1 Corinthians 14:13-25

February 3, 2019

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

Download the bulletin.

Download the Kid’s Korner.

The sermon starts at 17:10 in the audio file.

Or, The Best Five Word Review

People have been reviewing churches for over two-thousand years. Church reviews have recently received more exposure thanks to the Internet. Our church, for example, has four Google reviews, three by current members. A year ago a gentleman posted that TEC is a “Very Spirit filled Church. Excellent place to worship the Lord.” I don’t remember meeting him, and I don’t think I know him, but that’s a decent review. All four of our Google reviews have five of five stars. (Then I found an old TEC Facebook page where one woman posted that she’d give a zero rating if possible, and another woman commented that “it’s pretty obvious that this church answers to their Dark Lord, Satan!” Those are less favorable).

But those who attend church services always come away thinking something, negative, positive, or indifferent, which is probably a species of negative. Paul has been writing about the congregation’s worship in 1 Corinthians and in chapter 14 verses 13-25 he explains the effects we should be looking for, and the effects we should be seeking to avoid. Fellow believers should understand and be edified by what’s happening, not feel like they are on the outside (verses 1-12). Outsiders, even unbelievers, should not think we’re out of our minds, but instead what they hear should convict them of sin. The best five word (not five star) review we could hear is: “God is really among you” (verse 26).

Paul is going to continue contrasting tongues with prophecy, and he will again emphasize the importance of intelligibility in worship (verses 13-19) and then clarify how the purpose of tongues does not benefit the purpose of worship for the elect (verses 20-25).

Worship for the Mind (verses 13-19)

The Corinthians valued the spiritual gift of tongues above all else. They valued it above other gifts, apparently they valued it above love. Paul told them that if they really wanted to see the Spirit manifested among them that they should “strive to excel in building up the church” (verse 12), and that required clarity in communication not personal shows of supposed spiritual power.

In this paragraph he continues to persuade them to think about what good tongues did in a corporate setting. He was trying to get into their minds that tongues doesn’t do much building of the body at all.

At its best tongues should never be by itself. Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. The goal of each member should be the building up of the entire body, and building up depends on understanding, “so” interpretation must take place because tongues does not have built in understanding. Even in this case, though, if this one could interpret, why not just start with the known language?

Paul makes himself a hypothetical example. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. 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. The clear distinction is between the spirit and the mind or “understanding” (NIV). What is not clear is what he means by spirit. He must be referring to the part of a person that can be alive to God. Our spirits are dead before Christ, and then He gives us spiritual life. At least hypothetically a person could try to do spiritual apart from doing rational; free your mind, or try to be free from your mind. But this kind of praying is unfruitful to the mind, and there’s a question if it’s really fruitful to anything, even to the spirit.

Paul says that whether he prays or sings, both of which are acts of worship, he will do both with my mind also. The[...]