Mixed, but not mixed up
This week is on 1 Corinthians 14:26-33:
I've been to big mega-churches, auditorium-sized churches, small churches, and small group "house churches." I like things about all of them, but I have to say that small groups are where my heart is at. The Christian community on the Internet can have the feel of a small group church sometimes, in how it's distributed person to person, and not so much from a central authority down to us.
In the early church, there weren't all that many Christians, and they weren't very well-respected in their communities, so most churches were more like modern small groups. That's not to say that's the best model, just that it's the best documented. People went to someone's house, or to a semi-public place, and worshiped God. They studied the Bible, and they taught each other and encouraged each other.
There are some dangers in small groups, and in churches in general, which Paul warns us about in these verses. In any group of people, you will get personalities who will dominate and drown out the others, or you will get chaos where there is no strong personality and people are struggling to establish who is in charge.
When the strong personality dominates, people don't get the full revelation from God. All of the revelation, teaching, miraculous "charisma", worship, prayer, and so on gets filtered through that one person and what is left is handed down. God is bigger and more complex than any one of us, so you can imagine that a lot of value is lost. If someone with a weaker personality has something God has placed on their heart to share, it doesn't get shared. And so the message, and the picture of God people access in that group, is incomplete. Or sometimes people, in their hearts, begin to confuse God and the person filtering God's word for them.
When there is no strong personality, everyone tries to share at once, or nobody does. It's difficult to receive and weigh all of the things that are being shared. You get people shouting prayers over the top of other people, people standing up and prophesying in the middle of sermons, people interrupting prayer or worship in the middle and trying to teach, and so on. It's like a shoving match at a third world airport, where everyone is trying to get in front and nobody makes it to where they're going.
Paul says that we should have a person or persons to make sure things stay in order. Everyone gets their chance to share. Everyone should potentially have something. God can speak to and through each of us and all of us. If someone is dominating, someone should make sure they stop so that others have time to share. If someone is interrupting, someone should stop the interruption and let the original thing continue to where it needs to go. The person maintaining order is a traffic cop, not a bureaucrat or a king.
God is too amazing for us to expect one man to have all of the answers about him. That's where the "where two or more are gathered" thing comes in, and what Paul is getting at when he says "two or three should prophesy." He says everyone should have something to share. Obviously that doesn't scale to a church of 10,000 people, but if it's small enough that we can do it, each of us should consider that maybe we might be the one to share a message, or a word of encouragement, prayer, worship, prophesy, etc.
But God is also too amazing for us not to pay attention to every chance we have to hear something new about him. Paul says to weigh carefully what is said. How are you going to do that when somebody is already yammering over the top of the first person before they're even finished? If each person in your group or church has something to share, and if you assume each of those things are God-inspired, then each thing is sacred and should be treated as something sacred. Take your time. Pay attention. Meditate on it.
Paul says that everything must be done so that the Church may be built up. He's talking about us, not the building we meet in. The Church is God's body on earth. What will it need in order to make us better Christians? What will it need in order to serve as Christ inviting others into fellowship with Him? How can we be better connected with each other? Instead of sitting in one spot, waiting for the gospel to be spoon-fed into us, we should be looking at how we can be God's ambassadors, not just to those who aren't Christians, but to each other, even in the context of a church meeting.
What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up. If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church; let them speak to themselves and to God.
Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people.
I've been to big mega-churches, auditorium-sized churches, small churches, and small group "house churches." I like things about all of them, but I have to say that small groups are where my heart is at. The Christian community on the Internet can have the feel of a small group church sometimes, in how it's distributed person to person, and not so much from a central authority down to us.
In the early church, there weren't all that many Christians, and they weren't very well-respected in their communities, so most churches were more like modern small groups. That's not to say that's the best model, just that it's the best documented. People went to someone's house, or to a semi-public place, and worshiped God. They studied the Bible, and they taught each other and encouraged each other.
There are some dangers in small groups, and in churches in general, which Paul warns us about in these verses. In any group of people, you will get personalities who will dominate and drown out the others, or you will get chaos where there is no strong personality and people are struggling to establish who is in charge.
When the strong personality dominates, people don't get the full revelation from God. All of the revelation, teaching, miraculous "charisma", worship, prayer, and so on gets filtered through that one person and what is left is handed down. God is bigger and more complex than any one of us, so you can imagine that a lot of value is lost. If someone with a weaker personality has something God has placed on their heart to share, it doesn't get shared. And so the message, and the picture of God people access in that group, is incomplete. Or sometimes people, in their hearts, begin to confuse God and the person filtering God's word for them.
When there is no strong personality, everyone tries to share at once, or nobody does. It's difficult to receive and weigh all of the things that are being shared. You get people shouting prayers over the top of other people, people standing up and prophesying in the middle of sermons, people interrupting prayer or worship in the middle and trying to teach, and so on. It's like a shoving match at a third world airport, where everyone is trying to get in front and nobody makes it to where they're going.
Paul says that we should have a person or persons to make sure things stay in order. Everyone gets their chance to share. Everyone should potentially have something. God can speak to and through each of us and all of us. If someone is dominating, someone should make sure they stop so that others have time to share. If someone is interrupting, someone should stop the interruption and let the original thing continue to where it needs to go. The person maintaining order is a traffic cop, not a bureaucrat or a king.
God is too amazing for us to expect one man to have all of the answers about him. That's where the "where two or more are gathered" thing comes in, and what Paul is getting at when he says "two or three should prophesy." He says everyone should have something to share. Obviously that doesn't scale to a church of 10,000 people, but if it's small enough that we can do it, each of us should consider that maybe we might be the one to share a message, or a word of encouragement, prayer, worship, prophesy, etc.
But God is also too amazing for us not to pay attention to every chance we have to hear something new about him. Paul says to weigh carefully what is said. How are you going to do that when somebody is already yammering over the top of the first person before they're even finished? If each person in your group or church has something to share, and if you assume each of those things are God-inspired, then each thing is sacred and should be treated as something sacred. Take your time. Pay attention. Meditate on it.
Paul says that everything must be done so that the Church may be built up. He's talking about us, not the building we meet in. The Church is God's body on earth. What will it need in order to make us better Christians? What will it need in order to serve as Christ inviting others into fellowship with Him? How can we be better connected with each other? Instead of sitting in one spot, waiting for the gospel to be spoon-fed into us, we should be looking at how we can be God's ambassadors, not just to those who aren't Christians, but to each other, even in the context of a church meeting.
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