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Earlier, Paul had described what the Spirit does in us - the gifts the Spirit provides us, and how the Spirit unifies the body.
But today, as we open chapter 14, we see what we are to do in the Spirit.
We’ve seen the Spirit’s Power and Purpose is to build, unify, and draw the church to Christ.
However, how we utilize the gifts of the Spirit greatly matter.
Thesis: We must not waste the power and purpose the Spirit has given us.
Intro:
This is one of those chapters we want to definitely want to make sure we get right, that we understand exactly what Paul is doing because it is so easy to deviate from the path he is paving for us.
I always want to make sure I’m clear and thorough in my preaching, but even more so on this topic - tongues, prophecy, the gifts of the Spirit - we’re Pentecostal, it’s sort of “our thing”, right?
So I want to be able to make it well understood and comprehendible, and something that each of you can take as you go and say, “This is why we believe what we believe about these things.”
Because, if we can’t explain what we believe, or why we believe it, why should anyone care that we believe it?
And what we believe about the Holy Spirit matters, because we want to operate in the power of the Holy Spirit, and in the Purpose of the Holy Spirit.
But if we are going to operate in the Gifts of the Spirit, we must practice consistency, proceed with caution, and pray for clarity.
In the Spirit We Practice Consistency
I said this last week, but I’ll say it again - the gifts must be desired with love as our motivation.
Paul ends chapter 12, if you remember, by saying “But earnestly desire the higher gifts”.
(1 Corinthians 12:31)
And if you remember, in the Greek and in context, if we were to truly read that, it would sound more like, “But you all desire the higher gifts for the wrong reason”, but Paul gives hope.
He said, “And I will show you a still more excellent way.”
And that more excellent way is love.
1 Corinthians 13 is the “love” chapter, it’s read at weddings and quoted in movies, and we did a whole series on it a year or two ago.
It’s a beautiful chapter of Scripture and worth the study.
It defines what love is, and what it is not, what it does, and does not do...
Since most of us are already familiar with it, we’re diving into chapter 14 from chapter 12 for the purposes of this series, but it’s still central.
Love is the thing we’re told to pursue.
It’s the key to unlocking so much of the gift’s power and purpose.
The word Paul uses here for pursue is “diokete” (Διώκετε) and it means to chase with intensity.
To almost violently run after someone.
It’s like a scene from a James Bond film where he’s going after the bad guy through all the streets, jumping over motorcycles, through glass, that sort of thing.
Paul says we are to pursue love like that!
Not recklessly, but relentlessly.
Without love what do the gifts even matter? 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
Love is the core, that’s the foundation, that’s where we must start from.
THEN, Paul instructs us to desire earnestly spiritual gifts.
Not the “higher gifts”, either, the “spiritual gifts”.
In fact, Paul again uses the words initially used by the Corinthian Christians who wrote to him about these matters to begin with, he called them, pneumatika (πνευματικά), the gifts of the Spirit.
He does not refer to them as the “charismata” here, the gracious gifts, likely because Paul is emphasizing the fact they are given by the Spirit, even though He is telling them to pursue them.
The desire for them, in this context, is in reference to their use collectively and faithfully in the service of the Spirit - it is not a personal yearning to have something you didn’t possess before hand.
Again, Paul condemns using the gifts as a way of being higher than others.
The church should want the gifts and to exercise the gifts in a way that will benefit the church, not in a way that propels an individual to some sort of stardom or spotlight.
Then Paul says “but especially that you prophecy”.
Well, what is prophecy?
It’s just having dreams and visions and knowing the future, right?
No.
It’s just knowing things, like what’s being whispered in the king’s bedroom, like Elisha back in 2 Kings 6 (verse 12), right?
No.
The word Paul uses here is “prophetenete”, (προφητεύητε), and it’s a word that means to “speak an inspired message”, and typically it is a message meant to encourage obedience to God.
Now, it may be a warning or a message to prepare for a future event, but it ultimately is meant to keep us in continued obedience.
So if Paul has his way, his preference would be not that we all speak loudly in tongues, but that we “prophecy”.
Why?
He tells us.
This is where tongues starts to get confusing for people, so let’s try to understand it.
The Spirit gives the gifts, we established that in chapter 12, verses 7 through 11.
But now Paul says when a person speaks in a tongue, he’s not speaking to men but to God.
Nobody is going to understand him, he’s uttering mysteries in the Spirit.
We do know the Spirit plays a role in intercessory prayer:
But the speaker does not know what’s being said, necessarily, and neither does anyone else around him, only God.
We will see this later in verse 14
So this sort of prayer is not for everyone else, it’s for the speaker whose spirit is communicating with God’s spirit.
We see this also commanded in Jude 1:20
What Paul is likely trying to make them understand is that not all tongues are for public declarations, some are for their personal prayer, similar to what Jude is referencing.
Paul did mention various kinds of tongues, back in chapter 12, verse 10 (1 Corinthians 12:10) when listing out the gifts of the Spirit - so both are possible here.
But likely, while Paul is mentioning praying in tongues, what he is preferring the Corinthian church do is prophecy, or give an utterance in a tongue that is interpreted and treated as though it were a prophecy.
Let me explain: Tongues can be a form of prophecy.
In Acts 2, Peter makes it clear that while the people were speaking in tongues, they were also able to “prophecy”, but we don’t see anywhere where an individual actually does prophecy on the day of Pentecost.
Still, Peter gets up, quoting the prophet Joel, he says,
Acts 2:14–17 (ESV)
But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words.
For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.
But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:
“ ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;
And Paul is in agreement with this as we will see as we go on:
We don’t often think of a message in tongues as a prophecy, but when it is interpreted, it can be.
Again, at its core, what is prophecy but an inspired message given to direct obedience to God?
And tongues are tied closely to prophecy - as we also know at some point in the future they will both cease:
So while we have these gifts, we must practice consistency in how we use them, and we use them in love, and we use them in the right arena.
If you have a prayer language, and you decided to just start blurting out your tongues, and there’s no interpretation, well then you’re operating in that wrongly.
However, if you have the gift of tongues, and are given an utterance for the whole church, then an interpretation must occur, because then it is prophetic in nature, and it should be weighed and understood.
The Spirit empowers us for the building up of the church with these gifts, but if they are not done decently and in order (as Paul instructs later in this chapter), then they are not used consistently.
And they are likely not done in love, because when we love others we want the gifts to be effective for building others up - that’s their core purpose.
and then Paul ties this all together in verse 5
Paul just spent - and we spent two weeks reading - chapter 12 telling us how nobody is greater than another within the church, right?
yet here in verse 5, he says, “The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues”.
Why, then, does he contradict himself?
He doesn’t.
Paul is saying the one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues without an interpretation.
He said, “unless someone interprets”.
Because the person who does not have an interpretation is just wasting air.
It does nothing for the church body.
It may make them feel good, it might make them feel spiritual, but it isn’t building up anything but their own ego.
Again, to be clear, this would be a message in tongues, not a personal, quiet prayer for the benefit of ones self.
But that’s why Paul says the one who prophesies is greater - because they’re actually doing something for the building up of the church.
So we see, in the Spirit we must practice consistency with these things, or we waste the power and purpose of the gift He has given.
In the Spirit We Proceed with Caution
The obvious answer to Paul’s question is, “You would be no benefit.”
Because without an interpretation, nobody’s going to understand you anyway.
In the Greek, Paul actually begins by saying “brothers and sisters”, the word for brothers would be gender-neutral, and uses a small conjunction “ain” (ἐὰν) which is normally translated “if”.
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