Dwell in the Word 1 Corinthians 14:1-40

Contemplate these questions as you dwell in 1 Corinthians 14:1-10:

1. What challenges and disorder in worship does Paul address in 1 Corinthians 14, and why does he emphasize the importance of edification and understanding in the context of communal worship?

2. How does Paul's instruction regarding the role of women in worship need to be understood in the broader context of the Corinthians' disorderly gatherings, and what is the overarching aim of Paul's directive?

3. Paul emphasizes the need for decency and order in worship, highlighting that God is a God of peace, not confusion. How can we apply this principle to our own worship and daily lives to ensure that our actions and conduct reflect the glory of God?

Transcript:

 As we look at this passage, we are reminded that things in the church in Corinth.  aren't good, and Paul is trying to shore up some real difficulties that they are having here. Now remember, before we got to the love chapter, he was talking about issues in the church regarding spiritual gifts. And so, now Paul has set up that love is the greatest thing to have, and now he's going to try and, uh, get some of this stuff lined out.

Now, obviously, what we can see from here is that there were issues with this order in worship.  People were coming together, doing all kinds of things, speaking in tongues, other languages. They weren't able to be interpreted, and they weren't able to know what was being said. And Paul is trying to get some of this disorder sorted out.

And we can see why. Because he comes down here and he says, Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than ten thousand words.  So Paul wants the words that are being spoken in worship and what is being done in worship to be edifying instead of just being unknown  and we have to understand that at this time  There were a lot of people who were doing these ecstatic utterances Not just in, in the Christian Church, but it also happened in, in pagan religion also.

There was, there was so much disorder that was going on. And so Paul is trying to get people to understand, you know, even if what is being said is from God, if people can't understand it, What's the point? And so, we have Paul saying that it's better to prophesy. Now, it's important that we remember that while the word prophesy in the New Testament does mean being able to predict the future, this wasn't just about people standing up and saying, I'm going to prophesy that next week Bob is going to have a kidney stone.

I know that's weird, but... First thing that came to my mind that wasn't the type of prophecy that necessarily was being talked about a prediction of the future to prophesy also means to say the word of the Lord to tell the truth of who God is so while there may have been People who could prophesy I we don't know the big point of prophecy in the New Testament is basically Preaching, essentially.

Proclaiming the Word of the Lord. And if you go back to the prophets in the Old Testament, many of you have heard me say this many times, but if you go back to the prophets of the Old Testament, there was not that much of future predicting going on, really. It was more speaking out in judgment of what was going on in Israel or in Judah, right?

Uh, they were proclaiming the word of the Lord. And yes, they did predict the future in many ways, but that wasn't the ultimate point of prophecy. And the same is the case here. And so, as we come through this, we see all these issues that spring up. Uh, there's problems in worship. He says in verse 26, What then, brothers, when you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation.

It seems like things are completely scattered about and Paul is very concerned that worship be good and in order. And so, we have to remember as we come to these, these passages about what should be going on in church.  Verse 33 is really important, for God is not a God of confusion but of peace. Paul is trying to sort out these worship services.

He's trying to sort out how they do church together so that there is not confusion. And that is where these comments that Paul has about women being silent in church comes from.  These are controversial. We understand that. We're not going to discuss too much about that, not because we don't want to take a stand on it, but because it's just, there have been so much discussion about this throughout the ages that you can't do it well in this type of format of a short video that, this one's going to be over 10 minutes, but for the most part, this would take a lot more discussion than that.

But we have to understand, regardless of what the interpretation is of this, the big point is, is that there's something going on in the churches that is causing confusion. And so, Paul is trying to shore that up. He's not, he's more than likely, and it's pretty much agreed to, regardless of how people view this, that, that this isn't saying that a woman shouldn't, shouldn't even open her mouth in church.

The idea here is that there was all this confusion. There was so much going on. And so, Paul is taking this And saying, whatever this issue is that's causing confusion, we need to shore this up because it's causing all kinds of issues.  And then we note, we see this, uh, down at the bottom of the chapter in verse 40, but all things should be done decently and in order.

That is the goal here. Now, why would that be? Why would that be? Because Paul wants the gospel to be proclaimed. Paul wants the church to be edified and taught. And so, in the midst of all of this stuff that is going on, whether it's, uh, you know, all these people coming in with different ideas and saying different things and not being able to understand some people, What Paul wants is things to be done decently in an order.

And so that's the big thing that we need to come away from this passage with. That, that we need, the reason we have order in worship is so that things don't go off the rails, that things don't go away to different ideas. Because when things go off the rails normally, it usually isn't pointing to Christ.

It's usually pointing to other minutiae of details. And so, we want to be focusing on who Christ is and what he has done. And that's the same for our life, right? To take this to more of a devotional point, right?  We want our lives to be in good order. Why? Because we want to be able to live to the glory of God.

If we're running around with, um, flying by the seat of our pants, it's difficult for us to live in such a way that we're able to glorify God. In the things that we do to be deliberate about sharing his word to be deliberate about growing in faith and so may we remember that God is a God of order? And so, may we order our lives?

May we order our worship that he might be glorified, and we might grow in faith in all that we do.