TRINITY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH IHOP BIBLE STUDY # 14-1 Corinthians 14: 1 to 25, Respectful Living: Prophecy and Tongues, with commentary. The purpose of the 1 st Corinthian letter is Identifying and Solving the Deeper Barriers To Living in Christian Community. Today s study is the 14 th of 20 lessons. According to our Study Chart: This is the last major section of our chart, Applying A Solution Based On A Deeper Problem. This is a new sub-section based on Respectful Living. This is the second of three lessons in this subsection. ABOUT THIS LESSON: It is helpful to remember that in the first 4 chapters Paul identifies a series of problems, barriers, irritants, and conflicts that are keeping the from doing its assigned work in the world. In chapters 5 to 9, Paul identifies the Deep Barriers preventing the from solving their own problems. Then in Chapters 10 through 20 Paul provides the Solutions to unblock the work and to get them going again. It is helpful to begin to brood about WHY the Corinthian was unable to solve this problem themselves. When we get around to asking this question we ll be dealing with one of the contradictions preventing their own solutions. These contradictions are not named in the scripture. However, Paul provides his solution which gives us some idea about this very deep barrier. At this point we do some intelligent intuitional work that always is revealing. I. The first activity is to read the assigned reading at one time: 1 Corinthians 14: 1-25. Sessions 10 20: Applying A Solution Based On A Deeper Problem Chapter 14: 1 25, Prophecy and Tongues The Strength and Weaknesses To Building The Church The Strength of and the The Important thing is weakness of tongues to build the Arguing the strength/weakness of the gifts of or tongues The context is to build the Church immaturity stands in the way Prophecy builds the See chart at end! Please keep in mind these statements This identifies Gut Trip Analysis. We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. Rather, we are spiritual beings on a human journey. This does not deny our human nature. It helps to put our human nature in perspective to the testimony of the New Testament Scriptures, and the demonstration of Jesus death and resurrection as the Christ. Our purpose as Christians is to synthesize the Outer Life and the Inner Sanctuary. This is living the Awakened Life! We live from the inside out. This is living the synthesized life.
WS: At the beginning of our IHOP Bible Study session, we began by asking what the members thought of the music on Sunday morning. Two special solos were sung in addition to our usual organ/piano duets. Everyone agreed they were deeply moved. Then we raised the question, isn t music a method of speaking in tongues? The IHOPers all affirmed that it was. Next we raised the question concerning the sermon as a method of. Did the sermon seek to build up the? Much conversation was given to this question. It was agreed that the purpose of the sermon is to build up the, but many sermons we hear fall short of this goal. All agree that preaching in most pulpits could be more emotional. Music, it was observed, is an emotional product rather than a rational one. An story-- Recently, on a NBC Inside Edition hour they featured a young black preacher from the South who built up a very large attendance of 3,000 by preaching about the effects of hell. He was commended by Jimmy Swaggart as to be his protégé and the next national leader of the Black community. He had visited with President George Walker Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. One night after retiring for bed, this preacher was arguing with God concerning the death of his grandparents and other irrational national and global events. Suddenly he had a revelation! The revelation was that God already had forgiven the world through Jesus Christ, so what was the necessity of hell? Immediately he changed his preaching message. Jimmy Swaggart wrote him a 24 page letter beseeching him to give up this radical message. His attendance dropped to a couple of hundred. He went bankrupt and his sanctuary closed. At present he is preaching to some down-and-outers in the San Francisco area who received his message with thanksgiving. The preacher considered those who come to worship at angels who come to listen. What s going on here? One IHOPer noted the similarity of the story of the Women at the Well. Another observed the difference between the reactions of those who are conservatives and the legalistic.
