Lovely Worship

1 Corinthians 14:1-19

Introduction

Do you enjoy traditional worship? Before you answer that, we better be clear on what we mean traditional. At this point in time after months of online services, any in-person worship taking place in a church building, no matter how recent the songs, may feel like traditional worship. But perhaps you liked when we only used the hymns from our Baptist hymnal. But then again, our congregation is older than that hymnal and many of the hymns in it. But pushing back farther, there was a time when many Christians preferred singing Psalms and what we consider the old classic hymns were considered too innovative and worldly.

If we go back four hundred years when the Baptists were still a new movement and the King James Bible was a new translation, they would be meeting in private locations rather than church buildings. Going back five hundred years to the dawn of the Reformation, the first Protestants were trying to figure which parts of Roman Catholic worship to retain. Going farther back, most Christians were part of the Roman Catholic Church.

If we keep pushing back on tradition, it will go back until we hit the first century. We will soon be starting a series on Acts, which will give us a look at the early church. But that is not what we are going to look at today. For the moment, we are going to focus on a worship service that is described in one of Paul’s letters. We don’t have all the details that we might want, but it does provide some principles that are very applicable to our current situation.

First Century Worship

Have you ever wondered what those first worship services were like? We probably apply our own preferences to what we think they looked like. If music is our passion, we assume that those services focused on music. If liturgy is our passion, we assume that those services focused on liturgy. If expository preaching is our passion, we assume that those services were focused on the sermon.

The truth is that we don’t know exactly what those services looked like. We do know what wasn’t there. There definitely were no church buildings and so these services would take place in homes, which were usually not that big. They also did not have seminary trained, ordained and paid pastors leading the services. There were leaders and some were gifted in teaching, but there was no clergy and lay divide.

But Paul does give a bit more information. He starts this passage with the exhortation to “Follow the way of love.” Keep that in mind, because everything he says after this is to illustrate that principle.

Now the rest of the passage may make you feel uncomfortable, especially if you don’t have any Pentecostal or charismatic tendencies. I completely understand that. I remember the first time I attended a Pentecostal worship service after growing up in an Anglican church. It was definite culture shock.

But what Paul is describing here is not a Pentecostal service, except for the fact that the church was born at Pentecost and all we do is in the shadow of Pentecost. He is just describing a worship service. It would have been the same in Corinth as it was in Rome as it was in Antioch.

What Paul does here is compare the use of speaking in tongues and prophecy. There are differences of opinion as to what these are. Some see tongues as the ability to speak foreign languages for missions and prophecy as the gift of preaching. I understand speaking in tongues as non-intelligible speech that is used as a personal prayer language and prophecy as Spirit-inspired speech used to encourage believers. Whatever the interpretation, the principle will be the same.

Paul argues that in the context of a worship service, prophecy is better than speaking in tongues. It is not that one is more spiritual than the other. It all comes down to what we want to accomplish in worship. Many people, even today, believe that the point of worship is for the individual to connect with God. That is not the point of worship. The point of worship is for the community to connect with God.

Speaking in tongues is a great way for an individual to connect with God. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, Paul claims that he speaks in tongues more than any of them. The only problem with it is that it only helps that one person. It can only benefit the rest of the worshiping community if there is an interpreter who can share the meaning.

But when someone prophesies, they are doing it in the language of the people gathered. Because of that, all of the people are edified and everyone is drawn into the presence of God. Prophecy is not better than tongues but it benefits more people than tongues.

Remember how Paul started? “Follow the way of love.” His guidance for worship is not for each individual to seek what is best for them but to follow the way that is most loving toward others.

Twenty-First Century Worship

How do we apply this to our current context? The point is not that we need to add in more prophecy or take a strong stand against speaking in tongues. In many ways, what Paul is talking about here has very little to do with those spiritual gifts.

The foundation for all that Paul says here is an attitude of love toward one another. How do I know? Right before this passage is 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter. People mistakenly believe it is about love in the context in worship. It is actually all about the love Christians are supposed to show toward each other. So if you thought that you only need to show 1 Corinthians 13 love to one person, you are out of luck. 

What Paul is saying here is that our guiding principle for worship is not personal preferences but rather love for other people. I understand that this is hard because I have my own personal preferences. But the way of love is the way of Jesus.

What does this look like for us? For one, it may help us to not hold our preferences on style so tightly. This is something that both people who prefer hymns and those who prefer newer songs need to hear. As we prepare to return to in-church services, it also guides us through that. Our personal preference might be that each one of us sing loudly our favourite songs. But if the loving thing toward others is to avoid congregational singing, that is what we need to do. It is the same idea when it comes to wearing masks. I hate wearing masks. But if that is what is needed to help other people, that is what I need to do. Paul makes it extremely clear here that worship is not just about what we personally prefer. It is first of all about God and secondly about what is loving toward others. Our personal preferences come a distant third.

Conclusion

I started by asking if you liked traditional worship. If we push back tradition as far as it will go, we get to an interesting place. It brings us to the exhortation of “Follow the way of love.” From what we can tell, the Corinthian Christians preferred speaking in tongues as their public way of worship. But tongues without interpretation is by definition, completely individualistic. While we at Queen Street Baptist Church may or may not speak in tongues, the temptation is the same. And here I am speaking for myself as much as anyone. We want what makes us feel good, even in, or especially in worship. Paul corrected the Corinthians by reminding them that it is not about them, it is about their brothers and sisters in Christ. At some point in worship, whether during a song or a prayer or some reading, we will encounter something that isn’t what we like. That’s the moment we have to ask what is best for the community rather than for ourselves. If you don’t like it, just keep repeating, “Follow the way of love.”