Paul says that if you are really thinking about other people, if you are really concerned about them, and if you are beginning to exercise the kind of love about which he spoke in the thirteenth chapter, you will recognize that people are hurting. So in your worship services you will not be trying to call attention to yourself as so many people do. But rather you will seek to do that which is helpful to them.
Paul says that if you are really thinking about other people, if you are really concerned about them, and if you are beginning to exercise the kind of love about which he spoke in the thirteenth chapter, you will recognize that people are hurting. So in your worship services you will not be trying to call attention to yourself as so many people do. But rather you will seek to do that which is helpful to them.
As he talks about prophecy here, he does so in three areas. Prophecy is better than speaking in tongues for the church, the individual, and for the sake of unbelievers. In the first place Paul says that prophecy in this sense, that is, communicating the Word of God in a clear and applicable way is better than tongues because it helps the church to grow.
Finally, at the very end of the chapter he gives this principle where he tells the Corinthians to “be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues” (v. 39). You see, when you speak about all these difficulties or dangers in the practice of the gift, it might be our tendency to say, “Well, a gift like that which produces obvious disruption in the church and which is attended by so many dangers of misunderstanding probably should not be practiced, and might even be invalid. But Paul does not do that. He has far more balance and judgment than we do.
Every part of the Bible is relevant and is helpful for us in any time of history or any period of our lives. But it is true that some parts speak to contemporary problems more than others. I suppose in some ways this fourteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians that we come to now is one of those parts.
That leads to our last point, which is where Paul himself is going. He has talked about the importance of love and the nature of love. And if we really understand these two things, it follows that love never fails. All these other things he mentions are going to fail. Prophecies will cease. Tongues will be stilled. Knowledge will pass away. All these things are partial. But love will not pass away. He concludes this chapter by saying that faith, hope, and love remain, but the greatest of these is love. Even when our faith falters and our hope disappears for a season, the love of God for us in Christ abides.
In addition to knowing people who are patient and kind, there are also those who do not envy, those who do not boast, and those who are not proud. But the difficulty, you see, is in getting all of these things together. I know people who are patient, but they do not persevere. Or there are people who are kind, but they are really not very hopeful. When you begin to ask if there is anybody like that, we conclude that there is no one who meets that standard from which we all fall short except for Jesus Christ. Isn’t this a portrait of Christ?
The apostle John wrote his first epistle to reassure people who want to know they are saved. He gave them three tests by which they could know they were Christians. The first was to believe the right things about Christ, because if you do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the Lord, you are no Christian. The second was to obey God’s commandments and live a righteous life. The third test was that of love. Do you really love the Lord, and because you do, do you really love the brethren?
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