gift of tongues was the miraculous ability to speak a language which the speaker had never learned. It was miraculous because "the Holy Spirit gave them this ability." (verse 4) and apart from Him, it could never happen. It was a real language because they could hear them speaking in our own native languages" (verse 6). The speakers had never learned the languages which they were speaking: "How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, (verse 7).
    • To correct the tongue speaking excesses of the Corinthians, Paul laid out specific guidelines:
      • The value of tongues was in their being understood (1 Corinthians 14:6-20).
      • Tongues were a sign for unbelievers not believers (1 Corinthians 14:21-22).
      • Uncontrolled speaking in tongues would lead an unbeliever to conclude madmen comprised the church (1 Corinthians 14:23).
      • No more than two or three were to speak in tongues (1 Corinthians 14:27).
      • No one should speak in tongues unless someone was present to interpret what was said (1 Corinthians 14:28).
      • Women were forbidden to speak in tongues (1 Corinthians 14:34).
  • People won’t be able to understand you:
    • The carnal Corinthians using the counterfeit ecstatic speech of paganism were not interested in being understood, but in making a dramatic display.

(3) But one who prophesies STRENGTHENS others, encourages them, and comforts them.

  • Strengthens others (edification in the KJV):
    •  The Greek word is oikodomen, Strong's # G3889. Oiko means "house," and domen means "to build." The ultimate criterion for a gift of the Spirit is this: Does it build up the church?
    • Romans 14:19: So then, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up.
    • Romans 15:2: We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord.
    • 2 Corinthians 10:8: I may seem to be boasting too much about the authority given to us by the Lord. But our authority builds you up; it doesn’t tear you down. So I will not be ashamed of using my authority.
    • 2 Corinthians 12:19: Perhaps you think we’re saying these things just to defend ourselves. No, we tell you this as Christ’s servants, and with God as our witness. Everything we do, dear friends, is to strengthen you.
    • Ephesians 4:12: Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.
    • Ephesians 4:29: Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.
  • Encourages (exhortation in the KJV) Strong's Greek # 3874 paraklésis: a call by someone "close beside" - a legal advocate:
    • The related Greek word paraclete literally means "one called alongside," one of the titles of the Holy Spirit.
    • 1 Timothy 4:13: Until I get there, focus on reading the Scriptures to the church, encouraging the believers, and teaching them.
    • 2 Timothy 4:2: Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.
    • Titus 1:9: He must have a strong belief in the trustworthy message he was taught; then he will be able to encourage others with wholesome teaching and show those who oppose it where they are wrong.
    • Hebrews 10:25: And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
  • Comforts (Greek paramuthian - Strong's # 3889 - comforts, consoles):
    • Philippians 2:1: Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate?

(4-5) A person who speaks in tongues is STRENGTHENED personally, but one who speaks a word of prophecy STRENGTHENS the entire church. I wish you could all speak in tongues, but even more I wish you could all prophesy. For prophecy is greater than speaking in tongues, unless someone interprets what you are saying so that the whole church will be STRENGTHENED.

  • Prophecy is greater than ... tongues:
    • Paul is discouraging the use of tongues.
  • Interprets:
    • This shows that these "tongues" were an actual language, not just babbling.
  • Whole church:
    • When you read this, you probably picture a "church" like the one you might go to - a platform for the preacher, dozens to thousands in the pews, a beautiful expensive building, restrooms, Sunday school class rooms, maybe even a coffee station and TV monitors throughout the building, audio-visual equipment, a choir, full parking lot, maybe even satellite churches to which the message is simultaneously broadcast! Well, these "church" meetings to which Paul references were usually in someone's home with maybe 50 Gentiles and Jews or perhaps in a rented small hall, like the lecture hall of Tyrannus in Ephesus where Paul taught. And the speaker would not be wearing a turned-around collar or "priestly" clothes. In fact, if Paul walked into some of the "high-class" church services today, especially a roman or orthodox church, he might be confused thinking that somehow someone had merged Christianity, paganism and Judaism into a new religion - and he might be right. Unlike our present-day services, the church members were very involved in the service giving their own insights, revelations, encouragements, testimonies, speaking in tongues, etc., which could lead to confusion, chaos and abuse.

(6) Dear brothers and sisters, if I should come to you speaking in an unknown language, how would that help you? But if I bring you a revelation or some special knowledge or prophecy or teaching, that will be helpful.

