Finally, at the very end of the chapter he gives this principle where he tells the Corinthians to “be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues” (v. 39). You see, when you speak about all these difficulties or dangers in the practice of the gift, it might be our tendency to say, “Well, a gift like that which produces obvious disruption in the church and which is attended by so many dangers of misunderstanding probably should not be practiced, and might even be invalid. But Paul does not do that. He has far more balance and judgment than we do.
It is interesting that he does not say, “Don’t do it because this isn’t of God.” On the contrary, he affirms it by saying that it is of God, and therefore you need to make sure you exercise it in God’s way. If you do not, all you are really doing is calling attention to yourself. You are saying that you are the one that everybody should focus on. As a result of that, you fail to benefit the church, and you certainly do not glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now between these two chapters that lay down the principles I have just mentioned, we find chapter 13, which is the great chapter on love. I must admit that in times past when I looked at these three chapters, chapter 13 seemed in my mind to be somewhat of a digression. Oh, I understood that Paul was saying that everything we do should be characterized by love, and that love should be operative in this matter of the gifts as well. But I did not understand how it fit into the sequence of what he is talking about.
I think I do understand it a little better now because what Paul says in chapter 13 is most certainly the prelude to what he says in chapter 14, where he is going to contrast prophecy, by which he means speaking in an articulate and understandable way, with tongues, which refers to speaking in a language that no one understands. He is going to contrast the two by saying that one should desire prophecy rather than speaking in tongues. The reason for this is given in chapter 13. Everything you do should be characterized by love. This is not referring to love in the abstract, but to love both for God and for the Christian community. Paul says that if you are really characterized by love for other people, then you will not do anything in the Christian assembly which is not beneficial to them. It is on the basis of this kind of love that he lays down the principles that we find in chapter 14.
Now, as I say, when Paul contrasts prophecy with speaking in tongues in verses 1 and 2 of chapter 14, he is contrasting that which is understandable with that which is not. We are somewhat misled at this point because in the English language prophecy has taken on connotations of foretelling almost exclusively. A prophet is one who looks into the future and who can tell you what’s going to happen next year, or the year after that, or ten years from now, or whatever it may be. And in the Bible the prophets were capable of doing that, and quite often in their prophecies we do have statements concerning things that are going to come in the future.
But in biblical terminology prophecy is a much broader word than that. Prophecy in part can concern that which is going to come in the future because biblical prophets spoke by the inspiration of the Spirit of God. God sees the end from the beginning, of course, and it follows that part of a revelation of that nature might very well have to do with the future. The word “prophecy” itself concerns not so much that of foretelling, but as is often said in trying to explain this word, that of “forthtelling.” This component of prophecy is the closest parallel in contemporary experience as preaching. It is somewhat different than teaching. Teaching is taking a passage and explaining what it means.
I have sat in university under some magnificent teachers, who were able to take works of theology and even biblical texts and teach them in a very clear and accurate way. Yet these professors were not at all themselves Christians. One of the best teachers at Harvard University was a man who had the ability to do this with the Puritans. He used to teach about Jonathan Edwards, and after he would explain the essence of Jonathan Edwards’ teaching would actually read portions of Edwards’ sermons so effectively and so clearly that at the end of the class, those who were there listening to him would stand up and applaud the professor. Now he did not believe what Edwards was saying; he was simply explaining it accurately. That is what teaching is.
But prophecy is more than that. Prophecy is based upon teaching, but it takes teaching and applies it to the hearers in such a way that it impresses upon them the need to listen to the voice of God speaking in the biblical text by believing it and acting upon it. Your life is going to change as a result of what the Word of God teaches. Paul is saying that if you are thinking about doing good, as you should if you are really a Christian, then when you compare the gift of being able to prophesy or preach with the gift of speaking in tongues, you really have no choice. You must desire the gift to be able to communicate and apply the Word of God clearly.
