Paul had been talking about
love and it is certainly important for building fellow believers. Just in case
some would swing into extreme and think that gift is unimportant, Paul now
provides the balance. Pursue love by all means, he said, but at the same time
go all-out to discover your spiritual gifts and exercise them.
Paul began by evaluating tongues
and prophecy. More value and priority is attached to the gift of prophecy. Why?
Because in comparison with tongues, prophecy contributes more to the building
of the community. In the speaking in tongues, a person mainly builds himself up,
for he is speaking “mysteries” to God. They are mysteries in the sense that the
speaker himself may not understand what he is saying. But we need to note that God
understands the mysteries that the speaker has spoken.
Prophecies on the other hand
build up the whole community. They could be words that edify, exhort or counsel
and teach the whole body of believers. Because the gift of prophecy is more
communal and communicative, it is given first place. What is prophecy? There
are basically two elements in prophecy. It could be foretelling the future of God’s
plan and it could also be telling forth or proclaiming the word, plan and
purpose of God for now.
Just in case there were
those who would devalue the exercise of tongues, Paul said that he spoke in
tongues, probably more than all of them put together. We can conclude that Paul is not saying that tongues
is unimportant. What he is saying is this: for the purpose of building up the
body, prophecy is preferred. However, tongues could also be valuable, if it is
interpreted into the language the body understands, when it is a message from
God.
In verses 6-12, Paul then
illustrated what he had said with three examples. The first example he used was
himself. He said that they would not have understood him if he were to speak to
them in tongues only. If what he said, either a revelation, or prophecy
concerning the future, or some instruction, they would be of no use if people
could not understand his language. In his second example, Paul used several musical
instruments to prove his point. No one would be able to recognize the tune of a
flute or harp, if the sound that each of them made is not distinctive. How
could soldiers of an army follow a call to prepare for battle if the sound of
the bugle is not distinguishable? Finally, the third example, Paul brought in
the usage of foreign languages. How could people communicating understand each other,
if the language used is not common and understood by all? Won’t they remain as
strangers to each other? Paul then summed up in verse 12, calling on them to go
for spiritual gifts that would contribute to the building up of the whole
community.
The importance of building
others in the body of Christ cannot be over emphasized. Building up oneself is
critical and should not be neglected. But we need to know that as a member of God’s
redeemed community, the God-given gifts and callings must be exercised to build
up the whole community. Let’s learn to see beyond ourselves to the needs of
others. Then let’s ask God for His enablement to contribute to their lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment