Post by Gods will on Jul 20, 2006 4:32:43 GMT -5
In 14:26, Paul gave examples of various contributions each believer may make to the meeting: "a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation." In the verses that follow (27-40), he tells us how to incorporate these contributions into the meeting. Notice that the apostle does not give us an “order of worship.” Instead, he gives us principles and guidelines to follow which infuse freedom, spontaneity, and creativity into church meetings! Let's consider these guidelines.
Guideline One
The first guideline, in the last half of 14:26, is that “All of these [songs, teachings, etc.] must be done for the strengthening of the church.” Whatever is spoken in the meeting must edify, or strengthen, the church. Usually this entails speaking a positive and uplifting word, but a church may also ultimately be edified by a challenging word that produces sorrow and repentance.
Guideline Two
The second guideline is “If anyone speaks in a tongue, two–or at the most three–should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God” (14:27). Unfortunately, because tongues is one of the more spectacular gifts, in modern times we have just as great a tendency to get off balance with it as the Corinthians did in their day. Paul’s instructions are often ignored in several different ways, In some churches people speak publicly in tongues without an interpreter. In others, nearly everyone speaks publicly in tongues at once. Needless to say, this causes outsiders to think the church members are mentally unbalanced (1 Co 14:23)!
At the other extreme, in many churches speaking in tongues is not permitted at all, despite the fact that Paul makes allowance for it here, and despite the instruction he gave later in 14:39: “do not forbid speaking in tongues.” This is not to say that every church will have the gift of tongues, but according to verse 39, all churches should be open to its exercise according to Scripture. In fact, I know of a church composed mostly of cessationists (people who believe that the spiritual gifts of tongues and prophecy have ceased). Humbly recognizing that their belief in cessationism could be wrong, they say that they would permit a message in tongues to be spoken in their fellowship, out of fear of violating this clear command of scripture!
Guideline Three
A third guideline is that “Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said” (14:29). A prophecy, according to W.E. Vine’s Expository Dictionary, is “the speaking forth of the mind and counsel of God.” Thus prophecy is not limited to “foretelling;” it is more completely described as “forth telling.” Vine describes a prophet as having three primary characteristics: 1) the Spirit of God rests on him, 2) he converses with God, and 3) he is one from whom a message from God springs forth or is secretly disclosed.
The above verse should not be considered as a command that two or three prophets must speak, but rather as a command to allow two or three prophets to speak. Prophecy should not be forbidden, but we should “weigh carefully what is said” (14:29). Even when “thus saith the Lord” is attached to a message, we should not accept it unquestionably. God expects us to discern His Word from that which is not His, because false teaching and false prophecy are a real possibility. As 1 Th 5:19-21 tells us, “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good.”
Since the offices of teacher and prophet are treated as separate ministries in Eph 4:11, we should not consider teaching and prophecy to be the same thing. Teaching is usually based on learning and preparation; but prophecy is based on revelations of the Spirit. There is some overlap between the two, however, because 1 Co 14:31 tells us that instruction is one of the goals of prophecy. In fact, many of the spiritual gifts can overlap. A song, for instance, could teach doctrine, and an interpretation of a message in tongues could take the form of a prophecy. Likewise, a prophecy could take the form of a teaching, A good example of this is the prophecy given by King Lemuel’s mother to her son in Pr 31:1-31. Verse 1 refers to the passage as an oracle (lit., “burden,” a term often used in the OT to indicate a weighty message given by God), but it is written simply in the form of a mother teaching her son.
Peter wrote that “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God” (1 Pe 4:10-11). Every word that is spoken in a church meeting should be prompted by the Spirit of God and delivered in a manner befitting such an utterance. Note also that we are commanded to use whatever spiritual gift God has given us “to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace” (4:10). Spiritual gifts are not so much gifts to us as they are gifts to the body of Christ. Because of this, we would be harming the body of Christ if we denied others the opportunity to minister with their gifts! The beauty of a scriptural church meeting is that it gives God's people opportunities to do this.
Guideline Four
In 1 Co 14:30 we read the fourth guideline: “and if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop.” There are several observations that we can draw from this verse.
First of all, we should recognize that the apostle is speaking of prophecy here, not of teaching. Some have misunderstood this verse, and taken it to mean that it is OK to rudely interrupt a teacher while He is delivering a word of instruction. Some have even taken it to mean that it is OK to change the course of a teaching altogether, or to interrupt with an entirely unrelated teaching! That would be very unedifying, and is not at all what the apostle meant here.
