"It Still Has Use"

1 Cor. 14:26-36
    We might be under the false impression that because we don’t have miraculous measures of the Holy Spirit today, then the sections of scripture concerning them are irrelevant to the church. This could not be further from the truth. To start with, we can learn from the struggles that our 1st century brothers and sisters faced. In 1 Cor. 13 Paul writes the church concerning their love for one another. He did not simply put that randomly in the middle of the book for fun. First, he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to do so, 2 Tim. 3:16-17 & 1 Cor. 11:23. Secondly, our first century brothers and sisters thought that because they had different abilities, that meant that some were more worthy, or “super christians” (1 Cor. 12). We can learn from these things to stay humble and that humility will help us love our brethren and grow together with them. Also, there are pressing things the church faces today that we can learn from Paul’s writings concerning tongues. We know that tongues are different languages that men were able to speak without previous learning (Acts 2:4-8). Seeing that tongues are languages, we can take the commands concerning speaking in tongues and apply it to the Lord’s church in the 21st century that is multi-lingual. 1 Cor. 14:27 says that no more than 2 or 3 tongues should be spoken, they must be done in turn, and that there must be an interpreter. If I speak Spanish and deliver a Spanish sermon to our congregation, not only would it not be edifying to you all (Eph. 4:11-12) it would be sin. Now if we had a Spanish speaking guest preacher come in and had an interpreter present, we would not be violating God’s law. Lastly, we should make sure we are taking the opportunity to think deeper about God’s word. Just because it doesn’t have immediate application, doesn’t mean it’s not useful to us. I love you all!

In His service,
Steven Hugley