II. The second assignment is to work on the following verses: A. Vs. 20. Watch out for the word evil. Gut Trip analysis always translates this word as the Big Lie that while victimized we have a choice to be victims or victors. The Big Liar (The Devil/Demon) is out to convince us there is no hope. This is a lie and an illusion. WS: In all likelihood, this sentence represents the Deep Barrier preventing the Corinthian Church from solving their own problems. They are too close to the problem; they are the problem. Paul s solution is that they are to grow up spiritually. Then he adds a two pronged caveat: In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults. B. Vs. 21, the quotation in Deuteronomy 28: 49. Matthew Henry puts it this way, This chapter is a very large exposition of two words in the foregoing chapter, the blessing and the curse. Those were pronounced blessed in general that were obedient, and those cursed that were disobedient. (Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary. On the web.) Verses 45-68 If God inflicts vengeance, what miseries his curse can bring upon mankind, even in this present world! Yet these are but the beginning of sorrows to those under the curse of God. What then will be the misery of that world where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched! Observe what is here said of the wrath of God, which should come and remain upon the Israelites for their sins. (Ed. my embolden. Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary. On the web.) WS: The danger here is that of moralism. Does God bless and curse? Not according to Gut Trip Analysis. My axiom is The reward for the deed is found in the deed itself. In other ward the blessing or the curse (the reward) is the result of the deeds performed. When we drive according to civil conventions we are awarded the approval of others. If we drive in selfish and demanding ways that break these conventions we incur the wrath of God. Observe, however, the God s wrath always is God s love. We do things to create At-One-Ment, and God smiles. We do things to create the antithesis of At- One-Ment and God cries. However, it we ourselves that punish ourselves either with joy or with pain. God doesn t need to curse us, we do a pretty good job of it ourselves. The evidence is that we feel the pain of our decisions. Or, if you prefer to say, God is built into every decision we make. This may be what the early Jewish writers had in mind since the Jews believed God was in all and with all.
C. Vs. 22, Write out your understanding of this verse. Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers;, however, is for believers, not for unbelievers. WS: The gift of tongues speaking (speaking in the spirit), in and of itself, has value. Paul embraces the experience. Although, some IHOPers concluded that Paul s claim to the use of tongues may have been a play on words he was fluent in several languages. Another IHOPer observed that at Pentecost, each person understood in his own language. Paul is critical of it. However he acknowledges that when unbelievers come upon its use they could interpret it as a spiritual event, however meaningless to them, or they could just think that the user of spiritual tongues could be crazy. On the other hand, is what nurtures believers. Later, in Vss. 25 and 25, Paul notes that unbelievers can be affected by it for a life changing experience. III. The third assignment is to answer the following questions in our usual format. A. How does this material express the surface barriers or problems? WS: There were factions supporting the speaking in tongues as the primary gift of the Holy Spirit while others supported. Underlying these attitudes was selfishness; my way is better than your ways. B. Describe Paul s solution. WS: In vss. 20 and 21, Paul chides the Corinthian for thinking like children in order to impress foreigners who consider tongue speakers as crazy. Again, it is their self-centeredness that prevents them from solving this problem themselves. As noted above, they are too close to the problem; they are the problem. Paul s solution is that they are to grow up spiritually. Then he adds a two pronged caveat: In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults. C. What does Paul s solution suggest about the Deeper Problem? (Note: this usually results in new information.) WS: Paul reminds the to keep this context in mind: Prophecy builds the when tongues speaking, while beneficial to the individual and insiders, tears down the. Since God s will is At-One-Ment anything that tears down the is the antithesis of God s will. Alright folks, talk to me!
Go on to the next page for the chart on Chapter 14: 1 25.
Chapter 14: 1 25, Prophecy and Tongues The Strength and Weaknesses To Building The Church The Strength of and the weakness of tongues The Important thing is to build the Arguing the strength/weakness of the gifts of or tongues The context is to build the Church immaturity stands in the way Prophecy builds the Follow the way of love and The gift of tongues speaks to God The gift of speaks to the Tongues edifies the speaker. Prophecy edifies the Illustrating how is more effective than tongues. Don t be a foreigner to each other It is best to build the over personal spiritual gifts Do both but builds the Your is immature! To foreigners we look like crazy people Prophecy convicts and converts Vs. 1 Vs. 2 Vs. 3 Vs. 4 Vss. 5 9 Vss. 10 11 Vss. 12-14 Vss. 15-19 Vss. 20-21 Vss. 22-23 Vs. 24-25