Decently and in Order: Part 1 (1 Corinthians 14:26-40)

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There are three groups – the tongue-speakers, prophets, and women (wives of the prophets?). We will look at the gender issue next time.

  1. Build up others in a spirit of peace and order
      1. We are to seek the building up of the church – 14:26 (‘building up’ in ESV; ‘edification’ in NKJV; ‘the strengthening of the church’ in the NIV). Paul has repeatedly made this point – 12:7; 14:2-4.
      2. We are to pursue what makes for peace and order – 14:33a, 40. In Virgil’s The Aeneid there is a description of the priestess Sibyl: ‘her bursting heart was wild and mad.’ That is pagan worship.
    • Spurgeon prayed that the Lord would ‘send us a season of glorious disorder’. But not a frenzy, like whirling dervishes. Rom.14:19.
    • 14:32. Jeremiah 20:9 is speaking of commitment to God’s truth.
  2. Follow orderly rules for worship.
      1. only two or three are to speak so as to be understood – 14:27, 29. There were prophets in the New Testament church – Acts 13:1. They were subject to the apostles. Korean churches often gather early in the morning, and all pray at once. It is somewhat off-putting.
      2. each in turn – 14:27, 29-31. A hubbub is not what God wants.
      3. it must be interpreted and evaluated – 14:27-28, 29; Deut.18:20-22; Acts 17:11; 1 Thess.5:19-20; 1 John 4:1.
  3. We are to recognise Paul’s apostolic authority.
    • we will look at the role of women in a few weeks. For now, let us confine ourselves to one point, that of apostolic authority – 14:37-38; 1 Thess.2:13.
    • 14:39. ‘Be much in the main things,’ was a Puritan maxim.