Today’s New Testament Scripture comes from a passage in St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthian Church which has caused some disagreements among some different denominations. This is the practice of speaking in tongues. There are some denominations where speaking in tongues is an important part of their worship, such as various Pentecostal churches, and it is openly done in the church service. There are other denominations who take a more restrained approach, where it is not done openly in the church services, but some practice it privately. Then there are others where it is taught that the gift of tongues stopped during the days of the Apostles and New Testament, and that is no longer, or should no longer, be practiced. My message today is not to stir up any controversy as to who is right and who is wrong, whether tongues are for today or not. Paul had an important message for the Corinthians in this passage, which is found in the opening verse.
The Christians in the Church of Corinth were a competitive group. Many of the believers there seemed to be in some type of competition among themselves as to who had the most important gifts, and who was more important to the church. They also seemed to greatly desire the more “showy” gifts, and the gift of tongues was certainly one of those, and so many wanted to be known as one who frequently spoke in tongues.
It seems that sometimes the church services were plagued with disorder, as a number of people would be speaking in tongues, and without someone with the gift of interpreting tongues, there was major confusion (I Corinthians 14:26-33). The Apostle Paul taught in our Scripture passage that if one openly speaks in tongues in the church, to make sure there is someone present to interpret, otherwise what spiritual benefit is it to anyone else? (vs. 13-17). He taught that our spiritual gifts should be used to help and edify other believers (vs. 12, 17). This admonition holds not only for the gift of speaking in tongues, but should be applied to any other gifts of the Spirit that we have, and anything we do in our local church.
Many of the folks in Corinth were speaking openly in tongues at the church services because they felt it made them look extra spiritual to others. They felt that other Christians would look at them as “super-Christians” because they had that spiritual gift. But what were they doing to help others, which Paul said was most important? We should examine our hearts, and take a look at our true motives in what we are doing for the church.
Do we have the gift of preaching or teaching? If so, are we chiefly focused on instructing others in God’s Word or are we overly proud of our intellectual ability? Maybe our mind is more focused on writing the next spiritual bestseller, or wanting the prestige of being asked to lead a big mega-church and possibly having a TV show.
There are others who have the gift of performing music, perhaps either playing an instrument, or maybe being a good singer. Again, what is our motive in being part of the worship team or choir in our church? Is it to be seen up front performing? Are we looking for the applause and compliments about how great a musician we are? Are we secretly hoping some music scout might be in attendance who will pick us for some Christian music contract?
The Apostle Paul said that our chief focus above anything else should be to edify and help build up our fellow believers. This should be the case whether we teach children or adults, preach, work in the music ministry, the prayer ministry, or wherever we serve. Are we seeking to build up our fellow believers and the Church, or to puff up ourselves? No matter what we do, our only goal should be to lead others to the Lord Jesus Christ, and then building them up in the faith.
No comments:
Post a Comment