TWO PRINCIPLES FOR USING SPIRITUAL GIFTS IN THE CHURCH
IN THE MORE EXCELLENT WAY OF LOVE (12:31):
Intelligibility for Edification
(Isaiah 28:7-13 p711)
1 Corinthians 14:1-25 (p1154)
What are your hopes /
aims when you come to church?
(What would you look for
if you had to choose a different church?)
Church life in Corinth:
divisions, selfishness, status etc.
Public worship – chapters 11-14
What are these gifts? Do they
continue today? Should we expect them?
Tongues / languages (Acts
2:4) – interpretation / translation?
Prophecy – Old Testament
and New Testament? – not adding to the Bible!
Imagine discovering one
half of a correspondence over problems with the bassoon section - and the
prominence of tongues in 1 Corithians
Why Paul prefers prophecy
over (uninterpreted / untranslated) tongues in public worship – v5-6, 18-19:
(1) The principle of intelligibility
(v9, 19): speak what can be understood – useful instruction – even to some
extent by the uninitiated person off the street (v16, 23-25) – engaging spirit
and mind (v14-15)
(2) For the sake of an
underlying aim: edification = building others up in the body in Christ
(v4-5, 12, 17) – their strengthening, encouragement and comfort (v3) not
puffing me up etc…
How do these principles
affect how we think of church life and how we can contribute to it (rather than
just what we might get out of it)?
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