Adult Bible Study

Adult Bible Study – 1^st Corinthians

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church

Chapter 13

This is known as the love chapter. We know it from having been read at just about every wedding that we have ever attended. Its relationship to the context of the letter is to give foundation to the principles and teachings that both come before and follow. Paul has been teaching the church the essence of love – that is to consider the effects of each individual life upon the other and upon the whole. The need over the issue of eating meat offered to idols was the protection of the weakest member of the church. The teaching directly before this chapter was about the distribution and use of the gifts of the spirit. Pray for those that edify and build up the whole of body of Christ. Those gifts (such as speaking in tongues), which serve as edification of the self, put those aside. Use them in private to talk to God or pray also that someone is there that can interpret.

As in much of St. Paul’s writing, his perspective is from two worlds, this present age and the age to come. Love is the trait by which, when we live it, we know that the next age has broken into this age. This age is limited. This age doesn’t see as clearly as we will in the next age. This age is compared to the lack of maturity in youth as compared to the next when we will be fully matured and see clearly what God has always willed and intended. Our living in love is truly the sign that the present age has been infiltrated by the age to come. Maturity as an adult – as a Christian – is marked by the love that is displayed in looking out for the church – in looking out for one another.

Chapter 14

Except for those who may have experienced the Charismatic movement and manifestation of the spiritual – especially the gift of speaking in tongues – this chapter may seem foreign. The tongues also known as glossolalia are a manifestation of the spirit that Paul refers to as a “gift of the spirit” through the Spirit can interceded for the saints “in sighs too deep to understand”. They ear they may sound like gibberish, or some foreign (unknown language). Within the Charismatic renewal, I have seen them used as “signifier” of who has the spirit and who doesn’t. I have seen them used as a kind of class indicator within the prayer community. Following the love chapter, Paul is sure to put out the point that there is to be no such activity in the body of Christ. The church is for all the saints who have been called and brought in through baptism. What is conducted as public worship in the community is to be “for all” – therefore, his point is, if tongues are to be used in the body of Christ publicly, they must not be uttered unless it is clear that there is someone present who is gifts with the interpretation of tongues as well so that all may understand. This is to simply further the principle that the whole is far more important that the individual in the context of the church.

Prophecy is put forward as the gift of choice – the gift to ask for. Once again, this gift is not completely understood outside of the context of today’s Charismatic renewal movement. When our modern ears hear the word prophecy, we are drawn to images such Nostradamus and his quatrains of the past that are constantly touted as speaking of the unfolding of today – right down to the destruction of the World Trade Center. We think of fortune tellers, and predictors of the future. Not even the prophets of the Old Testament were predictors. They were not taking guesses, reading the stars or reading oracles. The word, “prophesy” means, to speak forth. The prophets of old were sent the Spirit of the Lord. Through that direct inspiration of God they were given a message from God which contained either of promise of things to come or a threat of things to come. Through the prophets God spoke to his people.

This is a good time to mention one more time the importance that God has always placed upon human agency in the fulfilling of his work in the world. God has not (outside of the creation) acted single-handedly. God has acted upon the world through people. God acted through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; through the prophets, disciples, and apostles. It is the very impact of the incarnation of Christ that God took on human flesh and blood and came into the world as a human being to save and redeem it.

Prophets are not soothsayers, they are speakers for God, and Paul is saying, “if you’re going to ask for a gift from the spirit, as for the gift of prophecy – as to become a speaker for God”. This is how God has always communicated directly with his people – he has sent people to speak for him. We can be the people to fill that role.

Paul’s argument comes down to the same thing has been taught through out the letter. On this count also, prophecy is gift that will have an impact on the unbeliever and outsiders. It is a gift that has the power and the potential for bringing them into the church and supporting them, and giving them comfort.

Even the small section on the behavior of women (vs, 33-36), in its context, is about the good order and the appearances to those outside of the body. Nothing is to be done that would turn the outsider away out of disgust. This is perhaps a lesson that any congregation should be looking at, especially, in our current atmosphere and teaching of congregational autonomy. We can do anything that we like. We have no outward regulating body watching over us; but what do we put forward as the image of the body of Christ to this present age? It’s an important question. What witness to we give to the present age?

Wednesday, January 28, 2004