1 Corinthians 14:20-25 ~ 20150308 ~ Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org
03/08 1 Corinthians 14:20-25 Caring for the Outsider; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20150308_1cor14_20-25.mp3
20 Ἀδελφοί, μὴ παιδία γίνεσθε ταῖς φρεσίν, ἀλλὰ τῇ κακίᾳ νηπιάζετε, ταῖς δὲ φρεσὶν τέλειοι γίνεσθε. 21 ἐν τῷ νόμῳ γέγραπται ὅτι Ἐν ἑτερογλώσσοις καὶ ἐν χείλεσιν ἑτέρων λαλήσω τῷ λαῷ τούτῳ, καὶ οὐδ’ οὕτως εἰσακούσονταί μου, λέγει κύριος. 22 ὥστε αἱ γλῶσσαι εἰς σημεῖόν εἰσιν οὐ τοῖς πιστεύουσιν ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἀπίστοις, ἡ δὲ προφητεία οὐ τοῖς ἀπίστοις ἀλλὰ τοῖς πιστεύουσιν. 23 ἐὰν οὖν συνέλθῃ ἡ ἐκκλησία ὅλη ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ καὶ πάντες λαλῶσιν γλώσσαις, εἰσέλθωσιν δὲ ἰδιῶται ἢ ἄπιστοι, οὐκ ἐροῦσιν ὅτι μαίνεσθε; 24 ἐὰν δὲ πάντες προφητεύωσιν, εἰσέλθῃ δέ τις ἄπιστος ἢ ἰδιώτης, ἐλέγχεται ὑπὸ πάντων, ἀνακρίνεται ὑπὸ πάντων, 25 τὰ κρυπτὰ τῆς καρδίας αὐτοῦ φανερὰ γίνεται, καὶ οὕτως πεσὼν ἐπὶ πρόσωπον προσκυνήσει τῷ θεῷ, ἀπαγγέλλων ὅτι Ὄντως ὁ θεὸς ἐν ὑμῖν ἐστιν.
1 Corinthians 14:20 Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. 21 In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” 22 Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. 23 If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? 24 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, 25 the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
Paul holds up love as the thing to be pursued by the follower of Jesus, especially in the context of the local church. Love, which seeks the good of the other, will be zealous for gifts of the Spirit, particularly those gifts that are useful to build up other believers. The Corinthians, it seems, were eager for spiritual gifts, especially those that would draw attention to themselves, those that demonstrated that they were more spiritual than others. Paul contrasts two speaking gifts, prophecy and tongues, highlighting the advantages of prophecy over tongues. While tongues is understood by no one but God, prophecy is addressed to people for their edification and encouragement and consolation. While tongues builds up no one but the speaker, prophecy builds up the church. The goal of love is to be a benefit to the other person. Uninterpreted tongues fail to communicate, but instead create confusion. Tongues erect boundaries and alienate others, making them feel like outsiders. Tongues do not even benefit the speaker as much as prophecy, because the spirit of the one who prays or sings or gives thanks in a tongue is engaged but his mind is unfruitful. The goal of gathering as the church is to benefit others, to build up others, to instruct others.
Paul continues this argument in verses 20-25 with an admonition to maturity, a reference to the meaning of tongues in the Old Testament, and the impact of prophecy contrasted with tongues on a visitor.
Mature Thinking
1 Corinthians 14:20 Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.
Paul is eager for the church to grow up. He has said that:
1 Corinthians 14:14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. 15 What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.
...19 Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.
He is likening their fascination with tongues to immature behavior. Frederic Godet, in 1889 wrote “it is indeed the characteristic of the child to prefer the amusing to the useful, the brilliant to the solid.” (p.715). The Corinthians were fascinated with all that is sensational and sparkling. They waved around their gift as if to show how spiritually advanced they were. Paul tells them that their behavior is far from impressive; it is infantile. Back in chapter 3, where he rebuked their jealousy and strife, holding up their favorite celebrity one against another, he said:
1 Corinthians 3:1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,
He called them infants who need a bottle. In chapter 13, he said:
1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
Children babble incessantly just to hear the sound of their own voices. They make incoherent noises just to fill the silence and be heard. Paul contrasts this with mature behavior, speaking that communicates. He wants the mind to be engaged, not just the lips. He wants the mind to be fruitful. What does it mean to have a mind that is fruitful? Could he be referring to the fruit of the Spirit which is love, creatively implementing gifts and abilities in sacrificial service to others? We are to love God with all our emotions, with all our will, and with all our mind. Our worship of God is meant to be both passionate and intelligent. Paul uses a present imperative here; 'stop being children in mind'. It is a rebuke that they are to change their present way of thinking.
