1 Corinthians 14:26 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Corinthians 14:26

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Paul now addresses the platform party, those who are leading the worship service. You cannot understand 1 Corinthians 14 unless you ask, ‘Who is the apostle addressing?’ Well, of course, he is addressing all the church. Yes, but who is he particularly speaking to in this chapter? The answer is, he is speaking to the leaders of the church. He means all the church to be instructed, but he is giving instructions to the leaders of the church, and if he is not doing this from verse 1, he certainly is doing it from verse 26. If you miss this, you will misunderstand some of the great parts of the chapter. He is addressing the pastors, the elders, the deacons, the prophets, the tongues speakers, and he indicates in the passage that they are, what you might call, the platform party of the church at Corinth. How many of them were there? Five, as at Antioch? Six, seven, eight, perhaps? Eight at most. We know this because of what he says in this verse: ‘How is it then brethren, when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, a doctrine, a tongue, a revelation, an interpretation?’ Really? Well if he literally means everyone in the church, it’s commonly thought there were a thousand to fifteen hundred people in the church at Corinth. If a thousand people in the church at Corinth all bought a contribution like this, and let us say each contribution was two minutes long, then the service would have taken thirty-five hours. These instructions are not for the whole church; he speaking to the leaders of the church. Every one of you brings something: a hymn, a doctrine, an explanation, and, of course, many of them are going to take much more than two minutes. A preacher will take thirty to forty minutes. There is another clear indication of this as we go on in verse 30. ‘If anything be revealed to another that sitteth by’ – they are sitting by: this is the platform party. It is interesting that tongues speakers come under the same rules that are given for prophets. Here in this chapter we will see two or three tongues speakers at most in the public worship service; just as two or three prophets at most. Now, we saw in the 13th chapter of Acts that in Antioch there was a sum total of only five teachers and prophets in the church at Antioch, which was a very large church, and two of them, Paul and Barnabas, were sent out on a missionary journey. That gives you an indication of how few prophets there were, and possibly how few – some people have called them junior prophets – tongues speakers who continued to speak an inspired word from God.It is plain that they did all these things, because all four departments of ministry, present to some extent in every sermon preached, are mentioned in this chapter – doctrine, exhortation, evangelism, and comfort or uplift, inspiration of the people. So the prophet not only gave his prophecy, but he applied a word of exhortation. And there must be no disorder; they must yield to each other.

Application

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This passage is the main proof text for those who wished to worship in a free and open manner, with many people leading, participating, and giving a word. Timothy, one of the first prototype pastors, is told to train up others also for the task of preaching and leading the church. He is taught by Paul and given very singular individual responsibilities. One such responsibility is to be very careful and very diligent in the public reading of the word of God (1 Timothy 4:13). We are getting all these pictures of the New Testament churches that in some ways followed straight on the heels of the Jewish synagogues, which had their elders and their set aside leaders. So, it was a lead ministry, a qualified ministry. Suddenly, in the midst of all this, some would have us to read 1 Corinthians 14.26 as though it gives us an entirely different picture of the church. This is also the form among the Plymouth Brethren and the Charismatics. They don’t even bother to defend it now, but just assume it. The idea is that there should be no officiating person, but a priesthood of all believers, which according to them means that no one can lead or be in overall charge of the service. They talk about the presidency of the Holy Spirit. Some regard the minister as an arrogance against the word of God. Paul is about to limit their worship. He names 5 elements of worship. Again, everything hangs on who is addressed here. The brethren say Paul is addressing all, but verse 34 makes plain that half are ruled out. It is not even all the men. Tongues speakers and prophets are limited to three. We should not be surprised that every element is a regulated element. Who was allowed to bring doctrine? Only those appointed to teach. In 2 Timothy 2:2 Paul says, ‘And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also’ (2 Timothy 2:2). How could Timothy implement that if just anyone could jump up and contribute to the service? That would be confusion, and God is not the order of confusion, or free expression.

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Introduction

1 Corinthians 14:26 Commentary and Bible Study