Now Concerning Spiritual Gifts

Now Concerning Spiritual Gifts.  Except for one vague commendation, “[You] maintain the traditions” (1 Cor. 11:2), Paul rebuked the church at Corinth in many specific ways. Often marked by the phrase, “Now concerning,” Paul listed ten errant practices in the church. They were: [1] forming political factions (1:12), [2] suing each other (4:3), [3] failing to exercise church discipline (5:11), [4] engaging in unbiblical divorce practices (7:1), [5] steamrolling over other Christians’ consciences regarding eating meat sacrificed to idols (8:1), [6] disregarding gender roles (11:2), [7] abusing the Lord’s Supper (11:20), [8] misusing the spiritual gifts (12:1), [9] marginalizing the resurrection (15:1), and [10] waffling on their commitment to donate money for the persecuted saints struggling in Jerusalem (16:1). 

In terms of word count, the largest problem that Paul addressed at Corinth was their practice of spiritual gifts (12:1-14:40). In a nutshell, they were using the spiritual gifts to compete with one another instead of serving one another. In a word, they lacked love. The famous Love Chapter in the Bible (13:1-13) intentionally bridged the disconnect at Corinth from God’s overall concept of spiritual gifts in the body of Christ (12:1-31) with their exercise of spiritual gifts in the worship assembly (14:1-40). Paul urged them to follow “a more excellent way” (12:31) by abandoning their demonstrable immaturity (13:11): “Pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy” (14:1). Love governs spiritual gifts. 

The issue at Corinth was their faulty prioritization of the gifts. What was emphasized at Corinth for its wow-factor was the individual’s use of the gift of tongues (think: performing). But what should have been emphasized at Corinth for its growth-factor was the gift of prophecy (think: teaching). “The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church” (14:3). Building up oneself seems to be high-level satire by Paul, an oxymoron, since edification, by definition, is collective. By comparison, if not self-contradictory, edifying self is an immature motive for the assembled church where the explicit purpose for gathering is to edify one another (14:5). If not entirely sarcastic, “speaking into the air” (14:9) is definitively less valuable in the church than “speaking to people” (14:3).

Both were good gifts given by Christ, but prophecy was better for inside the Christian gathering than tongues. Tongues were better for outside the assembly in evangelism and missions because the gift of languages catalyzed the proclamation of the gospel among the nations. Prophecy offered everyone in the congregation increased clarity about God’s character and his will, without depending upon an interpreter (14:27). The gift of tongues got the people into the church through conversion. The gift of prophecy grew the people up in the church through discipleship. Such is the force behind Paul’s evaluation: “Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue” (14:19). “Let all things be done for building up” (14:26).