1 Corinthians 14:1-5 Don’t Be Mysterious!
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: March 24, 2020 1 Corinthians 14:1-5
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.
(Understanding the Text) Now, Paul adds to his previous advice. He says that love is more important than any spiritual gift. He says that we should first and foremost, strive for love. He actually says that we should pursue love. I feel like that’s what I am doing many times. It feels like the love is not in me for others, but instead, I have to chase after it trying to attain it. Sometimes, I touch it a little and act out of love, but usually, I’m far behind–judging and being indifferent to others. I pray to catch love. One thing that bothers me is that as bad as I am at love (and I am very bad!), there are so many others who are worse. Many of these claim to be Christian, yet they do not seem to realize the value of love. I guess they are like the Corinthians.
Now, Paul switches from focusing on love to the spiritual gifts. He says that love is most important, but it is still good to have spiritual gifts. Then Paul focuses on the spiritual gift that the Corinthians need more than any of the others–prophecy. Paul says that prophecy is a message to others that builds them up. Prophecy encourages other Christians. When Christians are down or grief-stricken, prophecy brings consolation to them.
I always think of prophecy as a warning because people are behaving badly or that bad things are about to happen, like Agabus warning Paul about imprisonment. I think of fearing this information. “Oh no, bad things are about to happen!” But Paul says that the correct effect of prophecy is not fear. It is encouragement, consolation, and being stronger. I guess when Agabus warned about the famine, he was giving the other churches time to prepare help for the Jerusalem church and in the end, everyone was built up by that help. And when he told Paul that he would be imprisoned, Paul would have known that God cared for him and that the imprisonment to come was not his own fault in any way. The other Christians would also receive the same message. Also, Paul was able to receive the love and affection and respect of those Christians he was with, which would have helped sustain him while he was imprisoned in Jerusalem among Christians who were judgmental and unloving and left him alone.
What does this tell us about tongues? It is difficult for me to understand for sure because so many misinterpretations have been applied to these verses. Paul says that if you speak in a language that no one understands, God understands you, but the rest of the people you are with do not. I guess I have experienced this because when people pray in Spanish, I just sort of ignore them. This confirms my decision to pray in both languages.
Paul says, “for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit.” Some people think that this is great. “Yay! I am speaking mysteries in the Spirit. I am speaking in tongues.” They don’t look at the context, which is negative. Paul is saying that what is happening is BAD. The Pentecostals answer this by saying they have an interpreter, but they are missing the point. There should be no need for an interpreter because there should be no mystery involved to begin with. Paul isn’t praising the idea of having a speaker of tongues with an interpreter. He is saying that the whole idea of speaking in a language that the rest of the people don’t understand is wrong because when we worship it needs to be a coming together, not a performance.
(Revelation of God) Paul says that when we pray, we are in the Spirit. He confirms that the Spirit is involved in our worship of God. I think that we take the Spirit’s presence in our lives for granted. He is involved in every aspect of a believer’s life, but especially in our worship. After all, He is part of the Godhead that we claim we are worshipping!
(Understanding the Text) Paul spends a lot of time contrasting tongues with prophecy. Why these two? I guess they both involve speaking. Maybe, the Corinthians had overemphasized the speaking of tongues like Pentecostals do today. Paul says that speaking in tongues is a good gift, but it is not a gift to use in church with people who do not understand the language that you speak. On the other hand, prophecy not only comes in an understandable language, it is a message from God directly to the people in the church. Thus, the content of the message is important to at least one person, and maybe everyone there.
(Application / Prayer) My application for myself is that this message especially applies to a bilingual church like I attend. We need to constantly be aware that everyone needs to receive spiritual edification and thus, to be as bilingual as possible in all aspects of church. I pray that You will help me to continue my education in Spanish so that I may interpret for people so that they receive the messages that You wish to give. I pray that I will be willing to give those messages in English rather than resisting as I have in the past. Help me to support all the members of the church.