Children are intensely self-focused. They centered on their own needs, wants, desires. They often demand to be the center of attention. They perform for the praise and applause of people. Paul wants them to grow up to maturity. Start thinking about someone other than yourself. If they are going to be childlike, it ought to be immaturity and inexperience in evil.
Tongues in the Old Testament
Next, he fortifies his insistence that uninterpreted tongues should not be a part of the worship gathering by a reference to tongues in the Old Testament.
1 Corinthians 14:21 In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” 22 Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers.
Paul is quoting Isaiah 28. Isaiah prophesied leading up to and during the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel to Assyria; around 740 – 700 BC.
God's people had been warned all the way back in Deuteronomy, (around 1400 BC) as they were about to enter the promised land, that if they did not listen to the Lord,
Deuteronomy 28:49 The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand,
Notice the connection: 'a nation whose language you do not understand.'
When Isaiah was commissioned by God, he was told:
Isaiah 6:9 And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ 10 Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” 11 Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said: “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, 12 and the LORD removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. 13 And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled.” The holy seed is its stump.
God sends Isaiah to his people with the clear intent that they will not listen or respond to his message. God is sending judgment on his people for their persistent refusal to listen to him, and it comes in the form of hearing without understanding. This, by the way, is the passage Jesus referenced as the reason he began to speak in parables in Matthew 13:13. Matthew 13 comes after Matthew 12, which is where the religious leaders begin to explain that the undeniable miracles Jesus is doing are done by the power of Satan. Jesus began to speak in stories and he disclosed the meaning only to his followers, while the rest would hear but not understand. This was an act of judgment, concealing truth from those who had rejected the plain teaching they had been given.
In Isaiah 28, God rebukes the leaders of his people:
Isaiah 28:7 These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink; the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are swallowed by wine, they stagger with strong drink, they reel in vision, they stumble in giving judgment. 8 For all tables are full of filthy vomit, with no space left. 9 “To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, those taken from the breast? 10 For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.” 11 For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the LORD will speak to this people, 12 to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they would not hear. 13 And the word of the LORD will be to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
It seems the people viewed the warnings of the prophets as childish, even baby-talk. The Lexham English Bible attempts to capture the language of the original:
[LEB] Isaiah 28:9 To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from milk, those taken from the breast? 10 For it is blah-blah upon blah-blah, blah-blah upon blah-blah, gah-gah upon gah-gah, gah-gah upon gah-gah, a little here, a little there. 11 For he will speak with stammering and another tongue to this people, 12 to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they were not willing to hear. 13 And to them the word of Yahweh will be blah-blah upon blah-blah blah-blah upon blah-blah gah-gah upon gah-gah gah-gah upon gah-gah, a little here, a little there, so that they may go and stumble backward and be broken and ensnared and captured.
The prophetic message of warning is considered baby talk, so elementary that it is not worth listening to. God warns that, because they were unwilling to hear, he will bring a nation against them that they will not be able to understand. When you are invaded by foreigners, when there are violent men in your city, in your home and you cannot understand what they are saying, This is evidence that God's judgment has come upon you. Here, tongues speaking is judgment from God for refusing to listen to the simple clear message that was given to them repeatedly in their own language. This is Paul's point. Unintelligible language is a sign of God's judgment on those who reject the simple teaching of the gospel. That is why Paul draws them back to the simplistic wisdom of the cross in chapters 1 and 2.
1 Corinthians 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
The good news that Jesus died for sinners is so simple that a child can grasp it.
1 Corinthians 14:21 In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” 22 Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers.
Tongues are a sign, a warning for those who refuse to believe the simple proclamation of Christ crucified. Prophecy, speaking in ways that people understand in order to build up and encourage and comfort them is directed toward those who believe the simple message, and it is for their good.
Seeker Sensitive
Paul pushes his argument further, thinking not only of what is good for the believers, but also for the outsiders. He has already brought up the idea of outsiders in verse 16, where he said:
1 Corinthians 14:16 Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? 17 For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up.
The warning is that when uninterpreted tongues are used in the church meeting, it alienates fellow believers and forces them into the position of foreigners or outsiders who cannot participate. Now he takes up the cause of the outsider. Paul expects that when the church gathers, there will be visitors, outsiders, unbelievers, who are there. Paul wants to see them cared for, evangelized, included, not alienated or excluded. He wants us to be aware of the onlooker, the curious, the seeker, the skeptic, those who come to see. He wants us to care for them well. He invites us to think through what we do and how it will be perceived by those who don't yet fully understand or believe.
