I invite you to turn with me in your bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 14. 1 Corinthians 14.
Last week we examined the first half of the chapter and saw some important lessons from Paul about what Christian worship should look like.
We saw that the gathered worship of the church is to be intelligible, it is to be understandable. Thus, argued Paul, gifts like speaking in tongues should be reined in and used accordingly. And because prophecy is more edifying to more people, it is to be preferred to tongues. That could lead Paul to make the statement that he would prefer 5 words said intelligibly over 10,000 words said in a tongue.
Also, we saw that the entire conversation was to be both motivated by love, and aimed at the edification of the congregation as a whole. He said that multiple times, that the building up of the church is the aim, not merely an individualistic worship experience.
Further, because tongues are a gift for unbelievers and prophecy is for believers, the ordering of a gathered worship service has implications for how the world views the church. Disorderly, unintelligible worship is repulsive to an unbeliever, while orderly and intelligible worship lets all parties involved know that the presence of God is active in that place.
With that brief reminder of where we have been, let’s continue our study by reading the second part of this chapter, starting in verse 26, through the end:
26 What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. 27 If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. 28 But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God. 29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. 30 If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. 31 For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, 32 and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. 33 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.
As in all the churches of the saints, 34 the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. 35 If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.
36 Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached? 37 If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord.38 If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. 39 So, my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. 40 But all things should be done decently and in order.
In order to help us frame our discussion, let’s begin by noting the major parts of Paul’s argument. As has been helpfully noted, the main things are the plain things and the plain things are the main things, and the main things in Paul’s teaching in this passage are clear enough.[1]
If I may state plainly at the beginning that Paul’s major thesis is to be found in verse 40: All things should be done decently and in order. What should worship look like? Last week we said worship should be intelligible, and this week we see that worship should be decent and orderly. Not shameful or chaotic, but decent and orderly.
What that decency and order looks like will be spelled out in the verses ahead, but for now note that worship should be decent and orderly. Why is that the case?
Paul gives us his theological rationale for such orderliness in verse 33. Look with me: For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. God is a god of order, not chaos. He’s a God of peace, not confusion.
And that makes sense. If these gifts are given by the very spirit of God, then there would be no reason to think that the worship of a God of peace, motivated and inspired by the same spirit of that God of peace, would be anything less than a peaceful and orderly worship experience.
Chaos in the church speaks to the nature of the God being worshiped, and if a worship gathering is marked by disorder, then we are saying something about the nature of God himself. So we should be careful to make sure our worship is fitting to the nature of the God whom we purport to worship.
Worship should be decent and orderly, and not shameful and confused. It should be peaceful, and not chaotic.
Now let’s jump into the details and walk through the passage. We will note three sections in the text, which I will outline in this way. First, a word on worship, then a word on women, then a word of warning. A word on worship, a word on women, and a word of warning.
Let’s begin with verse 26 and see A Word on Worship.
26 What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.
Part of the chaos it seems was present in the Corinthian worship services was a result of individual clamoring for their favorite expressions of worship. Some wanted to sing a particular song, some wanted a particular teaching, some wanted to express their particular gifts. Each one wanted what they wanted, and they wanted it now. Worship wars are not a new thing that bubbled up with contemporary Christian music.
And to combat this jockeying in worship, Paul reminds them again of one of the major principles: Let all things be done for building up. Edification of the body is the aim. It’s not about individual preferences or demands. It’s not about what I want to sing or what you want to talk about. It’s about what is needful to the body, for its edification.
And if there is to be edification there needs to be order. Verse 27
27 If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret.
We can’t have everybody speaking over one another. We need order. Apparently there were people speaking in a disorderly manner which was not conducive to edifying worship.
Similar to what we discussed last week, for tongues to be edifying, to be intelligible, it must be interpreted by somebody who speaks that tongue. But it appears that even that wasn’t happening all the time in Corinth. Verse 28:
28 But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God.
Tongues without interpretation are meaningless. To use Paul’s analogy from earlier in the passage, it would be like someone banging on the Piano and not playing any music. It is just noise, unharmonious, chaotic racket, and so it would be better for them to just remain silent.
We’ve discussed tongues at length previously, so we can move onto the next verse and see that the same orderliness needs to be applied to prophetical instruction:
29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. 30 If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. 31 For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, 32 and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets.
What does all that mean? Well, it means that for worship to be orderly, prophecy can’t just be uttered willy nilly. We need some structure, we need some guardrails.
