Theological Commentary: Click Here
As we draw
near to the conclusion of 1 Corinthians, Paul continues his theme of
unity. In this chapter, he applies it to
the teaching in the community. Paul
tells people that while speaking in tongues is good, speaking words of prophesy
are better. Before we go too much
further, we need to remember what prophesy is to the Christian. Prophesy in the Bible is not predicting the
future. Prophesy is uttering a word of
teaching from the Lord intended to speak to another person.
Think about
why this is necessary. Isn’t it easy to
be impressed and amazed by someone who does something as foreign as speaking in
tongues? Human beings are easily impressed
by the exotic. At the same time, isn’t
it easy to overlook someone who is simply teaching and giving advice? How often do students in school tune out
their teachers, daydream, or simply not allow themselves to get caught up in
learning? Paul needs to give this lesson
because we allow ourselves to place more importance of the outwardly amazing
and undervalue the more mundane.
At the same
time, think about this in terms of unity.
What is more likely to bring unity, words that nobody can understand or
words that everybody can understand?
What is more likely to be misunderstood, an action that is difficult to
explain or an act that explains itself?
Paul knows that communal unity is built on concrete and timely teaching
from the Lord.
As for the
second half of this chapter, Paul extends this idea into our worship. Paul realizes that the best way to build a
community is to build an environment that is orderly and sets reasonable expectations. People want to know what to expect. People want to know that they can rely on
concrete and meaningful teaching. It isn’t
necessarily about giving people what they want; it is about giving people a
reliable and meaningful experience. That
will build unity in the community.
<><
No comments:
Post a Comment