  • Revelation: Strong's Greek # 602 apokalupsis - an unveiling or uncovering.
    • Spurgeon: “I have heard many fanatical persons say the Holy Spirit revealed this and that to them.  Now that is very generally revealed nonsense. The Holy Ghost does not reveal anything fresh now. He brings old things to our remembrance. ‘He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have told you,’ [John 14:26]. The canon of revelation is closed; there is no more to be added. God does not give a fresh revelation, but he rivets the old one. When it has been forgotten, and laid in the dusty chamber of our memory, he fetches it out and cleans the picture, but does not paint a new one. There are no new doctrines, but the old ones are often revived. It is not, I say, by any new revelation that the Spirit comforts. He does so by telling us old things over again; he brings a fresh lamp to manifest the treasures hidden in Scripture; he unlocks the strong chests in which the truth had long lain, and he points to secret chambers filled with untold riches; but he coins no more, for enough is done. Believer! There is enough in the Bible for thee to live upon for ever.”
    • So many false sects and false religions have arisen since the Scripture was closed by claiming "new revelations" - Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Islam and many others. Adding to the Scriptures and claiming additional revelations by the roman church led to its apostasy, requiring true believers to throw off the roman errors and rediscover the Word of God.

(7-9) Even lifeless instruments like the flute or the harp must play the notes clearly, or no one will recognize the melody. And if the bugler doesn’t sound a clear call, how will the soldiers know they are being called to battle? It’s the same for you. If you speak to people in words they don’t understand, how will they know what you are saying? You might as well be talking into empty space.

(10) There are many different languages in the world, and every language has meaning. 

  • Languages: Strong's Greek #5456 phóné - noise, voice, sound, tone. Occurs 139 times in the New Testament and nearly always is translated "voice":
    • Paul changes the Greek word here from glossa (tongues) to phóné (voices). 
    • According to Wycliffe Bible Translators, there are about 7000 languages on the earth. The New Testament is available in more than 1300 languages and the complete Bible is available in only about 550 languages.
      According to Mission Network News, "Wycliffe has been involved in completing more than 830 New Testaments and 35 complete Bibles, impacting 214 million people speaking 799 languages."
    • Genesis 11:1, 6-8: At one time all the people of the world spoke the same language and used the same words. ... “Come, let’s go down and confuse the people with different languages. Then they won’t be able to understand each other.” In that way, the Lord scattered them all over the world, and they stopped building the city. That is why the city was called Babel, because that is where the Lord confused the people with different languages. In this way he scattered them all over the world.
  • Meaning:
    • Legitimate languages all have meaning; they all communicate something.

(11) BUT if I don’t understand a language, I will be a foreigner to someone who speaks it, and the one who speaks it will be a foreigner to me. 

  • Understand a language:
    • The purpose of every language is to communicate, not to impress and certainly not to confuse, as the Corinthians had been doing with their counterfeits. That was clearly the point in the first instance of tongues: they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers, Acts 2:6. This section shows that the true gift of tongues was never some unintelligible gibberish, but was human language that was to be translated.

(12) And the same is true for you. Since you are so eager to have the special abilities the Spirit gives, seek those that will STRENGTHEN the whole church.

  • Strengthen the whole church:
    • The point is edification, spiritual growth, building up the believers in the faith and in Christ. Edification comes only through a study of the Word of God and the Word of God is what the Holy Spirit uses for edification. This is what Paul emphasizes in Acts 20:32 when he is addressing the Ephesian elders and says to them: “And now I entrust you to God and the message of his grace that is able to build you up and give you an inheritance with all those he has set apart for himself.” It is the Word of God’s grace which has the ability to build us up, to mature us spiritually so that we can advance to spiritual maturity.
    • Ephesians 4:11-12: Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.

(13) SO anyone who speaks in tongues should pray also for the ability to interpret what has been said.

  • SO: Because edification is the prime purpose of spiritual gifts.
  • Interpret:
    • Paul urges them that should only exercise the gift of tongues if they can also interpret what is being said - indicating again a known language.
    • I enjoy opera, but I neither speak nor understand Italian. So, I can only understand what is going on if there is an interpreter such as captions above the stage or on the screen.

