20071021

The Church in Corinth was a spiritually gifted community of believers. They had turned to God from a pagan and sexually immoral background. From the problems mentioned by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians we see that the Church in many ways mirrored pagan Corinth. Paul addressed at least eleven different concerns, ten of them behavioural. His concern was the theological position behind the deficient behaviour. The believers were convinced that they had “arrived” in their quest for the spirituals. The gift of “tongues” so captivated them that they majored much on it and neglected to “follow the way of love” as taught by Paul, their spiritual father.
At their Church meetings they were enthusiastic in showing off “tongues” resulting in great confusion. Paul pointed out the right way for them to handle “tongues”. He was not giving them the Bible doctrine of spiritual gifts but rather corrections to their rampant abuse of “tongues”. When we study 1 Corinthians 12-14 with this perspective in mind we will grasp the true intention of Paul. He showed the Corinthian believers “the way of love” behaviour they must exhibit in the Body of Christ.
The Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts to believers to be used for the building up of the Church. “When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the Church ” (1 Cor. 14:26). Paul gave clear directions on the role of “tongues” with respect to their private use rather than their public abuse. “Tongues” has public use but with proper “interpretation”. Otherwise “the speaker should keep quiet in the Church and speak to himself and God” (1 Cor. 14:28).
In the past 30 years many churches, including Brethren, have made “meeting changes” as a result of “wave after wave” and “paradigm shift after paradigm shift” of the claimed movement of the Holy Spirit. These changes recently have stabilised. For us in BKC, we have maintained the focus of worshipping God at our meetings. Since we started in February 1936, our meetings have been conducted in a simple manner generally in line with directions called out in 1 Cor. 14:26-40. There are and will be changes. We must ask the Lord if these changes build up the church or do we change because it is today’s church fashion. He will guide us, His Body, for He presides at our church meetings. Always remember: “God is not a God of disorder but of peace” and “Everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way” (1 Cor. 14:33, 40).