A while back my daughter ordered something through the mail, and when it arrived we found that it had to be assembled. Unfortunately the assembly instructions were in a foreign language that we did not know. We weren’t even sure what language it was. Because of the language barrier the instructions were useless to us. To be of any help, I needed to understand what was being said. The Apostle Paul makes a similar comment in today’s reading from I Corinthians, continuing his teachings on spiritual gifts, which we have looked at in the last two week’s New Testament readings. Let’s take a look at what Paul is teaching us here in this passage.
The Holy Spirit has given spiritual gifts to the Church, which is the body of all true believers. Each believer has been given at least one gift, which is to be used to help edify, or build up the Church (vs. 12). They are not given to shine a light upon ourselves or draw attention or glory to ourselves. Rather they are given to uplift and bring glory to Jesus, and help the church. One problem that the Apostle Paul was finding in the church in Corinth was that many there seemed to only seek and desire the more showy gifts. They seemed to forget the real purpose of these gifts. Rather than wishing to serve the body of believers and help spread the gospel of salvation, they were misusing their gifts. They were looking down on those who had less “spectacular” gifts, or they envied those who had such gifts, and this was causing divisions in that church.
The Corinthian church was greatly lacking in wisdom. Unfortunately they were not lacking in sin, which Paul addressed earlier in this epistle. In verse 20 Paul basically tells the Corinthians to grow up, start acting like mature believers. The behavior they were displaying was not becoming for men and women who had been believers for several years. He urged them to act like adults in wisdom and understanding. However in regards to sinful behavior, they could be like babes who were innocent and knew nothing about such practices.
Because the gift of tongues was so conspicuous and fascinating it appealed to the flesh, or carnal nature of the Corinthians. The devil has always been in the counterfeit business, both in the past and also today. Paul was warning the Corinthian church that Satan was counterfeiting some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit with false gifts, particularly false tongues, where some in the church, instead of utilizing the true gift, were only speaking ecstatic gibberish. This was a common occurance and practice in the pagan religions.
In our passage Paul appeals to them to put aside these emotions and desires of the flesh. He reminds them again, as he did in chapter 12, that the gifts of the Holy Spirit were for edification. Particularly regarding the gift of tongues, Paul stated that it would be better if he only spoke five words out loud in church meetings, but that they were words that people understood, rather than thousands of words that people couldn’t understand (vs. 19). What good are those words? How are those words helping anyone? How are they building up or edifying the church? They are only taking the spotlight off of Jesus and putting it upon themselves. If the speaker cannot understand what he is saying, what virtue is there in praying to or praising God without understanding? (vs. 14-17).
When we take a look at ourselves, do we wish to turn the spotlight on ourselves? In whatever work or ministry we have in our own local church, we should never be seeking to draw attention to ourselves, or feeling that our gift is so much better or more important than anyone else. The Holy Spirit gives His gifts to help build up others and point to Jesus, not to us. Another lesson from Paul’s passage today is that when we pray or when we sing hymns, are we conscious of what we are really saying or singing? Are we paying attention to the words we are singing? When we pray, is our mind somewhere else? If we are not paying attention, even though we are speaking our native language, it might as well be gibberish. Our Scripture today urges us to be conscious of what we are saying when we pray or praise God.
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