(14-17) For if I pray in tongues, my spirit is praying, but I don’t understand what I am saying. Well then, what shall I do? I will pray in the spirit, and I will also pray in words I understand. I will sing in the spirit, and I will also sing in words I understand. For if you praise God only in the spirit, how can those who don’t understand you praise God along with you? How can they join you in giving thanks when they don’t understand what you are saying? You will be giving thanks very well, but it won’t STRENGTHEN the people who hear you.

(18-19) I thank God that I speak in tongues more than any of you. But IN A CHURCH MEETING I would rather speak five understandable words to help others than ten thousand words in an unknown language.

  • I speak in tongues:
    • That is a strong emphasis that raises the question, "When did the Apostle Paul speak in tongues?" In all of Paul's letters and in the descriptions of Paul's life in the Book of Acts, there is no record of Paul speaking in tongues publicly, although he had the gift of tongues. Paul, caught up to the third heaven, “heard unspeakable words.”

(20) Dear brothers and sisters, don’t be childish in your understanding of these things. Be innocent as babies when it comes to evil, but be mature in understanding matters of this kind.

  • Childish:
    • Eugene Peterson, in The Message, has the following paraphrase of this verse: “To be perfectly frank, I’m getting exasperated with your infantile thinking. How long before you grow up and use your head - your adult head? It’s all right to have a childlike unfamiliarity with evil; a simple no is all that’s needed there. But there’s far more to saying yes to something. Only mature and well-exercised intelligence can save you from falling into gullibility.”
  • Mature in understanding:
    • He is warning them not to assume that everything they hear is the true gift of tongues rather than gibberish. In the next two verses, Paul goes back to the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament, to the only prediction of tongues in the whole of the Bible.

(21) It is written in the Scriptures: “I will speak to my own people through strange languages and through the lips of foreigners. But even then, they will not listen to me,” says the Lord.

  • It is written:
    • Isaiah 28:11-12: So now God will have to speak to his people through foreign oppressors who speak a strange language! God has told his people, “Here is a place of rest; let the weary rest here. This is a place of quiet rest.” But they would not listen.
      • Fulfilled again in Acts 28:27-28: For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes - so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.’
    • Bishop Pearce paraphrases this verse as follows: "With the tongues of foreigners and with the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people; and yet, for all that, will they not hear me, saith the Lord." The Jewish people refused to listen to the prophets sent by God. But, they became so rebellious and disobedient that God abandoned them to the Assyrians, whose language they did not understand.
    • Paul quoted Isaiah’s words of warning of the judgment from Assyria. The leaders rejected him and his words. The time would come, the prophet said, when they would hear Assyrian, a language they could not understand, indicating judgment. Jeremiah spoke similarly of the Babylonians who were also to come and destroy Judah. When the apostles spoke at Pentecost in all those foreign languages, the Jews should have known the judgment prophesied and historically fulfilled first by the Assyrians and then by the Babylonian captivity was about to fall on them again for their rejection of Christ, including the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. as it had happened in 586 B.C. under Babylonian power.
    • In Isaiah 28, the Lord complained that His people had made His word into a bunch of rules. Like children who repeat a rhyme without knowing its meaning, they could no longer understand what He was really trying to tell them, which was that their disobedience would lead to judgment. So in verse 11 He said, in effect, “You don’t understand what I’m telling you when I speak in your own language. Therefore I’ll send your enemies against you and they’ll explain it to you in their language, but even then you will not understand.”

(22) So you see that speaking in tongues is a sign, not for believers, but for unbelievers. Prophecy, however, is for the benefit of believers, not unbelievers.

  • A sign: This is the only place in the New Testament where Paul tells us the purpose of the gift of tongues.

(23-24) Even so, if unbelievers or people who don’t understand these things come into your church meeting and hear EVERYONE speaking in an unknown language, they will think you are crazy. But if ALL of you are prophesying, and unbelievers or people who don’t understand these things come into your meeting, they will be convicted of sin and judged by what you say.

  • EVERYONE:
    • Evidently, everyone was speaking "unknown tongues" or gibberish at the same time - pure meaningless, useless chaos with people competing with each other as to who was best at it.
  • Unbelievers:
    • Paul was most likely thinking of unbelieving Gentiles who decided they would visit the Corinthian church and see what was going on there. They were willing to come and to listen to whatever the church had to offer - they were potential believers! Paul knew that the one thing potential believers need more than anything else is prophecy, an understanding of God's Word, not tongues.

(25) As they listen, their secret thoughts will be exposed, and they will fall to their knees and worship God, declaring, “God is truly here among you.”

