In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul deals with the misuse of spiritual gifts, which led to divisions between self-described spiritual and unspiritual people in the church. Their worship was no longer devoted to fellowship between people of every social class (male and female, slave and free). Even encouragement from God’s word descended into a competition to see who could be more spiritual. Whatever is happening, it is so disruptive a visitor would not just think the behavior of the church was strange, they might confuse it with pagan rituals and completely miss the Gospel.
Paul describes their worship as childish (14:20). Maturity has been a theme throughout the letter, but now Paul applies the congregation’s immaturity to their worship. As with factions or other issues of maturity in the letter, the problems with worship are likely related to social class distinctions.
It is likely people in the congregation believed ecstatic gifts were a sign of spirituality and therefore the more one prophesied or spoke in tongues, the more spiritual he is. This is the way the non-Christian Greek would have understood the ecstatic gifts. The contrast between childish and adult thinking is consistent with Paul’s encouragement to seek the “greater gifts” in chapter 13. It is inappropriate to “think as a child,” whether this is in the context of factions in the church, eating and drinking, lawsuits, etc.
Paul’s concern is for the outsider who needs to hear the Gospel (14:24-25). This is likely a Gentile who knows nothing about the gifts of the Spirit and would misunderstand what ecstatic speech is.
What would a Greek think about tongues or prophecy? Ben Witherington suggests that prophecy would naturally be associated with the Delphic oracle, while tongues would have been associated with ecstatic speech among the followers of Dionysus (Community and Conflict, 276-9). In either case, a person visiting the congregation would hear the chaotic worship at Corinth and assume individuals in the church were possessed of spirits like an oracle. The Delphic oracle is only one example of ecstatic speech in the Greco-Roman world. In Acts 16, for example, Paul casts a demon from a slave girl who was used as an oracle in Philippi; she has the “spirit of Python.”
Worship or Katy Perry?
Paul’s problem with the congregation is the same as in earlier sections of the letter. They are once again failing to separate themselves from the world and therefore are not reaching the world. Their worship is indistinguishable from these commonly known practices and therefore has really ceased to do any good at all. For Paul, five intelligible words would be preferred to ecstatic speech! Witherington also points out that religious rites in the ancient world were usually performed in silence, with only a flute player to mask ambient noise. As worship began, the phrase favete linguis was used – “check your tongue”!
While Paul is not necessarily calling for the Corinthians to sit in silence. There is a need for intelligibility and orderliness in worship. Far from being a sign of spiritual status, the gifts are just that: gracious gifts from God to be used for the building up of the church. The elite of the church assume that they are better than others because they have been given this gift.
What would an outsider think if they heard ecstatic speech after a banquet which included good food and wine? The natural assumption is the cult of Dionysus. This is a disaster for the church, since the cult was almost always outlawed and looked down upon by “polite society.”
With respect to prophecy, it is possible the Corinthians understood the role of a prophet as an oracle, like that found at Delphi. In general, the oracle was asked specific questions and gave cryptic yet clear answers. Witherington reports the oracle might be asked about religious or political matters, but these would not really be the concern of the Christian congregation. Rather, they would ask domestic questions: questions about career, marriage, or possibly even practice. There are a number of slogans in 1 Corinthians, such as “Everything is permitted” (10:23) and “there is no resurrection of the dead” (15:12). It is possible these are answers given through an alleged spirit of prophecy in response to questions from the congregation.
Remember that the last half of this letter is a series of questions and answers. It is possible that the church is putting questions to Paul that they have already put to their own prophets! Perhaps this is the reason Paul quotes these statements and then argues against them.
If these observations are even close to the mark, then this is another case of the Corinthian church failing to fully apply the Christ to the conversion of the pagan practices. Paul has to deal carefully with these people since he wants to encourage the use of spiritual gifts, but he must discourage behavior which is still “pagan.”
I really do not want to wade into the turbulent waters of the practice of tongues in contemporary worship since that distracts from Paul’s point. But if Paul is saying Christian worship ought to look different than the world, there is an equally disturbing application here. At what point does contemporary (American, evangelical) worship look and feel like “the world”?
- If I cannot tell the difference between a worship service and a country music concert, are we in danger of doing “worship like the world”?
- If I cannot tell the difference between a worship service and a classical music performance, are we in danger of doing “worship like the world”?
