The devil loves to promote divisive behaviors among God’s people.  He loves using his limited arsenal in his war against God by using the behaviors of competition, comparison, confusion while coaching leaders to jockey for position and become so busy in God’s work, they miss what is slowly happening to them.  Through the ages, these tools of self-destruction can be seen.  Evil’s tool box drives in nails of self-centered behaviors while the polar opposites tools from God’s tool box builds and benefits all people.

The more intimately our relationship grows with Jesus, the more closely intimate we become to each other.  We have God-centered goals that benefit all who believe.  We change our minds about self and think more like Jesus who laid aside his glory for the mission to save us.  (See Philippians 2)

The wild and crazy Corinthians have enough knowledge to be dangerous.  Evil knows that and feeds on their immaturities which are motivated by self-interests.  Paul cares enough to confront the corruption of self-centeredness within the Body of Christ.  He readily and directly responds to behaviors that draw attention to self but are not for the benefit of all.  He teaches ways to learn, speak and live Truth as redeemed people when gathered as the Body. 

You can easily see that evil is at work in individual lives, having fun confusing the crazy Corinthians in their self-righteous behaviors.  Does that happen today?  Yes, it does.  Many believers fall for the same lies evil hands out like candy to entice us to “have it our way” so we can be seen as “holier” than those around us.  We like to hear our own voices so sometimes we say things just to get attention.  We pray louder so others will hear how close we are to God.  We even serve with less than stellar motivations—all for the glory of self.  “It makes me feel good to serve” is an example. 

True story.  Years ago, we loaned our church facility to another church who needed a baptism tank to baptize their new converts.  Of course, we said yes.  We stayed until the service was over so we could drain the tank for Sunday services the next day.  And besides, what believer doesn’t enjoy seeing someone be baptized? What we observed, however, was similar to what Paul is talking about in our passage for today.  The service began traditionally with praise songs before the candidates were baptized.  A message was said but interspersed with loud comments that interrupted the train of thought of the message.  After the candidates were baptized, the “coaching” began.  A young man stands out to me even now as I write this.  He was saved by Jesus.  Truth.  He was baptized publicly to declare his new allegiance to Jesus.  Truth.  He was surrounded by the Body to encourage him in his new walk.  Truth.  But then, an obvious influencer of the Body of believers stood by him and prayed in a language no one could understand or interrupt.  The young man’s face of joy and peace turned to confusion and questioning with a frown.  Over and over, she pounded him to “get into the Spirit”.  “Let the Spirit take over.”  Followed by, “You, don’t have it, yet, keep trying”.  She got louder and louder, I guess so the Spirit would hear her?

Friends, I know I’m dabbling into things that divide us into denominations over semantics but that is not my intent.  Can you see how the devil used a woman of influence to immediately discourage a new believer who had given his life to Christ?  Her prayer language according to Paul is between her and the Lord.  I am not disputing that.  Please do not hear what I am not saying.  Her words did not benefit the Body, nor did it encourage a young man who was just reborn and baptized.  The young man, who didn’t “get the Spirit” in the older woman’s judgement, sat down dejected and sad.  I wanted to cry for him.  I did cry for him.

CORINTHIANS—CALLED AND SENT

1 Corinthians 14, The Message

(Emphasis mine)

^1-3 Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it—because it does. Give yourselves to the gifts God gives you. Most of all, try to proclaim his truth. If you praise him in the private language of tongues, God understands you but no one else does, for you are sharing intimacies just between you and him. But when you proclaim his truth in everyday speech, you’re letting others in on the truth so that they can grow and be strong and experience his presence with you.

^4-5 The one who prays using a private “prayer language” certainly gets a lot out of it, but proclaiming God’s truth to the church in its common language brings the whole church into growth and strength. I want all of you to develop intimacies with God in prayer, but please don’t stop with that. Go on and proclaim his clear truth to others. It’s more important that everyone have access to the knowledge and love of God in language everyone understands than that you go off and cultivate God’s presence in a mysterious prayer language—unless, of course, there is someone who can interpret what you are saying for the benefit of all.

^6-8 Think, friends: If I come to you and all I do is pray privately to God in a way only he can understand, what are you going to get out of that? If I don’t address you plainly with some insight or truth or proclamation or teaching, what help am I to you? If musical instruments—flutes, say, or harps—aren’t played so that each note is distinct and in tune, how will anyone be able to catch the melody and enjoy the music?

If the trumpet call can’t be distinguished, will anyone show up for the battle?

^9-12 So if you speak in a way no one can understand, what’s the point of opening your mouth? There are many languages in the world and they all mean something to someone. But if I don’t understand the language, it’s not going to do me much good. It’s no different with you. Since you’re so eager to participate in what God is doing, why don’t you concentrate on doing what helps everyone in the church?