  • Fall ... worship:
    • It was not the speaking in tongues that brought unbelievers to the Lord, but the preaching of Paul.

(26) Well, my brothers and sisters, let’s summarize. When you meet together, one will sing, another will teach, another will tell some special revelation God has given, one will speak in tongues, and another will interpret what is said. But everything that is done must STRENGTHEN all of you.

  • Summarize: This is the key verse for this chapter where Paul gives what the purpose should be of their meeting together - everything that is done must STRENGTHEN all of you.
  • When you meet together:
    • The last part of this chapter gives us a glimpse in how services in the early church meetings were conducted. It appears that no one person was particularly in charge; everyone present could participate either by singing a hymn, preaching a sermon, passing on a revelation, or speaking in tongues if there was interpretation. Paul does not use the word “prophecy” in this list, but instead he uses the Greek word didache, meaning “doctrine” or “instruction.” This further clarifies for us that prophecy in this context amounts to instruction.
    • The Wycliffe Bible Commentary gives the following introduction to this section: “Instruction for the exercise of the gifts is given here. The section is important because it is ‘the most intimate glimpse we have of the early church at worship’ ... What a contrast is found here with the formal and inflexible order of service that prevails in most of Christendom today! Barclay, in commenting upon this freedom and informality, points out two facts that emerge here. First, ‘Clearly the early church had no professional ministry’ ... Second, in the service itself ‘there was clearly no settled order at all’ ... The early believers did not come to the worship meeting to hear a sermon from one man or simply to receive; they came to give. Much has been lost by the renouncement of these privileges.” Some Brethren Churches still follow this kind of free style order of service, usually in combination with a communion service, but without speaking in tongues.
  • One will sing ... another will teach ... another - special revelation ... one speak in tongues ... another interpret:
    • The problem at Corinth was not that people were unprepared or that participation was inadequate. The problem was that all came ready to actively contribute and were determined to do so. Most, if not all, of the Corinthian saints may have participated, but the results were far from edifying. The principle of edification would serve as the standard for all that was spoken publicly in the meeting of the church.
    • David Guzik Commentary: "We can easily picture how this dynamic would work among the Corinthian Christians. They would, out of necessity, meet in small groups in different homes. There would be many “house churches” scattered all over the city of Corinth. As they would meet in these small groups, there would be a freedom, and a responsibility to not only receive but to give. So, one might give by reading or singing a psalm. Another might offer a word of teaching. Someone might pray in a tongue, along with an interpretation. Still someone else might have a revelation, a word from God’s heart and mind to the gathered church. In a small, home-fellowship type setting, this is how the church should work together. When more people are gathered together, this “everybody shares something with everyone else” becomes more difficult. Among ten people, ten can share something with all the other ten. But among thirty, or sixty, or a hundred people, there isn’t time to allow everyone to share something with everyone else. Plus, in a larger group, the “I want to feel important by talking to everybody” dynamic is much more present. It can be there among ten people, but how much more among a hundred people! This is why so many are blessed and find great spiritual growth through a home group, because it provides a perfect context for the “everyone shares something with everyone else” idea. The hunger for this has also led to the great growth of the home church or house church movement in our generation."
  • Everything that is done:
    • It seems more likely that, when the whole Church came together, among whom there were many persons with extraordinary gifts, each of them wished to put himself forward, and occupy the time and attention of the congregation: hence confusion must necessarily take place, and perhaps not a little contention. This was contrary to that edifying which was the intention of these gifts.
  • Strengthen: Have you seen the common thread which runs through verses 26-36? The most obvious thread is the theme of edification or strengthening.

(27-20) No more than two or three should speak in tongues. They must speak one at a time, and someone must interpret what they say. But if no one is present who can interpret, they must be silent in your church meeting and speak in tongues to God privately. Let two or three people prophesy, and let the others evaluate what is said. But if someone is prophesying and another person receives a revelation from the Lord, the one who is speaking must stop.

(31) In this way, all who prophesy will have a turn to speak, one after the other, so that everyone will learn and be encouraged.

  • Speak, one after the other:
    • There had been total confusion in their services. Someone had to ensure that order is maintained in the services. Whoever had the message that was the most edifying should be the one that was heard.

(32) Remember that people who prophesy are in control of their spirit and can take turns.

