Troublesome Topic: PRECEPTS ABOUT TONGUES FROM I CORINTHIANS 14:29-31

1 Corinthians 14:29

Translation

Now prophets – two or three should speak, and the others should distinguish between.

Paraphrase

Now regarding those who bring exhortation and admonition to the congregation – they also need to function in an orderly manner. Only two or three who are known to have the gift of exhortation should be allowed to share admonition or exhortation during a church meeting, and the others should discern between what they are saying that is right according to the Scriptures, and what they are saying that is incorrect according to the Scriptures. Don’t swallow all of it; separate the good from the bad.

WERE ONLY THOSE WHO HAD THE GIFT OF PROPHECY ABLE TO SPEAK TO THE CONGREGATION?

Yes, it appears that this is referring to those with this gift, not just anyone in the congregation. A number of respected commentators hold this view. The verse starts with the words “now prophets,” which highlights that group of believers. Thereafter, till the end of this small section, words such as “two or three, the others, another, the first,” refer to others in the group of prophets. Even the first “all” in verse 31 refers to the prophets because it is referring to those who prophecy; the second “all” in that verse refers to those who listen and learn.

A person could enter that group by showing wisdom and the ability to articulate spiritual truth clearly and powerfully in other settings such as conversations and Bible studies. After various ones had confirmed that this person’s gift was beneficial to the body of Christ, he was allowed to share with the entire congregation.

I will add that, although it is not mentioned here, the elders present could participate in various ways during the meetings of the congregation. Some of them shared some exhortations to those present because they had been given something to share by God. If a specific elder was given admonitions to share on a semi-regular basis, he was seen as someone with the gift of prophecy.

DO THOSE WITH THE GIFT OF PROPHECY ALWAYS FOLLOW THE LEADING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT?

The reason they should distinguish between what is right and what is not right is that even someone with the gift of exhortation (prophecy) must choose to rely on the Holy Spirit. If he speaks on his own, it will not have the power that it has when the Holy Spirit is behind it, but he can possibly make it sound pretty good. That is why it must be compared to what the Bible says about the subject. The word of God is always our most solid and trusted tool for evaluating truth.

1 Corinthians 14:30

Translation

However, if another is given a revelation while sitting down, the first should keep silent.

Paraphrase

But if another believer who is known to have a clear understanding of the Scriptures and to whom God is known to reveal truths for the congregation, receives a clear and helpful insight while listening to another prophet speak, the first one should stop speaking as quickly as is reasonably possible and allow the second one to interject or take over.

1 Corinthians 14:31

Translation

For you are all able to prophesy

by one, so that all may learn and all may be called near.

Paraphrase

For all those with the gift of exhortation are able to exhort the congregation one by one so that all the believers present may learn and be called closer to God through exhortation and encouragement.

1 Corinthians 14:32

Translation

Moreover, [the] spirits of [the] prophets is obedient

to [the]

prophets.

Paraphrase

Moreover, even when one who has the spiritual gift of exhortation is moved by the Holy Spirit to speak, he can and should control himself; he can keep his comments short and allow opportunity for other prophets to speak also. He is even capable of shutting down quickly if the Holy Spirit moves on someone else to speak.

THE PROPHET MUST CONTROL HIMSELF AND UTILIZE HIS SPIRITUAL GIFT PROPERLY

It appears that another abuse going on in Corinth was that someone would start exhorting the congregation and go on and on for a very long time while claiming that “the Holy Spirit made me do it and I cannot resist the Holy Spirit.” They claimed that when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and commands you to speak, you lose all control, and you cannot resist the Spirit’s flow. To the contrary, Paul lays down the rule that all gifts, spiritual and otherwise, must be exercised under the control of one’s will, for the Holy Spirit does not take that away from us. We are expected to exercise spiritual gifts by being very sensitive to the Spirit. We can say “yes,” or “no” to the Spirit’s urgings. We must choose. We can even start by following His lead and then take over and speak thoughts that are ours instead of His.

Here are a couple good quotes about the verse above. “A holy self-restraint must characterize the Christian” even when using the gracious gifts of the Spirit (From the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges). “An unruly prophet is therefore no genuine prophet; he lacks one of the necessary marks of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling” (From the Expositor’s Greek Testament).

