Starting in chapter 11, Paul has been working through prescriptions for ordered worship. It starts with discussions of the Lord’s Supper, then moves into spiritual gifts, and then veers briefly into an examination of love – which should underpin all of this – before moving on to this chapter where he discusses prophecy.
Tongues are also mentioned, but primarily as a negative comparison. (Short version: if there is no interpreter, don’t do it.) The main point is how prophecy should be used in the service.
What is prophecy? It’s a spiritual gift of revelation given to all believers. It’s something that Paul cites as something we should pursue, and with vigor. Everyone in the church can and should prophesy.
Prophecy is below scripture in its authority. This is not the same as Old Testament prophecy that was specifically called out as the word of God, spoken with his authority, and canonized as scripture. In the New Testament, this particular role was filled by the apostles, while all of us are still called to prophecy, which must fit below the authority of scripture.It thus must be tested by scripture.
The purpose of prophecy in the church service is to build up the church, clearly stated by Paul in verse 26. This means that the classic foretelling of the future-type prophecy does not fall into this context and would not be appropriate within the context of the church service. (To say nothing of the vague imagery and numerology that are sometimes used in churches as essentially Christian fortune-telling.)
Order is a value here, and that order and organization springs from love. It is not loving to interrupt, to dominate the conversation or otherwise disrupt. There is a reason this part Congress right after the discussion of love in chapter 13.
The specifics of how this plays out may differ in different contexts. At Seed, we work hard to practice this by opening the floor for conversation, questions and discussion, and Paul’s instruction here is a big reason why we do that. It is not a particularly strange or spooky experience – just believers sharing what the Lord has put on our hearts and building each other up.
One objection to this practice is that people are going to say crazy things in church. But consider this – Paul was telling this to, easily, the most messed-up church described in the New Testament. If this instruction had been given to the Ephesians or Philippians or some other relatively healthy churches, this might be an argument. But it is clear that the Corinthians were going to say crazy things, and yet Paul still called them to prophesy.
A second objection is that it will be too weird for outsiders. But consider how weird the teaching of the church already is: an incarnated God-man who washes is in His blood? Paul calls it a “stumbling block” to those who don’t believe. Prophecy is a minor thing compared to this, and in fact can be used to draw people closer to God’s truth.
A third objection is basically tradition and what people are used to. We have inherited traditions that diverged from Paul’s teaching and the early church practice a long time ago. Many churches have worked to get back to it, but many haven’t. However, the spirit within each believer is crying out to share in this way, even if a particular congregation is not used to that particular structure.
A fourth argument is that a church is too big for this. But if your church is too big to follow scriptural instructions about prophecy, maybe it’s too big? Or perhaps you just need to be creative about making it work.
All of us are called to prophesy. Paul puts no restrictions on prophecy the way he does on other things. Experienced or new, old or young, male or female, everyone is specifically encouraged to seek this gift.
If you have been in a church where this is practiced, you will have seen first-hand the reason for this – regularly, you will hear a pastor say, after a sharing moment after a sermon, “you just said in 30 seconds what I spent the last 45 minutes saying, and did it worse than you did.”
As Paul says elsewhere, we are part of Christ’s body and each of us will be used by the Spirit in different ways to minister to and edify the church.
– Sermon Notes, Sean McGillivray, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA
1 Corinthians 14:1-33
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