^13-17 So, when you pray in your private prayer language, don’t hoard the experience for yourself. Pray for the insight and ability to bring others into that intimacy. If I pray in tongues, my spirit prays but my mind lies fallow, and all that intelligence is wasted. So what’s the solution? The answer is simple enough. Do both. I should be spiritually free and expressive as I pray, but I should also be thoughtful and mindful as I pray. I should sing with my spirit, and sing with my mind. If you give a blessing using your private prayer language, which no one else understands, how can some outsider who has just shown up and has no idea what’s going on know when to say “Amen”? Your blessing might be beautiful, but you have very effectively cut that person out of it.

^18-19 I’m grateful to God for the gift of praying in tongues that he gives us for praising him, which leads to wonderful intimacies we enjoy with him. I enter into this as much or more than any of you. But when I’m in a church assembled for worship, I’d rather say five words that everyone can understand and learn from than say ten thousand that sound to others like gibberish.

^20-25 To be perfectly frank, I’m getting exasperated with your childish thinking. How long before you grow up and use your head—your adult head? It’s all right to have a childlike unfamiliarity with evil; a simple no is all that’s needed there. But there’s far more to saying yes to something. Only mature and well-exercised intelligence can save you from falling into gullibility. It’s written in Scripture that God said,

In strange tongues
    and from the mouths of strangers
I will preach to this people,
    but they’ll neither listen nor believe.

So where does it get you, all this speaking in tongues no one understands? It doesn’t help believers, and it only gives unbelievers something to gawk at. Plain truth-speaking, on the other hand, goes straight to the heart of believers and doesn’t get in the way of unbelievers. If you come together as a congregation and some unbelieving outsiders walk in on you as you’re all praying in tongues, unintelligible to each other and to them, won’t they assume you’ve taken leave of your senses and get out of there as fast as they can? But if some unbelieving outsiders walk in on a service where people are speaking out God’s truth, the plain words will bring them up against the truth and probe their hearts. Before you know it, they’re going to be on their faces before God, recognizing that God is among you.

^26-33 So here’s what I want you to do. When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight. If prayers are offered in tongues, two or three’s the limit, and then only if someone is present who can interpret what you’re saying. Otherwise, keep it between God and yourself. And no more than two or three speakers at a meeting, with the rest of you listening and taking it to heart. Take your turn, no one person taking over. Then each speaker gets a chance to say something special from God, and you all learn from each other. If you choose to speak, you’re also responsible for how and when you speak. When we worship the right way, God doesn’t stir us up into confusion; he brings us into harmony. This goes for all the churches—no exceptions.

^34-36 Wives must not disrupt worship, talking when they should be listening, asking questions that could more appropriately be asked of their husbands at home. God’s Book of the law guides our manners and customs here. Wives have no license to use the time of worship for unwarranted speaking. Do you—both women and men—imagine that you’re a sacred oracle determining what’s right and wrong? Do you think everything revolves around you?

^37-38 If any one of you thinks God has something for you to say or has inspired you to do something, pay close attention to what I have written. This is the way the Master wants it. If you won’t play by these rules, God can’t use you. Sorry.

^39-40 Three things, then, to sum this up: When you speak forth God’s truth, speak your heart out. Don’t tell people how they should or shouldn’t pray when they’re praying in tongues that you don’t understand. Be courteous and considerate in everything.

WHAT WE LEARN—

• Lead with God’s love, as it our lives depended it, because they do!  Jesus is central to all we are and all we do, is in and over all, and is for the benefit of all. 

• “…when you proclaim his truth in everyday speech, you’re letting others in on the truth so that they can grow and be strong and experience his presence with you.”

• “Since you’re so eager to participate in what God is doing, why don’t you concentrate on doing what helps everyone in the church?”
• “When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all…”

• “When you speak forth God’s truth, speak your heart out. Don’t tell people how they should or shouldn’t pray when they’re praying in tongues that you don’t understand.”

• “Be courteous and considerate in everything.”

I get it, don’t you?  To God be the glory.  Always.

Lord,

We often get in the way of your love, mercy and grace in others and for that I repent. As “mature” believers, we sometimes think we are better than a new believer who comes to us for help.  May we always point people to you, the One and Only who is Perfect in every way, and not ourselves. Help us to mentor without forgetting our own sinfulness.  May we encourage others by lifting them up, not shaming them.   Help us to love like you love us.  May our first thought be your love.  Always.  May our words be led by You, for the benefit of all, or not said.  Teach us Lord, for we are still under construction.  None of us has arrived.  We are all still becoming.

In Jesus Name, For His glory, Amen