Key Verse: 25
“As the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”
In this week's passage from 1 Corinthians 14, we learn about gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches that God gives many gifts as an expression of his love. The ultimate gift of salvation, including forgiveness, spiritual restoration, and eternal life, is given to all Christians. In addition, God gives other special gifts to each person. Specifically, Paul contrasts two gifts, prophecy and tongues, in order to emphasize the importance of using our gifts to help people understand the Gospel and to build up the church. May God bless us as we study this passage that we may rejoice in his gifts and learn how to use them to glorify God and bless others.
First, God’s gifts are an expression of his love Let’s read verse 1 together, “1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.” Last week, we learned many things about love from Art’s message about the love of God. Especially, we learned that love is first a noun before it is a verb, meaning that the nature and power of love is God himself, only when we know God who is love can we carry out actions of love. Particularly, when I heard the words “love keeps no record of wrongs”, I thought of Nate Saint in the movie “End of the Spear”, who said “I’m your friend” to the tribal native who was spearing him to death, and more than this, he struggled to say it in the native’s own foreign language. The ultimate gift of God is salvation which is given to all Christians. The gift of salvation includes forgiveness because Jesus died on the cross for our sins. When our sins are forgiven God comes into our lives and heals our broken hearts. More than this, God’s gift of salvation is eternal, it is life forever with God which transcends even death. To say again, salvation is really the only gift of God that really matters. But as gospel centered Christians who are living in the gift of salvation, God gives other special gifts to each person.
In addition to the abilities, talents, skills, personalities, and many other gifts that God gives each person, there are also gifts of the Holy Spirit that God gives. These are gifts come only through the Holy Spirit, and they include apostles, prophecy, evangelists, ability to distinguish between spirits, wisdom, teaching, exhorting, working of miracles, healing, service, helping, leading, administrating, various kinds of tongues, interpretation of tongues, giving, faith, and mercy. We don’t have time to define all of them today. However, they can be categorized in several ways. There are emotional gifts such as tongues. There are intellectual gifts such as teaching. There are miraculous gifts such as healing, and ordinary gifts such as giving. There are noticeable gifts such as leading. There are less noticeable gifts such as service. There are so many different gifts, but they are all of equal importance. The important thing to remember is that all of these gifts are secondary to the gifts of salvation. We all need salvation, but God distributes other gifts as he pleases. Also, as Rhoel mentioned in our study of chapter 12, all of the gifts are for building up the church to worship God, they are not just for self-fulfillment or self-image. Thank God for giving us so many gifts. May we rejoice in his gifts and learn how to use them to glorify God and bless others.
Second, God’s gifts help people to understand the Gospel. Let’s read verses 2-5 together,“2 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. 3 But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort. 4 Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church. 5 I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be edified.”
Though God gives many different gifts, Paul highlights two gifts, prophecy and tongues, because the Corinthians were having issues about them. The word “prophecy” refers generally to speech that reports something that God spontaneously brings to mind or “reveals” to the speaker but which is spoken in merely human words, not words of God. Therefore it can have mistakes and must be tested or evaluated. Some Christians believe that it is very similar to the gifts of preaching or teaching. This gift is widely indicated throughout the NT churches. Prophecy is used to build up, encourage, and comfort the gathered community (1 Cor. 14:3). Prophecy is also used evangelistically to disclose the secrets of the hearts of unbelievers and lead them to worship God (ESV Study Bible). Prophecy is not just predicting the future, according to the popular definition, it is speaking to reveal the heart and mind of God about many topics. However, we must be careful not to equate prophecy with scripture. All scripture is prophecy, but not all prophecy is scripture. From a logical point of view, if every prophet who spoke every day for the last 2,000 years was added to the back of the Bible, the Bible would not be one book, it would be the largest library in the world, and people in other times or places would have an incomplete revelation of God. From a Biblical point of view, Rev.22:18-19 (NIV 1984) says, “18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. 19 And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.” This means that God curses people to claim to add or take away from the teachings of the Bible. Prophecy, therefore, is the ability to understand God’s mind and heart and apply it to daily life.
Tongues are defined as speech in a language the speaker does not know, or that does not follow the patterns of any known human language. Paul sees this gift as a means of expressing prayer or praise to God in which the speaker's human spirit is praying even though the speaker may not understand the meaning. The normally unintelligible nature of tongues makes their interpretation necessary if the community is to be edified by them.
One difference between Prophecy and Tongues is that Prophecy is based on something that God brings to the mind of the speaker, and thus is communication from God to man (v. 25, 30; cf. Acts 11:28; 21:4, 10–11), while tongues is prayer or praise from man to God (1 Cor. 14:2, 14–17, 28; Acts 10:46). Also, prophecy is more intellectual, whereas tongues are more emotional.
Paul probably placed the last two gifts at the end of the list because an overemphasis on tongues in Corinth had led to the neglect of those with other gifts (12:14–26). Bible-believing Christians disagree as to whether the miraculous gifts including tongues ceased after the apostolic age of the early church. Cessationists believe that God does not use these gifts anymore. Charasmatics believe that these spiritual gifts should continue to be practiced today. In either case, this disagreement about secondary matters should not hinder our unity in Christ.
Let’s read verses 14-19, “14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. 15 So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. 16 Otherwise when you are praising God in the Spirit, how can someone else, who is now put in the position of an inquirer, say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since they do not know what you are saying? 17 You are giving thanks well enough, but no one else is edified. 18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 19 But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.” Here Paul points out that the important thing about using God’s gifts is that they intelligibly reveal the Gospel of Christ. The Bible says that “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ.” If Christians are speaking in a way that cannot be understood by visitors, they are hindering the gospel message.
Let’s read verses 24-25,24 But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, 25 as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!” The important thing about God’s gifts is not whether they inspire our emotions, or whether they increase our knowledge. What really matters is that they reveal the presence of God. Christian worship is not merely self-help, or tradition, or community gathering. God is really among us. We come to meet God. We come to listen to him and to sing and pray to him. But most importantly, we come to be with him and know that he is with us.
Third, God’s gifts are for building up the church 26 What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up. 27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. Paul mentions edifying or building up the church four times in this chapter. The Corinthians treated some gifts as more important than others. This fueled their rivalry and competition. But God’s gifts are not for personal gain. They are for building up the church. No one should think that their gift is better than other’s gifts. No one should think that they have no gifts or that their gift is unimportant. It is necessary for each of us to recognize which gifts God has given us, so that we may use them to build up the church. It is encouraging that each Christian has something to contribute to the worship service and the Christian community. Some have a hymn or song like our praise band. Some have a word of instruction like our messengers. Some have a testimony. Some cook lunch. Some help set up chairs. Some welcome visitors. Some help with the Power-point projector. Some teach and counsel others. And more. Have you discovered your gift? Praise God for it, and think about how you can use it to build up the church.
Today we learned about gifts of the Holy Spirit. God gives us many gifts as an expression of his love. God gives other special gifts to each person. Specifically, Paul contrasts two gifts, prophecy and tongues, in order to compare gifts to God and from God, emotional and intellectual gifts, miraculous and ordinary gifts, noticeable gifts and unnoticeable gifts. Paul emphasizes the importance of using our gifts to help people understand the Gospel and to build up the church, rather than using them only for ourselves. Most of all, thank God for the most important gift of the saving grace of Jesus. The gift of salvation, including forgiveness, spiritual restoration, and eternal life, is given to all Christians. May God bless us to rejoice in his gifts and learn how to use them to glorify God and bless others.