AS A HORSE IS GUIDED BY THE REINS OF A RIDER

While trying to make things clear to a modern audience, many Christians, including myself, talk and write about the “control” of the Holy Spirit in our lives. However, this is not the term the Bible uses to describe it. The New Testament calls it being “filled with the Holy Spirit,” or being “in the Spirit.” Our phrase “controlled by the Holy Spirit” is not completely wrong, but it is not completely right either. Ephesians 5:18 compares being filled with the Holy Spirit to being intoxicated with wine – which takes control of a person. But I Cor 14:32 teaches that the spirit of the prophets (their inner being) should be obedient to (controlled by) the prophet himself. This tells us that God never expects us to give up our decision-making capability altogether. So there is tension here. Does the Holy Spirit control us or not? The teaching of the New Testament appears to answer that question with a confusing “yes and no at the same time.” Yes, He sometimes controls us, but without violating our free will, without changing our personality, our speaking style, or our normal use of vocabulary. It is still you or me speaking, just controlled, to a large degree, by the Holy Spirit. If you can recall a time when the Holy Spirit did something special through you, the degree to which the Spirit controlled you in that moment was so strong that it felt like it was 100% control, but I Cor 14:32 shows us that we always have the freedom to say “yes” or say “no” to the Holy Spirit.

The best illustration I can think of for this confusing issue is that of a horse being guided by the reins in the hands of a rider. The horse can choose to obey or disobey the commands of the rider, although there will be discomfort if it disobeys. The rider appears to be in control; he is telling the horse what to do. But the horse still has the use of its will, so the control of the rider is not 100%. When things go well, the rider’s control should be very close to 100%, but anyone who has ridden a cantankerous, head-strong, obstinate horse knows that sometimes the control of the rider is close to zero! What kind of horse are you?

1 Corinthians 14:33

Translation

for He is not the God of disorder

but of wholeness.

As in all the assemblies

of the saints,

Paraphrase

for our God is not a God who accepts, promotes, or causes the instability that comes from tumult, rather He is the God of healthy wholeness. As in all the churches of the ones God has purified,

THE CORINTHIANS WERE DISORDERLY WHICH IS CONTRARY TO GOD’S CHARACTER

Even if the Holy Spirit were inclined to take control over someone so powerfully as to negate the person’s use of free will (which He does not do), the Spirit would not create disorder, confusion, and strife because God is not the author of disorder. To do so would violate His character. We can surmise that the situation in Corinth was way out of control, therefore Paul felt the need to remind them that our God is not the author of the kind of chaos they brought to their worship services. They claimed that what they were doing was coming from God. His answer was: “That’s impossible!”

ANOTHER SOURCE OF CHAOS

It appears that things were out of control in Corinth in a number of ways, one of them being that their times of joint worship were pure chaos. The chaos even extended to their time of celebrating communion (see 1 Cor 11:17-34). The comments about prophesying and speaking in tongues are pointed at bringing under control some of the chaos that had been going on during their meetings. Beginning with the second half of this verse, Paul interjects comments about another source of chaos in their meetings; it has to do with women speaking out whenever they wanted to, taking control of the meeting in order to say their piece, refusing to respect the leadership of the church, ignoring the rule about orderliness in their meetings, and disregarding the rule that all things must be done to help others grow.

I will not cover verses 34 through 38 in this study, but you can read my comments on those verses in my study on The Roles of Men and Women. Here is the link to the first lesson in that study: The Context of 1 Corinthians Chapter 14

The next lesson in the Full Series on Tongues is Precepts about Tongues from I Corinthians 14:32-33

Footnotes

1: “distinguish between”:

This is a compound word made up of the preposition which in this context means “wholly, completely, thoroughly, or back and forth,” and the verb “to separate, judge, decide, discern.” Together they mean “to discern by separating the parts completely from each other.”

2: “Able to prophesy”:

The intent seems to be on those that have the spiritual gift of spiritual exhortation, admonition and encouragement, not on the entire congregations sharing words of exhortation, admonition or encouragement based on Scripture.

3

“Called near” is the literal meaning of this compound word, but it was used of “exhortation and encouragement” because both are needed to draw people closer to God.

4: "obedient”:

This word often means “subject to, in submission to,” but in the middle/passive voice, which is used here, the meaning is “obedient to”.

5

The lack of articles in this verse probably means that the nouns are considered in a general sense, not a specific sense, i.e. prophets in general, with no certain ones in mind.

6: "disorder"

The word used here has a root meaning of “instability.” It is a compound word made up of the words “down” and “standing,” or we would say, “to not stand,” i.e. something unstable. Such instability is the result of tumult, disorder, upheaval, revolution, war and possibly anarchy. Thus it is a very strong word. It includes the causes and the result.

7: "wholeness"

This word is usually rendered “peace.” To us the word “peace” means the absence of war and strife, but that is extremely narrow compared to the way Old Testament Hebrew and New Testament Greek expressed it. This Greek word means “oneness, wholeness, to join, tie together into a whole”, or “when all essential parts are joined together.” The Hebrew word meant “wholeness or wellbeing” with an emphasis on health. For the Jew, it was an all-inclusive picture of mental, emotional, relational, and spiritual health. For my translation I have chosen “wholeness” because it emphasizes health through unity, tying together the Hebrew and Greek meanings and addressing the problems that were present in the church at Corinth.

8

This is the word for “assembly or church;” it comes from the words “call out,” thus the church is made up of those who are called out from the world to the assembly of God’s people.