1 Corinthians 14:1-25, Called to Clarity

Theological Proposition/Focus: God desires for his church to operate for the edification of the body, in unity, that the Gospel be proclaimed. 

Homiletical Proposition/Application: Because edification, unity, and the Gospel matter we must strive for clarity in all we do. 

Introduction:

Setting the Stage:

Last week we saw that love is indispensable. Paul has been speaking about the church and in particular spiritual gifting. Spiritual gifting is incredibly important but it is not of ultimate importance. In fact, spiritual gifting takes a back seat to love. 

Paul’s discussion of love in chapter 13 is one of the most beautiful passages in Scripture and love was central to Paul’s argument. Nevertheless, it was a digression from the main topic Paul is discussing, Spiritual gifts.

The Corinthians were perverting the use of Spiritual gifts and it appears from context that one of the biggest abuses was abuse of the gift of tongues. The Corinthians were fascinated by tongues. In fact, a strong argument can be made that the Corinthians had a major problem. “some of the Corinthian Christians brought aspects of their pagan background into their worship and theology .” Take a second and think about that. The emphasis on tongues was an emphasis that seems to be rooted in prior pagan practices. In order to make sense of this we need to understand that there are two ways in which tongues are used in the Bible.

In the books of Acts immediately following Pentecost people began hearing the preaching of the Apostles in their own native language. This phenomena is described in Acts 2 and an explicit reference to the tongues γλώσσῃ is made in Acts 2:4. In Acts 2 references to tongues are references to spoken languages. The other way in which tongues is used is of utterances which are not languages but sounds and babblings. This is where some incredibly important distinctions need to be made.

The city of Corinth was home to several temples to the god Apollo and the shrine at Delphi which was primarily a shrine for Apollo. Worship of Apollo involved oracles and a practice known as glossolalia. Worship in the greek mystery religions was often ecstatic in nature and involved activities such as gnashing one’s flesh, dancing nude in a frenzy, and speaking ecstatic utterances in an attempt to have communion with a saving deity. In short, the non-language version of tongues was a regular practice that was in practice before Christ and may have found its way into the church.

As we read through 1 Corinthians 14 I want you to notice that much of the language Paul uses is in fact conciliatory not commendatory. Paul does not come right out and condemn ecstatic speech. He instead builds an argument and puts up a very narrow fence for any who would bring this ecstatic speech into the church. Some of Paul’ statements may even be ironic if we read them carefully. For example, listen to me read 1 Corinthians 14:2 in two different tones

Read with awe and wonder -  For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit.

Read with scoff and appal -  For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit.

Now look at 1 Cor. 14:1 based on just that verse do you believe Paul wants his readers to look favorably on tongues or not? The problem with arguments on tongues is that we are looking at written word outside of context without the benefit of personally knowing the individual who wrote the letter or the individuals to whom the letter is written.

So what does this mean for us here and now? The gift of tongues is a divisive issue for churches but there are some guidelines we can apply. First, today we are not talking about actual languages but rather ecstatic speech. Second, tongues, as ecstatic speech, is dangerous. After all, it has its roots in the mystery religions. So what does Paul do? Paul lays down some important principles that we can study.

1) Tongues are dangerous (look at 12:1) 2) Therefore, care must be taken to distinguish an authentic gift of the Spirit from a counterfeit product of a mystery religion. 3) One way of checking authenticity is checking if Christ is glorified (that was what we talked about in chapter 12). 4) Another way of checking authenticity is checking if the gift has sufficient clarity to edify, bring unity, and declare the Gospel.

And that is the topic for today

Body

Clarity is important for edification (1-12).

Edification is the standard (1-5).

Paul begins chapter 14 with this statement “follow the way of love.” What cold Paul mean by this? Love drives us to consider others. Love drives us to look for the good of others. Love drives us to be be ocherish. Paul command for the Corinthians is for them to measure their views on Spiritual gifts against the backdrop of love. This was the whole point of 1 Corinthians 13. Paul is telling the Corinthians, “it is good for you to desire Spiritual gifts as long as your purpose is that you might show love.

In order to emphasize this Paul quickly exemplifies one such gift, prophecy. The gift of prophecy was a gift that allowed an individual to speak authoritatively on behalf of God. This gift was complementary to the apostles at a time when the Bible was incomplete. “Persons possessing the gift of prophecy shared with the apostles the privilege and responsibility of being channels of direct divine revelation .” As such the gift of prophecy was beyond all doubt a loving gift to exercise because it gave hope and answers to early Christians. The one who spoke for God could edify the body of Christ.

When we read 1 Corinthians 14:5 I wonder if we shouldn’t read it sort of like this. “I would love for everyone here today to have ice-cream three meals a day but that wouldn’t actually be helpful for any of us.”

Paul’s point, edification is the standard that we need to aspire to. For edification to occur we need clarity, we need intelligibility.

You see,

Intelligibility is an obvious need (6-9).

In verse 6 Paul creates a Greek Third Class conditional to propose a hypothetical situation. Paul in sort of asking the Corinthians to image if he had come to them and spoken in ecstatic tongues. How helpful would that have been he asks? Wouldn’t you rather receive some revelation, knowledge, prophecy or even just instruction? Paul is forming an argument in which he reminds them that he did come and when he came he provided some incredibly helpful instruction, but this instruction was only possible because he was clear, he was intelligible.

Image: Middle School Band Concerts

I love music and enjoy going to see some of our kids play in their concerts but I will let you in on a secret. The best thing about a middle school band concert is not the music, it is the people you are there to support. Sometimes Emily and I like to play the game, what tune was that!

When it comes to edification, clarity and intelligibility matter.

I enjoy studying foreign languages the sounds different languages make and emphasize are a lot of fun. Paul, in verses 10-12, makes a rather fun explanation in verses 10-12. He starts by talking about all sorts of different languages (φωνῶν). We might actually translate this as sounds. He then says that those sounds all do have a meaning. But if you don’t understand then meaning than you are a foreigner now this is the part where the fun comes in. The word that we translate as foreigner is the greek word βάρβαρος from which we get the word barbarian. Now the cool part of that word is that the etymology of barbarian is that the Greeks would say anyone who didn’t speak Greek sounded like they were just saying bar bar bar bar.

I think Paul is saying, there are all sorts of sounds, but if you can’t understand them then it just sounds silly.

So, what should you do? Make building up the church a priority.

Our priority should be the building up of the church (10-12).

Let me move from the subpoint directly into an action step.