At the time of this writing, a little more than 20 years after the Day of Pentecost, the Church was beginning to develop beyond babyhood. The charismatic gifts of the Spirit had done the job they were intended to do: get the gospel distributed widely and quickly, throughout known civilization. Purpose: to evangelize the Jews in Gentile languages! Isaiah 28:11-12:
For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the Lord will speak to this people, to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”;
yet they would not hear.
That was the whole issue with the gift of tongues. God’s
people, Israel, had rejected His Messiah. He had always known they would, because
they were a rebellious people. This prophecy from Isaiah promised that they
would receive the gospel, but in foreign languages of nations where they had
been dispersed because of disobedience. These were the languages of the nations
to whom Israel was supposed to have witnessed! Strange, guttural languages. Not
their native Hebrew. This was God’s special irony. This people, whom He loved; who bore
His Name, would be the first to receive His message of salvation by grace, but
not in the manner they would have expected to hear it.
In chapters 12 and 13, Paul taught the Corinthians about the
gifts of the Spirit, their use in the assembly and which were the “best.” Since faith, hope and love would remain after the spectacular gifts phased out, those virtues should now be cultivated. Now the teaching and ministering gifts
would come to the forefront in their meetings.
Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he
may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my
mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit,
but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise
with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind
also. Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can
anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving
when he does not know what you are saying? For you may be giving
thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. I
thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless,
in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct
others, than ten thousand words in a tongue. I Corinthians 14:13-19
His implication in this passage (14:1-19) is that the
ecstatics accompanying the gift of tongues was something those who were so
gifted wanted to continue in, and others were desiring to receive. The time for
those gifts is ending, he said. There’s no one else here to whom those
languages communicate. If you’re speaking in a tongue, you are speaking only to
God. Since the one speaking couldn’t even understand his own words, it must
have been about the thrill. Paul said now let’s edify each other with prophecy
(teaching of Church doctrines).
Brothers, do not be children in
your thinking. Be infants in evil,
but in your thinking be mature. In the Law it is
written, “By people of strange
tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even
then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” Thus tongues are
a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for
believers. If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all
speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say
that you are out of your minds? But if all prophesy, and an
unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account
by all, the secrets of his
heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face,
he will worship God and declare that God is
really among you. I Corinthians 14:20-25
The time had come for the Church to speak in clearly
understood common language the truths of the Church. Tongues had been a sign to
unbelievers, to grab their attention with the truth about the perfect person
and finished work of Jesus Christ in their own language, so they couldn’t miss
the message. With clearly expressed prophecy, anyone coming into the meeting
can understand your words and is faced with the decision: believe and be saved,
or reject and perish. If he was saved but ignorant of spiritual truth, the
clear teaching of prophecy would set him straight on the doctrines he needed
for growth.
Paul wanted to encourage the Church to reorient their
thinking to the gifts which would be most conducive to the spiritual growth of
the whole congregation. He mentioned in verses 18-19 that he could speak in
tongues too, but if he was going to speak, he wanted it to benefit the hearers.
Else, what was the point? Verse 33: For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.
As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. I Corinthians 14:33-35
Women were not to be prominent in the Church. We saw in the teaching about head coverings (Chain of Command, June 17 2012, Chapter 11) that Paul insisted on certain decorum with the women in the congregation, if they were speaking. Now, in Chapter 14 he plainly states that the women should keep silent in the assembly. Most of us modern Christians don’t really get this, and I’ll concede it may have been a cultural taboo, but Paul was the apostle, therefore the authoritative spokesman for Jesus Christ. Because of the debauchery of the idol temples (including prostitution and female predominance) and the general decadence of the Gentile population, the most sensible and orderly manner of worship was to be practiced. Frankly, even in the rules of the Jewish temple, it seems pretty obvious that the women were a real distraction to the males in attendance. At least the Christian women were allowed to assemble WITH their men. Not so in Israel. These last few sentences express my own personal opinion, as an observer of human nature. I, personally, have no problem keeping silent in the congregation. God’s design is for the men to take spiritual leadership. Whether they do or not, that is the plan. We women need to respect that. A lot of men are only too willing to abdicate their responsibility.
Verse 40: But all things should be done decently and in order.
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