  • In control:
    • Unger has explained verse 32 as follows: "The prophet (or the speaker in tongues) when exercising his gift is not under an irresistible compulsion or force, so that he is unable to conform to common sense regulations and orderly conduct." - New Testament Teaching on Tongues.

(33) For God is not a God of disorder but of peace, as in all the meetings of God’s holy people.

  • Disorder ... peace:
    • The disorder, spoken of here, would come from some who would push their way into speaking out of turn interrupting others. The church at worship before God should reflect His character and nature because He is a God of peace and harmony, order and clarity, not strife and confusion.

(34) Women should be silent during the church meetings. It is not proper for them to speak. They should be submissive, just as the law says.

  • Women ... be silent:
    • In chapter 11, Paul clearly acknowledged that under certain situations a woman may pray or prophesy.
    • Paul instructed Timothy to teach the women to remain silent in Ephesus:
      • 1 Timothy 2:11-14: Women should learn quietly and submissively. I do not let women teach men or have authority over them. Let them listen quietly. For God made Adam first, and afterward he made Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived by Satan. The woman was deceived, and sin was the result.
    • The Adam Clarke’s Commentary comments as follows on the words women should be silent - "This was a Jewish ordinance; women were not permitted to teach in the assemblies, or even to ask questions. The rabbis taught that ‘a woman should know nothing but the use of her distaff.’ "
    • The word translated "silent" (Greek sige) means just that, namely, "to keep silent" or to hold one's tongue. However, in 11:5, Paul spoke as though women prophesying in the church was a common and acceptable practice. The best explanation of this apparent contradiction comes out of the context - Paul had just permitted others in the congregation to evaluate the comments that a prophet made (verse 29). Now he qualified this by saying the women should not do so vocally in the church meetings, as the men could.
  • Submissive:
    • The word “submissive” was a military term describing the chain of command. In this context, Paul commands women to respect the God-ordained authority of their husbands. A husband and wife could end up in an open, public disagreement as to the content of something taught at one of the meetings. This would damage the witness of the church to the culture around them.
  • The law:
    • Evidently, “the law” is not a reference to the Law of Moses but to rabbinic tradition - it is a direct quote from the Talmud, a Jewish commentary on the Old Testament.

(35) If they have any questions, they should ask their husbands at home, for it is improper for women to speak in church meetings.

  • Improper for women to speak:
    • In the Jewish synagogues, then and today, men and women sit apart. If a woman chattered or called out to her husband sitting far off, she would be dealt with severely. The Corinthian church may have adopted the same kind of seating arrangement, but with many women from Gentile backgrounds, they did not know how to conduct themselves at a church meeting. Paul is teaching them how.
      Galatians 3:28: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."
    • Paul did not have any problem with women ministering. We see in the following Scriptures, that Paul ministered with women as his assistants. We, also, know that Phillip's daughters preached or prophesied.
      • 2 Chronicles 34:22: So Hilkiah and the other men went to the New Quarter of Jerusalem to consult with the prophet Huldah. She was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, the keeper of the Temple wardrobe.
      • Acts 21:8-9: The next day we went on to Caesarea and stayed at the home of Philip the Evangelist, one of the seven men who had been chosen to distribute food. He had four unmarried daughters who had the gift of prophecy.
      • Acts 2:18: In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on my servants - men and women alike - and they will prophesy.
      • Philippians 4:3: And I ask you, my true partner, to help these two women, for they worked hard with me in telling others the Good News. They worked along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are written in the Book of Life.

(36-37) Or do you think God’s word originated with you Corinthians? Are you the only ones to whom it was given? If you claim to be a prophet or think you are spiritual, you should recognize that what I am saying is a command from the Lord himself.

  • Claim ... think:
    • While these saints thought of themselves as spiritual, Paul called them carnal. Many seemed to challenge Paul’s authority. For those who would resist Paul’s teaching, he informs them that their response to his teaching is a measure of their maturity and spirituality.

(38-4-) But if you do not recognize this, you yourself will not be recognized. So, my dear brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and don’t forbid speaking in tongues. BUT be sure that everything is done properly and in order.

  • Don't forbid:
    • A focus of this chapter has been to discourage the public use of tongues.
  • Properly and in order:
    • This verse implies that the Corinthians were doing things indecently and out of order! - 1 Timothy 3:15: if I am delayed, you will know how people must conduct themselves in the household of God. This is the church of the living God, which is the pillar and foundation of the truth.

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