Let someone speak, and then let the others weigh it. It had to be sifted, tested, applied in light of the prior revelation of God.
Paul uses similar language in 1 Thessalonians 5 when he wrote: “20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good.”
John says something similar in 1 John 4: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
Prophecies needed to be sifted, to be tested, to see whether they conform to God’s prior revelation or not. Giftedness alone was no assurance of reliability, and so the testing of the word needed to be done.
Even the Apostles were subject to such verification, as you will remember the Berean believers who were commended in Acts 17 for searching the scriptures daily to see if what Paul was teaching them conformed to God’s word.
And the same is to be done even today. Everything you hear from this pulpit, or in any book, or in any podcast or video, needs to be tested against the touchstone of God’s word.
Part of the problem of charismatic movement is that self-proclaimed prophets anoint themselves to speak on behalf of God. DA Carson, who I don’t agree with on everything in this area, but who’s book I’ve increasingly found helpful, has this to say about the problem of uncritically listening to would-be preachers and prophets:
“One of the more troubling aspects of some parts of the modern charismatic movement is the frequency with which prophecies are given as direct quotations from the Lord… This aberration (and from the biblical point of view, that is what it is) is then compounded by too far a little attention to the importance of Paul’s exhortation to weigh carefully what is said, or, in 1 Thessalonians 5, to test everything… and a hold on to what is good.
The inevitable result is that some charismatic leaders and their followers treat the prophecies of their leaders as if they possess the unqualified authority of God, himself, and such authority on American religious television programming is then easily transmuted into a fundraising device.
God has given the leader a prophecy that commands him to build something, and to tell the people to send in so much money; no community of believers carefully checks out this claim, nor does the leader submit himself or herself to the evaluation of spiritually minded community. The resulting exploitation is manipulative, arrogant, sometimes dishonest, corrosive to the leader’s humility, and destructive to the followers’ spiritual maturity.”[2]
I think Carson’s assessment is spot on, and he even writes as a convinced continuationist.
Brothers and sisters, this must not be so. We must have a thorough knowledge of the scriptures, and listen carefully for the teaching on God’s word, so that we can test it for faithfulness and reliability. I urge you to do that with what I am teaching tonight.
The ultimate test of the faithfulness of some teaching is not what feels right, or what is pleasing, or what is culturally acceptable, or what is easiest.
The ultimate test of any teaching’s faithfulness is this: DOES THIS MATCH THE WORD OF GOD? Does this conform to the revelation of God? If it does, then it will edify and promote orderliness. It will tend toward decent and God-honoring worship.
Why? Verse 33:
33 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.
God will not contradict himself. He would never and could never reveal something today that contradicted what he said before. A God of peace will never produce chaos and confusion. He will edify through his word.
Moving on, that was a word on worship, next we will see a word on women. A Word on Women. Starting at the end of verse 33:
As in all the churches of the saints, 34 the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. 35 If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.
Here we have a text that is admittedly difficult on the surface. Many questions arise. Is Paul simply addressing a problem unique to Corinth, or is he giving a universal admonition? Are women forbidden to speak in any way in worship, or just in particular ways? How does this relate to us today?
I won’t recount all the clearly wrong interpretations, of which there are many. Instead let’s take the questions one at a time.
First, is Paul addressing simply a problem unique to the Corinthian church, or is he giving an instruction to all Christian churches?
I think that question is answered by looking both at our text, and at other Pauline writings. For example, verse 33 clearly says “as in all the churches of the saints.” That seems to me that Paul is not simply addressing a Corinthian problem, but a temptation for all churches.
The same logic can be seen in 1 Timothy 2:12, where Paul forbids a woman from teaching and having authority over a man. What’s his rationale there? Not some specific problem in Ephesus, but he bases his argument in the garden. He writes:
I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.
Woman was made second, not first, and was made as a submissive help mate, and therefore it is fitting that she submit to the authority and teaching of the one that was made first. All of this is built upon universal principles and patterns built into creation, not some contextual argument isolated to Corinth or Ephesus.
So, to our next question, does Paul’s instruction mean that women must be silent in every area of worship?
Some interpreters take this passage to mean that, but I am not convinced of that. Why? Well, what’s the context? The immediate context in 1 Corinthians 14 was on the weighing of prophecy. That’s verses 29-32.
It seems to me, and it is worth noting, this is the majority interpretation of this throughout church history, is that women were not forbidden from speaking altogether, but were forbidden from the authoritative exercise of the weighing of prophecy.
The weighing and testing of prophecy possessed a sort of instructional and applicational dimension which was authoritative, and therefore to be restricted to men.
That conforms with Paul’s teaching in 1 Timothy 2, and to the rest of scripture, where the authority of leading and instructing was reserved for men.
And it should not be shocking to us, given what we see today, that the roles of gender were confused in the worship services where the spiritual gifts were used in a disorderly way. Many of the charismatic churches and movements today that emphasize tongues and prophecy also tend to have very prominent roles for women preachers and prophetesses.
The same problem was in Corinth, and it survives today.
And so by way of application, men, we need to make sure we are doing our homework, and are so thoroughly steeped in the scriptures and Christ-like in our leadership, that we don’t leave a vacuum, either in the church or in the home, that women feel like they must fill.
In fact, Paul’s argument, that women should save their questions for when they get home and ask their husbands, assumes that the men would have some ability to field the questions. Men we need to be diligent, prepared, perhaps not with every answer, but endeavor to have a biblical knowledge that will enable us to try and answer the questions in a biblically-informed way.
So often in the church and in the home, the abdication of man’s role leads to a situation where women are the ones with the biblical knowledge, and they feel the need to step up and take the reins. But God would warn us men against such apathy.
But I also need to say that we should be joyfully seeking opportunities for women to be involved, both in the worship service, and in areas wherein the they can be exercising their own spiritual gifts. Some women can sing and thereby edify the church. Some can edify through pray, as many have in our pastor-led prayer times during the evening service.
Some have been gifted to teach. And we need to be diligent to find appropriate opportunities for them to do that in a way that edifies the body, and conforms to biblical principles for how God has ordained the church to function.[3]
That’s should be our goal: decent and orderly worship that conforms to God’s pattern for leadership and submission, all rooted in love and aimed at the edification of the body.
Finally, before we move on to the final section, let me address one more question, that some people believe to be an inconsistency in Paul’s argument regarding women. In chapter 11 Paul speaks of women prophesying, but here in chapter 14 he says the women need to be silent. So, which is it Paul?
Of the possible interpretations, I’ll tell you the two that seem most likely. The first is that Paul was simply addressing head coverings there in chapter 11, specifically about women prophesying with heads uncovered, and not addressing the legitimacy of such an action in chapter 11. He knew he’d get to it later, and so he just left it unaddressed there, knowing that he’d address the women prophesying element later on.
That interpretation doesn’t seem likely to me. Rather, as I mentioned above, I think this verse in chapter 14 is about the EVALUATION of prophecy. We know from other scriptures, like Acts 2, Acts 16, Acts 21, that women were prophesying in the early church, and that was permitted. The Apostles didn’t seem to have a problem with women properly prophesying.
The problem comes in the evaluation, the testing of prophecy. She shouldn’t be engaging in the weighing of prophecy, which would akin to our authoritative teaching and preaching. That to me seems to be the most logical of the possible alternatives.
I hope that makes sense. Judging by the looks on your faces, I feel like I may have lost some of you. I hope not.
Lastly and very briefly, we have seen a word on worship, and a word on women, now A Word of Warning. A word of Warning.
36 Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached? 37 If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord.38 If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. 39 So, my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. 40 But all things should be done decently and in order.
Paul reminds the Corinthians of where the gospel came from, of where they heard the truth, and encourages them to recognize the authority of what he is saying.
He’s not being mean or chauvinistic. He’s writing the command of the Lord. These aren’t trifling matters. The worship of God and the order of that worship is a matter of significance.
He says in 38 that to reject the Lord’s instruction in this matter, to fail to recognize it as the Lord’s teaching, means that you are not to be recognized. To ignore the Lord in these areas, is sentence yourself to be ignored.
The church has skirted around many of these issues for a long time now, to its own hurt. But Paul would remind us that we mustn’t ignore God’s word, lest we ourselves become ignored.
Rather, all things are to be done decently, and in order. Motivated out of love, and aimed at the edification of the church. That is our charge. The question to us is, will we be faithful with the charge, or will we ignore it, to our own peril.
[1] I’ve heard Alistair Begg say this many times. Much of this sermon is informed by Begg’s thought, as well as: D. A. Carson, Showing the Spirit: A Theological Exposition of 1 Corinthians 12-14 (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2019); Kevin DeYoung, Men and Women in the Church: A Short, Biblical, Practical Introduction (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021).
[2] Carson, Showing the Spirit, 157.
[3] Kevin DeYoung makes a similar argument. Men and Women in the Church, 62.
