Troublesome TopicThe Context of 1 Corinthians Chapter 14

Lesson 16 of 26

1 Corinthians 14:33

Translation

for He is not the God of disorder

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but of wholeness.

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As in all the assemblies

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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 CONTEXT 1 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 14

Starting at the beginning of chapter 12, Paul has given a long explanation about spiritual gifts, along with the insertion of chapter 13 which focuses on love as the balance to the dysfunctional use of spiritual gifts. Most of chapter 14 has centered on speaking in tongues and some of it on exhortations given during a time of worship (called “prophesying”). One of Paul’s summary statements is that everything should be done in an orderly fashion.

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, speaking in tongues and about women being restricted from speaking, are pointed at bringing under control some of the chaos that had been going on. For more on this see my comments at the end of verse 35.

The next lesson is: Where Did the Law Say Women Are to Be Subordinate? 1 Cor 14

Footnotes

1: "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.

2: "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.

3

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.