Last week we discussed the Biblical understanding of prophecy and tongues and the benefits of practicing these gifts. Most churches in America today have structured their services on the gift of teaching and have forgotten or neglected these gifts in their services.
We will see that in the rest of the chapter, Paul describes what a typical church service should look like. You know I think I have always been an outlier as a child of the Church of Christ tradition. I was always taught that we should try to mimic and follow the examples of the New Testament church. And yet, at most Churches of Christ I feel the services are lacking key aspects of how the New Testament talks about services. Just like in Chapter 13 where most will skip over all the chapters except the one verse that says, “tongues and prophecy will cease” and use that phrase out of context, many do the same to this chapter. There are two phrases in this chapter that are similar anyone want to guess the phrases?: “But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.” and “Women should remain silent in the churches” These phrases have been used to create very formulated and structured worship service where every week you can basically expect the same thing, but with a different person and different songs. Where there is not much spontaneity like this chapter describes. It also has led to the church completely neglecting and stifling the gifts of the women in the church. We will talk about both of these things as we study to understand those phrases in context.
1 Corinthians 14:26 “What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.”
I think this verse shows us that everyone should be involved in the church service. It says “each of you”. It seems to be an expectation that everyone should be bringing something to the service. We all have spiritual gifts given to us to use and each of us have our own unique way of hearing God. As chapter 13 said, “we prophesy in part”. So since we are all part of the body, that means we are all here in this congregation getting a part of what God is saying and doing for this church. I can learn and understand something God wants to tell us because you each have a unique gift and way of proclaiming God’s word and testimony of things God is doing in your life. That is why I love that we do worship in the round here. I think it really mimics what this verse is talking about. Also, hopefully, we can get to the place of the next few verses.
1 Corinthians 14:27-28 “No more than two or three should speak in tongues. They must speak one at a time, and someone must interpret what they say. But if no one is present who can interpret, they must be silent in your church meeting and speak in tongues to God privately.”
I always found this verse interesting. We learned last week about tongues that most of the time it could sound like babbling. Where no one will understand it, even yourself. However, I think there are people with the gift of interpretation, yet they don’t know they even can because no one has spoken in tongues in front of them.
So how can you know if you have the gift of interpreting, if we never give room for tongues?
I think this verse tells us what to do in this case. Someone should try and then if no one understands what is said, that person would sit down and they should pray in tongues quietly to God. Remember that was one of the benefits to speaking in tongues from last week? That you could pray to God with your spirit. Sometimes, that means there won't be an interpreter and that is okay because you would be building up yourself spiritually.
The problem would come if someone kept speaking in tongues when it was obvious no one was getting an interpretation. It would probably be prideful if that person kept going and would be disrupting the service at that point. Or if the person kept doing it all at the same time throughout the service. Which seems to be what was going on in the Corinthian church. They had a lot of people doing it and everyone doing it at the same time which made it even more confusing. Because if an interpreter is trying to understand one of them and there are fifteen other people talking that would be distracting. Just as it would be if I am trying to talk right now and all of you were talking amongst yourself. That would not be an uplifting service for anyone.
The Corinthians must think highly of this gift and it seems they might have thought those who would speak in tongues were more spiritual. Paul as we learned last week is more concerned that the church be built up with any gift that is used. He doesn’t forbid speaking in tongues, but rather gives guidelines for it. He does the same thing with prophecy.
1 Corinthians 14:29-33 “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints” There are a few things to think about here:
1. That when anyone is speaking for the Lord, it is up to everyone else to judge whether what is being said is from God. One of the spiritual gifts is “discerning of spirits” . I know my wife has this gift. I was watching a video on YouTube of a false prophet over in Africa. It was like a reaction video from a Christian Youtuber showing the falsity of what was being said or taught. I remember my wife who wasn’t even listening to the video said she felt something off. She didn’t even hear what was being said, but she could feel that the spirit that was talking wasn’t God’s Spirit. Christians should be able to tell if someone is speaking from the Holy Spirit or not.
1 John 4:1 calls all Christians to do this: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
One of the best ways to weigh what someone is saying is whether or not it is supported with Scripture. If someone says something like, “God only likes white people”. I hope like me there will be alarm bells going off in your head. Saying wait a minute, I know the Bible doesn’t say that and actually says the opposite of that
2. The second thing this verse teaches and I have mentioned this before is that most churches have been trained probably because of the use of “do everything in order” at the end of this passage that we don’t think we should interrupt a preacher or shouldn’t stop service and change the plan if needed. But I think if our leaders have a problem with something someone is saying or God put something on someone’s heart something else that can build on top of what someone is saying then we should make room for that. That God doesn't want chaos, but there should be enough room for Him to break out and change the plans. 3. The third thing this verse teaches is that if someone has something to say, they should have self control. God will open the way when it is time to speak. Paul is saying here that if it is truly the Holy Spirit leading you, you won't have to try to force yourself into the service and you should be able to control yourself. If something comes over that makes you say or do something is more in line with demon’s controlling you.
This is similar to tongues. There is a misconception that God is going to take over your tongues and force you to speak in tongues. It can be controlled just like prophecy can.
1 Corinthians 14:34-38 “Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church. Or did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached? If anyone thinks they are a prophet or otherwise gifted by the Spirit, let them acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command. But if anyone ignores this, they will themselves be ignored.
There it is, the phrase that people take out of context. So what is the context where women should be silent in churches? Judging and weighing prophecies.
So to be logical this verse only applies to women that believe in prophecy and are inquiring or asking questions to their husbands during the service which could be distracting to others. The point of this verse isn’t to silence women, but instead this whole chapter has been about spiritual gifts and proper order and decency in service.
We also have to look at the broader context and literally the next verse to understand what this word “silence” really means
Have you noticed two other groups of people are to be silent in the churches?: Those that speak in tongues but there is no interpreter and those that have a prophecy, but are interrupted by someone else. So in context there are situations where people are to be silent or to stop talking in a service. It doesn’t mean to be silent at all times in every situation, just the ones being described in this chapter.
Also let's look at the next verse to really drive home the idea of women being “silent”:
1 Corinthians 14:39-40 “Therefore, my brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.”
Did you notice that? Who is encouraged to prophesy and speak in tongues in church services? Brothers AND sisters. That means sisters, you are called to eagerly desire to speak in church in the right context and with the right gift. We already saw that women in the Corinthian church were not completely silent in church services like some try to force upon women back from chapter 11, when it said women were praying and prophesying in services.
I think there are roles like judging prophecy and eldership that are gender specific, but speaking in a church service is expected and encouraged by Paul for New Testament believers.