God is Really Among us

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

GOD IS REALLY AMONG US

1 Cor 14:18-25

18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 19 But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue. 20 Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults. 21 In the Law it is written:

"Through men of strange tongues and through the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me," says the Lord.

22 Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is for believers, not for unbelievers. 23 So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who do not understand or some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind? 24 But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, 25 and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, "God is really among you!"

NIV

We have to take all of this in order to not get bogged down without the context. Paul is certainly not wanting them to stop allowing the Spirit to manifest His gift of tongues, as he does say that he speaks in tongues more than any of them in Corinth. The Spirit moves freely within Paul and he does not prohibit or quench the Spirit. However, from all the other references we understand that these Corinthians were out of control and may well been operating more in the flesh than in the Spirit, for we also know that Sprit is orderly and is not rude. These instructions are more to remind them to stay in step with the Spirit and that one of the missions of the church is spreading the good news about Jesus Christ. So then if a new person, who has yet to gain knowledge about God hears nothing but gibberish going on, he will not hear anything understandable about Jesus. This should give us a clue as to how we should conduct ourselves within a worship service. True, we sing in English and we rely on the pastor to bring some message pertaining to the scriptures, but does a new unbeliever fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”? How would an unbeliever think if he came into our church? Would he see and hear us prophesying? Doubtful, unless we actually believed in the gifts of the Spirit and did not quench Him, but rather gave Him free rein in our lives. Still, it seems that it falls in the church, not just the pastor to worship in a manner that an unbeliever would see God working among us. This would mean we cannot sit like bumps on a log but must actually worship our Lord in a manner it is visible or tangible enough to be seen or felt by an unbeliever. This is the whole point Paul is making here. We need to be seen and heard proclaiming the truth of God so that the heart of an unbeliever is laid bare and they will proclaim that God is really among us.