Priorities



1 Corinthians 14:1-5
1Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. 2For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. 3On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. 4The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. 5Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.

Clearly, Spiritual Gifts are important and perhaps easily misunderstood. Paul now uses two of the gifts, prophecy and tongues, to illustrate the proper use of these gifts. And of course, riding over the top of this entire discussion is the admonition to do all things out of love. The words of R.C.H. Lenski serve us well here: “Gifts are the hands through which love serves.” Any discussion of spiritual gifts must begin and end with the motivation of love.

At either end of the edification spectrum, we find prophesy and tongues. Prophecy, which is the speaking of God’s Word or message of the Gospel, is at the top of the list as far as usefulness goes. Speaking in tongues would be at the bottom unless there is someone present who can tell the congregation what is being spoken, thus building up the entire body. That is fairly straight forward. It would appear that the gift of tongues was receiving an undue amount of attention in the Corinthian church and those who did not practice this gift were seen as wanting. This attitude certainly does not grow out of love.

Paul does not (in these verses or even in the rest of this chapter) deny that speaking in tongues exists and can be a part of the Christian walk. There are some in Christendom today who say that this gift died with the last Apostle (John). I’m not sure this chapter supports that view. But, I’m not here to set up a theological debate about something which the Scriptures make no clear pronouncement. You are free to believer either way and God can correct us all when we reach His throne. Suffice it to say, whichever gift you are expressing, if it is not done out of love, you’re doing it wrong. Tongues can easily shift from building up the body of believers to a sensational show, and love is not the motivation there.

The rest of chapter 14 discusses this issue, so the discussion will continue.

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