The Devotional – 1066 – Foot Steps in First Corinthians, On Going

The Devotional – 1066 – Foot Steps in First Corinthians, On Going

When is the last time you walked among a crowd and parted them? No doubt you have not done that recently! However, try speaking loudly in words with no meaning and have your arms raised to the heavens pointing at nothing in particular. What might be the actions of some of the people in the crowd? All too well, some would laugh, some would make way for you to get by and others would whisper to one another that you have a demon in you. Yet on the other hand if you did this in the privacy of your home or possibly within the church where you attend that is like minded in such things you may just get the self –seeking praise you are looking for. Thus it is not on the apostle’s authority that this sign of tongues is popular or unpopular, it is; now get this – Only a sign, or an evidence of a self-serving and childish event.

CHALLENGES & COMMENTS – 1 Corinthians 14:20-25

Children are self-serving, in other words few children understand, that to share is better than to take. Therefore anyone who grows up should put away childish things. The apostle refers to this very thought in Chapter 13:11 explaining that there was a time to be a child, but now that sort of thinking should be laid to rest or at the least passed on to our children and for adults to seek the greatest gift – love. I believe that true maturity is the total expression of agape love. In today’s world if you seek to express this love toward others you are also considered – weird! This then, becomes the measure of how far churches have strayed from the TRUTH.

The word the apostle uses for “malice” in verse 20 is found less than 10 times in the New Testament and it always has to do with being naughty or untrustworthy. I do not know about the feelings of people but I do know that if I do something with the intent of being malicious then I deserve to be treated as untrustworthy. In this then we should be a babe which simply means that even as an adult I could make the choice to be malicious, but if I am to be trusted then I should understand maturity and choose to be so., through the outworking of the Holy Spirit which always expresses “love” before anything else.

There is plenty of evidence of events in the Holy Bible regarding the use of tongues; the apostle refers to Isaiah 28:11-12 which is the strongest among these. Isaiah proclaims a WOE on Ephraim and Jerusalem, he refers to the beauty of these places as a once glorious flower, but because of the drunkenness of association with the world both have been overcome with the wine. People who are drunk, the ones who spend their lives doing this cannot hear sound wisdom, but they do hear the voice of maliciousness.

In other words, it is the truth and wisdom of God that is clearly spoken, notice Isaiah 28:13-15. Those who scorn the warning of the apostle Paul regarding the speaking in tongues, do not hear (even though it is spoken) that the Word of God is provided to them; “Precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little they do not see the trap they set for them self since they fall away (backward). They are eventually broken, snared and caught in their naughty rebellion.

Tongues are not for a sign to those of us who believe (since there is no need), what the believer needs is “Prophesy” and when the church comes together we expect to hear, line upon line, precept upon precept. Here in this passage of Isaiah and this passage in 1 Corinthians and any other passage of scripture that pertains to mature godliness, over and above the childish antics of those who will not allow them self to be properly instructed in the Living Word of God.