This does not mean that we cannot add some insightful comments to a teaching when appropriate, but when it is done, it should be done in respectful and edifying way. Avoid interrupting the Holy Spirit's flow during a teaching. You may want to wait until a teacher asks questions, or invites others to comment on the scripture passage he is teaching from. Or you may raise your hand and wait to be acknowledged, or wait for an appropriate pause in the teaching. The word that is translated “revelation” (14:30) means “an unveiling of secrets given by the Spirit.” Granted, one form that a revelation may take is when the Spirit gives a sudden understanding of a Bible passage or a scriptural principle to someone in a church meeting, who then shares it to complement a message that is being spoken. However, since Paul limits the number of prophets who speak to two or three, we must not besiege a teacher with so many revelations to compliment his message that the poor man cannot get through it. That would also be very unedifying.
Here, however, the apostle is not speaking of adding something to a teaching, but of how the Holy Spirit may move one prophet to speak, and then another. When the Holy Spirit desires a second prophet to speak, He is finished speaking, or almost finished speaking, through the first prophet for the time being, who should stop and give the second a chance to speak as soon as it is appropriate.
Note, also, that our Lord does not want one prophet to dominate the meeting. Other prophets, if there are any, should be given opportunity to speak.
Following this, Paul makes a corollary statement: “For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged” (14:31). The prophets are to speak "in turn." One prophet must not interrupt another prophet so that two people are speaking at the same time. One rule that the apostle has made clear in this passage is that only one person should speak at a time. So even in the case of prophets, everything should be done in an orderly way. This obviously means that the second prophet should indicate to the first that he also has something to say, preferably by raising his hand or by some other silent signal.
Another principle evident here is that one person’s gift cannot meet the needs of everyone. If we want everyone to be instructed and encouraged, then everyone must be allowed to participate in his proper turn. This principle of mutual participation means that there should be spontaneity in our meetings. No church meeting should ever be so planned that we do not permit the Holy Spirit to surprise us. We must allow Him room to sovereignly lead! Spontaneity and the freedom for anyone to speak add an air of excitement and expectancy to worship. The Lord never intended that church meetings be a boring experience!
However, our Lord did intend that church meetings be orderly. If someone speaks out of turn, then those who are spiritually mature should seek to restore order as quickly and discreetly as possible. Talking out of turn is speaking when the Holy Spirit has not led, and includes being disruptive, domineering, disorderly, long winded, or teaching falsehoods. Related to this, the apostle next teaches us that God gives no one an uncontrollable urge to speak: “The spirits of the prophets are subject to the control of the prophets” (14:32). If a person disturbs an otherwise orderly and edifying church meeting, then the urge to do so does not come from God. As Paul continues in v 33, “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.”
A home meeting in New Testament times. Since the meetings were interactive and took place in homes, participants probably sat in a circle instead of rows.
Guideline Five
A fifth guideline for meetings is based on 14:33b-35, “As in all the congregations of the saints, women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be submissive, as the Law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.” I could devote an entire book to discussing these two verses, and in fact, I have written a short book on this! My primary purpose in writing this article, however, is to encourage participatory church meetings, and experience has taught me that a discussion of this controversial passage tends to stand out in people's minds so much, that it overshadows everything else! Therefore, I am going to refrain from discussing it in this article. Suffice it to say, that unless the meetings had been participatory, the women would have been less tempted to violate this guideline.
Guideline Six
The last guideline for church gatherings over-arches all else: “But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way” (14:40). Spontaneity in church is no excuse for disorder! However, neither is doing things in a “fitting and orderly way” an excuse for squelching the Holy Spirit with a pre-printed "order of worship". Although there is room for scheduled events now and then, the tenor of this passage makes it clear that “orderly” (14:40) spontaneity is to be the standard!
Notice also the complete lack of emphasis on church leaders in 1 Co 14. They simply did not dominate the meeting. Certainly the leaders spoke up if a violation of the order of 1 Co 14 occurred, but otherwise they participated just like everyone else. Did you notice the cavalier way Paul tossed in a “word of instruction” with all the other elements of the meeting (1 Co 14:26)? Preaching as we know it today - one prescheduled teaching delivered as an oratorical performance - simply was not the emphasis of an early church meeting. Since “everyone” could potentially teach at any given meeting, most of the teachings were obviously not pre-scheduled. Certainly those inclined to teach would often prepare ahead of time, but that is not the same as always having someone slated to teach in advance. That kind of rigidity simply is not “fitting” (14:40)!