1 Corinthians 14:23 If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? 24 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, 25 the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
Paul exaggerates to make his point. He has said that he wished that all spoke in tongues, but even more that all prophesied. But he acknowledged that not all are prophets and not all speak in tongues. What if the only thing that happened in the gathering of the church was unintelligible tongues? An outsider or unbeliever would conclude that you are out of your minds. Paul has said that when you pray or sing or give thanks in an unknown tongue, your mind is unfruitful. Here he uses the word where we get our word 'maniac'. This was the perception of some at Pentecost in Acts 2. Remember, many were amazed and astonished because each one heard them telling in their own native languages the mighty works of God. But, we are told,
Acts 2:13 But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”
Some, it appears, heard only babel and confusion and concluded that they were drunk. These were unbelievers, outsiders. They did not understand, and it did not benefit them.
The opposite extreme is if all prophesy. What if the only thing that happened in the gathering of the church was people filled with the Spirit speaking to people in understandable ways to build them up and encourage and console? Imagine that! How encouraging would that be? How comforting? How edifying! But remember, Paul has the outsider, the unbeliever in mind. What would it do for them? Look at the picture he paints:
1 Corinthians 14:24 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, 25 the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
Jesus described the work of the Holy Spirit in the world this way:
John 16:8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
Conviction is a work of the Holy Spirit in a person opening their heart and mind to an awareness of their own sinfulness, and to understand that they need a Savior.
What does this look like in the church meeting? I don't think this is talking about the kind of thing that sometimes passes for prophesy where someone stands up and says “the Lord told me that there is a male here, in his late 20's who is struggling with pornography.” I don't think it has to be weird. The text says 'he is convicted by all, judged by all, and the secrets of his heart are made known.' We might imagine this means that when a visitor comes in, everyone receives divine insight into his personal life and secret sins, and they are made public and put on display for all to see. Let me ask you, how would you respond if that happened to you? Remember, this is 1 Corinthians 14, and it comes right after chapter 13. The gifts of the Spirit are to be used in love for building up, with patience and kindness, not rudely or proudly. I don't think Paul envisions an unbeliever walking unexpectedly into a pack of ravenous vultures who immediately descend on their unsuspecting prey to shred him and pick him apart. That would hardly elicit the kind of response Paul envisions.
I think this looks more like what Hebrews says:
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Sometimes, after prayerfully preparing and then proclaiming God's word, someone will come up to me and say “Pastor, what you said today was just for me. I desperately needed to hear that. God was speaking right to me.” Biblical truth presented with loving compassion and genuine care in a way that comes alongside to build up and bring comfort is used by the Holy Spirit to bring conviction, to reveal to a person his own deepest desires and longings, his own real need, to confront the idols of his heart and show that God alone is to be worshiped, and that God is in you working through you, pursuing this lost soul to bring him home.
Think of how Jesus ministered to people who were outsiders. There was a rich tax collector in Jericho who was curious. He wanted to see who Jesus was. But he was too short to see over the crowds, so he climbed a tree in hopes of catching a glimpse of Jesus. What did Jesus say to him? “Zacchaeus, the Father has revealed to me that you are a thief, a liar, an extortioner, and incessantly greedy. In fact, just last week you charged that poor widow over there quadruple what you should have charged her just to line your own pockets.” No, Jesus said:
Luke 19:5 ...“Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.”
We are not told if Jesus said anything else to this short greedy little man. We are told that it upset a lot of people that Jesus would associate with someone who was so evidently wicked. But something happened in the heart of this chief tax-collector. It seems he was convicted and called to account, and the secrets of his heart were made known to him, and apparently without anyone saying anything to him about anything,
Luke 19:8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.”
Jesus came to seek and to save lost people. Jesus brought salvation to this man that day. His heart was transformed. He recognized that God was really there.
Is this characteristic of us? How do we care for the seeker, the visitor, the curious, the skeptic? Do we make it hard to understand? Do we put obstacles in the way of lost people coming to Jesus? Do we speak a foreign language? Do we turn them away? Or is it evident that God has transformed us, that he is in us, communicating through us, reaching out to lost people with love building them up with encouragement and comfort, giving them hope? Do we communicate clearly, simply, plainly the powerful message of Jesus Christ and him crucified?
Can it be said of us what was said of Peter and John in Acts 4:13
Acts 4:13 ...they recognized that they had been with Jesus.
Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org