- If I cannot tell the difference between a sermon and a pep talk from a life coach, are we in danger of doing “worship like the world”?
Worship (in whatever form it takes) ought to draw people to the Gospel rather than drive them away.
Many excellent points in this article. I love exposition of a pericope. Drawing observations from paragraphs of Scripture adds great depth.
Reblogged this on James' Ramblings and commented:
Reblogging for future reference (not total agreement).
I think it is rather abundant in today’s culture that worship is like that of the world. The world cares about how it looks and more importantly edifies itself. I think that is a reason why Paul said Prophecy was better than speaking in tongues because prophecy builds up others and tongues edifies oneself.
Paul mentions that the Corinthians should “Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy” (1 Corinth. 14:1)
It is important to note that he did not say pursue spiritual gifts, instead, he said pursue love. As mentioned in this blog post, the spiritual gifts were given to edify the church and building God’s kingdom. As TTP puts it, “Love should be the primary soil to nourish the exercising of spiritual gifts in corporate gatherings of Christians. Giftedness without agape love is vacuous” (TTP 129).
Lastly, I would think that Jesus quoting of Isaiah plays a role in this question in that he said, “These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:6-7). The context before this is that Jesus is confronting their traditions. The Pharisees instilled worship as a time to edify oneself, their hearts were not right with God. When our hearts are genuine and want to worship God with our being then that is true worship (and obedience). As far as Pauls statement that all things must be done in a “fitting and orderly way” (1 Corinth. 14:40). this tells me that tradition is not necessarily structured but done in a vain way where you are not mindful of the things of God and merely concerned for the things of man.
There are several points of interest in Corinthians chapter 14 which talks about the gift of tongues as well as orderly worship. Corinthian believers were looking at the spiritual gifts especially the gift of tongues as marks of being more spiritual than others. Paul emphasizes that it is better to prophesy than to speak in tongues because through prophesy the church community would be edified whereas tongues mostly edify the individual (TTP, p. 129). Additionally, Paul was concerned with how outsiders would view Christians and understand the gospel. Tongues would seem like nonsense to unbelievers, or they may even assume that they were associated with the Delphic oracle, a pagan religion (Long). Paul wanted the gospel to be the center of Corinthian worship, rather than it just looking like another pagan religion. In 1 Corinthians 14: 23-25 Paul basically says that if an unbeliever enters a Christian gathering and hears people speaking in tongues than they will think that Christians are out of their minds, but a word of prophecy may cause them to be convicted and worship God.
American worship today often looks a lot like worldly music events. It really must remain Christ and gospel centered rather than like a performance aimed at pleasing people. Additionally, worship should be beneficial to the Christian community as a whole and not a place for individuals to showcase their spirituality.
Over the course of the Covid pandemic my family and I were looking for a church service to watch and we came across Jimmy Swaggart ministries, a very charismatic and leaning Pentecostal church. As I was watching and observing the service, I notice how it was very emotionally driven which can be okay at times but one’s emotions should never be the main force in Ministry and intimacy with God. As it says in John 14:24 “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” During the worship there was a person speaking in tongues at one point and a few others speaking in tongues in short bursts. Although I would agree that when a person spoke in tongues for an extended amount of time, the church did follow Paul’s example to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 14:29-31. That only a few would be speaking and only if there was an interpreter present to interpret what was said for the rest of the church to be built up by it. The preacher in the service would at times under much emotional adrenaline would speak short bursts in tongues and it served no purpose other than to enhance his own spiritual relationship with God. It is as what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14: 17 “You are giving thanks well enough, but no one else is edified” (NIV). The church services I watched, though they may have had good intentions, lacked many times in the spiritual depth of their preaching. Which Paul says to the church in Corinth that he would rather follow the entire church prophecy (1 Cor 14:5), because it builds up the entire church (1 Cor 14:6). It seems true in Paul’s time and in times today that things like speaking in tongues are more just a showing of a person’s spiritually, but what Paul desires is that the entire community grow in their faith, not just certain individuals able to speak in tongues. Phillip Long says regarding the Corinthian Church that “even encouragement from God’s word descended into a competition to see who can be more spiritual” (2019). The overall emphasis seems to be by Paul is the growth of the church as a community and that unless the entire body of believers is built up then it is perhaps best to leave something such as tongues to be between ones one private faith and walk with God. Unless “done in a fitting and orderly way” (1 Cor 14:40).