Guideline One
The first guideline, in the last half of 14:26, is that “All of these [songs, teachings, etc.] must be done for the strengthening of the church.” Whatever is spoken in the meeting must edify, or strengthen, the church. Usually this entails speaking a positive and uplifting word, but a church may also ultimately be edified by a challenging word that produces sorrow and repentance.
Guideline Two
The second guideline is “If anyone speaks in a tongue, two–or at the most three–should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God” (14:27). Unfortunately, because tongues is one of the more spectacular gifts, in modern times we have just as great a tendency to get off balance with it as the Corinthians did in their day. Paul’s instructions are often ignored in several different ways, In some churches people speak publicly in tongues without an interpreter. In others, nearly everyone speaks publicly in tongues at once. Needless to say, this causes outsiders to think the church members are mentally unbalanced (1 Co 14:23)!
At the other extreme, in many churches speaking in tongues is not permitted at all, despite the fact that Paul makes allowance for it here, and despite the instruction he gave later in 14:39: “do not forbid speaking in tongues.” This is not to say that every church will have the gift of tongues, but according to verse 39, all churches should be open to its exercise according to Scripture. In fact, I know of a church composed mostly of cessationists (people who believe that the spiritual gifts of tongues and prophecy have ceased). Humbly recognizing that their belief in cessationism could be wrong, they say that they would permit a message in tongues to be spoken in their fellowship, out of fear of violating this clear command of scripture!
Guideline Three
A third guideline is that “Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said” (14:29). A prophecy, according to W.E. Vine’s Expository Dictionary, is “the speaking forth of the mind and counsel of God.” Thus prophecy is not limited to “foretelling;” it is more completely described as “forth telling.” Vine describes a prophet as having three primary characteristics: 1) the Spirit of God rests on him, 2) he converses with God, and 3) he is one from whom a message from God springs forth or is secretly disclosed.
The above verse should not be considered as a command that two or three prophets must speak, but rather as a command to allow two or three prophets to speak. Prophecy should not be forbidden, but we should “weigh carefully what is said” (14:29). Even when “thus saith the Lord” is attached to a message, we should not accept it unquestionably. God expects us to discern His Word from that which is not His, because false teaching and false prophecy are a real possibility. As 1 Th 5:19-21 tells us, “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good.”
Since the offices of teacher and prophet are treated as separate ministries in Eph 4:11, we should not consider teaching and prophecy to be the same thing. Teaching is usually based on learning and preparation; but prophecy is based on revelations of the Spirit. There is some overlap between the two, however, because 1 Co 14:31 tells us that instruction is one of the goals of prophecy. In fact, many of the spiritual gifts can overlap. A song, for instance, could teach doctrine, and an interpretation of a message in tongues could take the form of a prophecy. Likewise, a prophecy could take the form of a teaching, A good example of this is the prophecy given by King Lemuel’s mother to her son in Pr 31:1-31. Verse 1 refers to the passage as an oracle (lit., “burden,” a term often used in the OT to indicate a weighty message given by God), but it is written simply in the form of a mother teaching her son.
Peter wrote that “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God” (1 Pe 4:10-11). Every word that is spoken in a church meeting should be prompted by the Spirit of God and delivered in a manner befitting such an utterance. Note also that we are commanded to use whatever spiritual gift God has given us “to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace” (4:10). Spiritual gifts are not so much gifts to us as they are gifts to the body of Christ. Because of this, we would be harming the body of Christ if we denied others the opportunity to minister with their gifts! The beauty of a scriptural church meeting is that it gives God's people opportunities to do this.
Guideline Four
In 1 Co 14:30 we read the fourth guideline: “and if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop.” There are several observations that we can draw from this verse.
First of all, we should recognize that the apostle is speaking of prophecy here, not of teaching. Some have misunderstood this verse, and taken it to mean that it is OK to rudely interrupt a teacher while He is delivering a word of instruction. Some have even taken it to mean that it is OK to change the course of a teaching altogether, or to interrupt with an entirely unrelated teaching! That would be very unedifying, and is not at all what the apostle meant here.
