Moses said to them, “Have you let all the women live? Behold, these, on Balaam’s advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the LORD in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the LORD. Numbers 31:15–16 (ESV)
In Revelation 2:14 we hear Jesus tell us through John that the church at Pergammum were in a dangerous place of compromise, which was expressed by some holding to the teaching of Balaam who taught these Midianites to put a stumbling before the children of Israel in the form of sexual immorality and idolatry. Jesus calls on the church to repent of the sins of compromise and appeasement with the world. Balaam represents false teaching while the women guilty of enticement represent compromise and sin, we must kill both of these with impunity, like John Owen said, “…be killing sin or sin be killing you”
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. 1 Corinthians 14:5 (ESV)
Paul’s main point in this section is to encourage the Corinthians who were fond of using the gift of tongues (the miraculous ability to speak unlearned human and angelic languages), to see the greater worth in prophesying (bringing a message from God under the direction of the Holy Spirit to the body of believers that is intelligible) as this builds up the body which is one of his main points in the letter as a whole.
For the immature it seems the gift of tongues was one of the things leading to pride and a false sense of maturity. We should use our gifts to build up our fellow believers. Prophesying provides insight, warning, correction, and encouragement.. tongues will do this too only with interpretation.
Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue. Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. 1 Corinthians 14:19–20 (ESV)
Paul made clear that he spoke in tongues more than everyone in the Corinthian church, but from the context it seems he did this speaking in tongues “more than them all” in private. Paul makes his point even clearer by saying he would rather speak just 5 words that were intelligible while in the public assembly of the church than 10000 words in tongues which are not intelligible (without interpretation). So the point is again made that we should seek to build one another up, this should be the motivation behind the pursuit of and use of the gifts in the church.
God made our minds not the devil, God wants our minds to be engaged and used for him and his glory, in light of this Paul calls the church to clear and mature thinking. As Christians we need to engage in the discipline of thinking, mediating on Gods word and using our God given intellectual faculties to build up and encourage one another in the Lord.
Prove me, O LORD, and try me; test my heart and my mind. Psalm 26:2 (ESV)
We should walk with a pure heart before the Lord in integrity then we can join David in this prayer asking God to examine us. The New Testament goes even further and reminds us to examine ourselves to see if we are really in the faith see 2 Corinthians 13:5
Leave a Reply