Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature. In the Law it is written, "BY MEN OF STRANGE TONGUES AND BY THE LIPS OF STRANGERS I WILL SPEAK TO THIS PEOPLE, AND EVEN SO THEY WILL NOT LISTEN TO ME," says the Lord. So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers; but prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers but to those who believe. Therefore if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all; the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.In these verses, we see Paul challenge the members of the church to grow up when it comes to the role that spiritual gifts play in the advancing God’s kingdom mission. Paul’s point here is that we are only to remain immature when it comes to exercising selfish and sinful attitudes and activities as followers of Jesus. When it comes to exercising the spiritual gifts we have been given, however, we are to mature in how the exercising of these gifts advances the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel.
Paul then quotes Isaiah 28:11, where God predicted that the unbelieving Jewish nation would experience punishment at the hands of the Babylonians. This foreign nation, with their unintelligible language, would be the instrument and sign that God would use to judge and punish their unbelief which separated them from God.
Paul then explains that just as this foreign nation with an unintelligible language was a sign that confirmed their unbelief, the spiritual gift of tongues alone, was a sign gift that served as a warning sign designed to expose the unbelief of those who failed to understand the unintelligible language being spoken. Prophecy, by contrast, was a spiritual gift that through its use resulted in those who heard the clear message of the gospel respond by receiving the forgiveness of their sins and the relationship with God that they were created for by believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader.
Paul then applies this timeless truth to the situation at Corinth and to our context today by explaining that if the entire church was speaking in tongues, those who did not have the gift of interpretation and those who were unbelievers would see what was going on and respond to the situation by thinking that they were out of their mind crazy. And in their response they would discredit that church as being irrelevant and remain in their selfishness and sin as a result of their unbelief.
And this response often still occurs today, doesn’t it? Paul here is revealing for us the reality that desiring style over substance in spiritual gifts results in hindering the kingdom mission. When we become focused on style or the spectacular when it comes to spiritual gifts, we can hinder the advancement of the message of the gospel by not clearly presenting the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel in a way that is understood and results in a response.
Paul explains that when the spiritual gift of prophecy is exercised, the unbeliever clearly hears the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel in a way that reveals their need for forgiveness as a result of their selfishness and sin. When Paul states that the secrets of his heart are revealed and so he will fall on his face and worship God, this phrase conveys a gesture of one’s complete dependence and submission.
Paul’s point is that through clearly hearing the message of the gospel through the gift of prophecy, the hidden and secret thoughts and desires are exposed, which results in repentance from sin and a turn toward believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader. For those who are far from God due to being religious or irreligious, it is through a clear and substantive presentation of the gospel proclaimed and the gospel lived, not through the spectacular or style, that the Holy Spirit uses to bring a person to faith in Christ.
Paul then applies these three timeless principles that desiring style over substance results in to what was occurring during corporate worship at the church. And in this application, we see a fourth result that occurs when we desire style over substance when it comes to spiritual gifts. And tomorrow, we will look at this fourth result.
So, are you hindering the kingdom mission that god has given the church by desiring style or the spectacular over clearly communicating the claim of Christ and the message of the gospel?
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