This does not mean that we cannot add some insightful comments to a teaching when appropriate, but when it is done, it should be done in respectful and edifying way. Avoid interrupting the Holy Spirit's flow during a teaching. You may want to wait until a teacher asks questions, or invites others to comment on the scripture passage he is teaching from. Or you may raise your hand and wait to be acknowledged, or wait for an appropriate pause in the teaching. The word that is translated “revelation” (14:30) means “an unveiling of secrets given by the Spirit.” Granted, one form that a revelation may take is when the Spirit gives a sudden understanding of a Bible passage or a scriptural principle to someone in a church meeting, who then shares it to complement a message that is being spoken. However, since Paul limits the number of prophets who speak to two or three, we must not besiege a teacher with so many revelations to compliment his message that the poor man cannot get through it. That would also be very unedifying.
Here, however, the apostle is not speaking of adding something to a teaching, but of how the Holy Spirit may move one prophet to speak, and then another. When the Holy Spirit desires a second prophet to speak, He is finished speaking, or almost finished speaking, through the first prophet for the time being, who should stop and give the second a chance to speak as soon as it is appropriate.
Note, also, that our Lord does not want one prophet to dominate the meeting. Other prophets, if there are any, should be given opportunity to speak.
Following this, Paul makes a corollary statement: “For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged” (14:31). The prophets are to speak "in turn." One prophet must not interrupt another prophet so that two people are speaking at the same time. One rule that the apostle has made clear in this passage is that only one person should speak at a time. So even in the case of prophets, everything should be done in an orderly way. This obviously means that the second prophet should indicate to the first that he also has something to say, preferably by raising his hand or by some other silent signal.
Another principle evident here is that one person’s gift cannot meet the needs of everyone. If we want everyone to be instructed and encouraged, then everyone must be allowed to participate in his proper turn. This principle of mutual participation means that there should be spontaneity in our meetings. No church meeting should ever be so planned that we do not permit the Holy Spirit to surprise us. We must allow Him room to sovereignly lead! Spontaneity and the freedom for anyone to speak add an air of excitement and expectancy to worship. The Lord never intended that church meetings be a boring experience!
However, our Lord did intend that church meetings be orderly. If someone speaks out of turn, then those who are spiritually mature should seek to restore order as quickly and discreetly as possible. Talking out of turn is speaking when the Holy Spirit has not led, and includes being disruptive, domineering, disorderly, long winded, or teaching falsehoods. Related to this, the apostle next teaches us that God gives no one an uncontrollable urge to speak: “The spirits of the prophets are subject to the control of the prophets” (14:32). If a person disturbs an otherwise orderly and edifying church meeting, then the urge to do so does not come from God. As Paul continues in v 33, “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.”
A home meeting in New Testament times. Since the meetings were interactive and took place in homes, participants probably sat in a circle instead of rows.
Guideline Five
A fifth guideline for meetings is based on 14:33b-35, “As in all the congregations of the saints, women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be submissive, as the Law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.” I could devote an entire book to discussing these two verses, and in fact, I have written a short book on this! My primary purpose in writing this article, however, is to encourage participatory church meetings, and experience has taught me that a discussion of this controversial passage tends to stand out in people's minds so much, that it overshadows everything else! Therefore, I am going to refrain from discussing it in this article. Suffice it to say, that unless the meetings had been participatory, the women would have been less tempted to violate this guideline.
Guideline Six
The last guideline for church gatherings over-arches all else: “But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way” (14:40). Spontaneity in church is no excuse for disorder! However, neither is doing things in a “fitting and orderly way” an excuse for squelching the Holy Spirit with a pre-printed "order of worship". Although there is room for scheduled events now and then, the tenor of this passage makes it clear that “orderly” (14:40) spontaneity is to be the standard!
Notice also the complete lack of emphasis on church leaders in 1 Co 14. They simply did not dominate the meeting. Certainly the leaders spoke up if a violation of the order of 1 Co 14 occurred, but otherwise they participated just like everyone else. Did you notice the cavalier way Paul tossed in a “word of instruction” with all the other elements of the meeting (1 Co 14:26)? Preaching as we know it today - one prescheduled teaching delivered as an oratorical performance - simply was not the emphasis of an early church meeting. Since “everyone” could potentially teach at any given meeting, most of the teachings were obviously not pre-scheduled. Certainly those inclined to teach would often prepare ahead of time, but that is not the same as always having someone slated to teach in advance. That kind of rigidity simply is not “fitting” (14:40)!