Speaking Clearly – 1 Corinthians 14:20-25

Luke Cawley has an article, How NOT to Speak Christianese.  He writes, “One of the big cultural gaps that distorts the meaning of language is the divide between people grounded in the Christian faith and those who are discovering it for the first time.  Christians routinely use words like “sin,” “salvation,” “fellowship,” “sanctification,” and “the gospel” without realizing these phrases can leave their friends confused or even repelled.  We easily overlook this disconnection because, when we talk with our friends about most other things (relationships, television, sports, study), we are speaking from within a shared cultural context that makes understanding relatively straightforward.  But when we begin to use words related to the Christian faith, it is like we are from two different countries. Some people say that Christians use their own impenetrable language called ‘Christianese.’”  He says we don’t have to give up our vocabulary, but, “We can bridge the gap by either explaining or translating.”  This is what Paul was telling the Corinthians.

Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.  (1 Corinthians 14:20-25 ESV)

As before, Paul calls for the Corinthians to be mature, not childish in their thinking about living as Christians.  He quotes Isaiah 28, a record of Israel’s complaint that God kept sending them prophets who spoke such simple messages, line upon line, precept upon precept, so that God finally said that in the near future they would be conquered by a foreign people, the Assyrians, who would speak to them in unintelligible tongues as a sign of His judgment.  When God favors you He speaks plainly.  When you are under His judgment the message is obscured, like when Jesus taught the crowds in parables.

Paul’s point is that tongues speaking, if untranslated, is a sign to unbelievers of God’s disfavor.  Prophesying is a sign to believers of God’s favor because He is being understood.  Paul envisions outsiders or unbelievers coming to the public worship of the church and hearing all speak in tongues and thinking all are crazy.  God’s message is obscured from them.  But if they enter and all are prophesying, the message of God penetrates their hearts and exposes their motivations, and they are brought to repentance.

This should guide all we do in public worship.  We should make the message of God plain, not obscuring it in any way, maturely understanding that it is the power of God to salvation, not our clever ways of making it sound exciting.