Do No Harm

Would God’s people please take
their Bibles once again and turn to 1 Corinthians and chapter
14. And we’ll do this at least one
more time next Lord’s Day as we wrap up this really incredible
study that Paul has introduced us to, a question
that he was answering for the Corinthians. that of the nature
of spiritual gifts, and it has been a rich dissertation on Paul’s part. Several years ago, while I was
working on a project with a friend, a couple of friends, really,
I heard a saying that was new to me, a short three-word phrase,
do no harm. Some of you are familiar with
it if you’re in the medical field. And it was our friend, my friend,
Don Kerr, who uttered that saying. And if you know Don Kerr, he
said very little that was not worth listening to. He’s a no-nonsense
guy filled with decades of wisdom. When he speaks, people listen,
or they should. And when he uttered this saying,
do no harm, it was with reference to a tiling project that we were
doing. As it was, we had a young man
working with us that was a little bit, how can I say this delicately,
zealous. And sometimes with zeal, aggressiveness,
there is a bit of carelessness, even recklessness. And that was
the reason that Don cited this maxim, do no harm. Because evidently in the course
of zealously tearing out the old tile, the young man nicked
one of the kitchen cabinets with one of his tools. Don wasn’t
angry. But he did take opportunity to
try to impart wisdom to this young man. And I immediately
understood what he meant by this principle, that in the course
of trying to do something good, retiling a kitchen floor, one
ought not create more work by unnecessarily damaging something
else in the process. do no harm. Well, we got the tiling job done,
and I went on to learn that that phrase did not originate in the
context of home improvement. The phrase is associated with
what is known in the medical field as the Hippocratic Oath.
Every doctor Every surgeon, every physician, every nurse takes
this pledge to help to save and preserve life, not to do harm. The three, short three little
words saying do no harm is actually attributed to Hippocrates, the
ancient Greek philosopher and physician. And as the oath hence
is named after him the Hippocratic Oath. What that vow means is
that you are always, as a caregiver, you are always to pursue a course
of action that is designed to help and not to hurt a patient. Simple truth. And given that
this little three-word saying is originally speaking of healthcare,
It takes on a much greater importance in that context, doesn’t it?
I mean, it’s one thing to do no harm if you’re tiling a floor. It’s another thing entirely to
do no harm if you’re caring for a sick patient. In the realm
of medicine, it has far greater implications than in a home improvement
project. But as great a contrast as health
care is to a house project, there is an equally great contrast
between healthcare and the Christian ministry. And in a very real
way, what Paul says here as he begins to close out his discussion
of these three chapters dealing with spiritual gifts, essentially
Paul says, do no harm. If you would, I want to go to
the the final portion of this, and in order to set some context,
but not gobble up all of our time by reading the chapter in
its entirety, I want to go back to verse 13, where he’s dealing
with tongues, he’s dealing with prophecy, and a variety of spiritual
gifts. I want to pick up in chapter
14, verse 13, and we’ll course all the way down to verse 33. Therefore, let one who speaks
in a tongue pray that he might interpret. For if I pray in a
tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. What is
the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit and
I will pray with the mind also. I will sing with the spirit and
I will sing with the mind also. Otherwise, if you bless in the
spirit only, how will the one who fills the place of the ungifted
say the amen at your giving of thanks? Since he does not know
what you are saying. For you are giving thanks well
enough, but the other person is not edified. I thank God I
speak in tongues more than you all. However, in the church,
I desire to speak five words with my mind so that I may instruct
others also, rather than 10,000 words in a tongue. Brethren, do not be children
in your thinking, yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking
be mature. In the law, it is written, by
men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers, I will
speak to this people. And even so, they will not listen
to me, says the Lord. So then tongues are for a sign,
not to those who believe, but for unbelievers. But prophecy
is for a sign, not to unbelievers, but to those who believe. Therefore,
if the whole church assembles together, and all speak in tongues,
and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that
you are mad? But if all prophesy, And if an
unbeliever or ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all and he
is called to account by all. The secrets of his heart are
disclosed so that he will fall on his face and worship God,
declaring that God is certainly among you. What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has
a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has
an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. If anyone speaks in a tongue,
it should be by two or at the most three, and each in turn
and one must interpret. But if there is no interpreter,
he must keep silent in the church and let him speak to himself
and to God. Let two or three prophets speak
and let the others pass judgment. But if a revelation is made to
another who is seated, the first one must keep silent. For you
can all prophesy one by one so that all may learn and all may
be exhorted. And the spirits of the prophets
are subject to prophets, for God is not a God of confusion,
but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. We come especially
to those final verses, 26 through 33, where Paul is wrapping up
his great and lengthy discussion of spiritual gifts. And these
final eight verses are his close to this tremendously helpful
address. It’s obvious that Paul wants
to provide the Corinthian church with some enduring principles,
something on which they can build as they seek to remedy some of
the things that were just flat out of control in their church,
so that whatever gift is exercised among them, it will do no harm. It will build up fellow believers
and not tear them down or become a source of division in their
midst. It is abundantly clear by now that the Corinthians desperately
needed such instruction. And so Paul faithfully provides
it right to the very end of his address. Do no harm. And what Paul wants
to provide here is the beneficial design of all ministry efforts. There isn’t a single ministry
that Paul mentions here that would be allowed into the church
if it were to do harm. All ministry is supposed to be
beneficial. All ministry is supposed to edify. We know otherwise that it doesn’t
always work that way, does it? Paul is pointing out the beneficial
design of all ministry efforts, and the first thing that he points
to and provides is protocol for assorted ministries. It’s kind
of a grab bag, really. Verse 26, what is the outcome
then, brethren, when you assemble? Each one has a psalm, has a teaching,
has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all
things be done for edification. just as he had done earlier in
verses 23 through 25, Paul takes the Corinthians, in a sense,
to church. In their thoughts, at least,
he takes them to church, and he asks them abruptly, just like
he did back in verse 15, what is the outcome then? Now, if
you’re If you were with us and you remember back in verse 15,
Paul was drawing a positive conclusion about himself. He uses himself
in the illustration. But here in verse 26, it’s not
as cut and dried. It’s not perceptibly a positive
conclusion that Paul is drawing. Paul is talking about their church
service because he says, when you assemble, and this has reference
to their official gathering as a church, their assembling together
is not just for any gathering, but it is for corporate worship.
It’s that meeting that is in view. And Paul cites a list of
many different features of their worship service. It’s not unlike
what we might find in our bulletin. This is going to happen, and
this is going to happen, and then this, and then this. And
on the face of it, this is not a bad list. Each of these elements
are, or at least at one time were, good gifts to the church. Just glance at verse 26 once
again. When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching,
has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Except for the speaking in tongues,
it pretty much describes any typical church service of our
day. For the first century church,
tongues and revelation and, to a degree, interpretation of those
tongues they would have been regular features of the worship
service. And let’s be clear here, Paul
isn’t delicately presenting the order of service here, as if
to say, first I want you to do the psalm, and then I want you
to do the teaching, and then I want you to do the revelation,
and so on and so forth. He’s not presenting these things
in any kind of an order He just acknowledges, I would also go
on to point out that nor is he even limiting the worship service
in the early church to these five elements, otherwise they
have no preaching. These are just representative
features of the Corinthians worship service. Not so much our day,
and we’ve talked about that. But for believers in the first
century, these were the expected elements of the worship service.
But why does Paul suddenly rattle off these elements? Well, it
seems clear by now that at Corinth, at least, chaos reigned. And these same believers who
clamored for one gift over another also misused the gifts that they
did possess. So when Paul asks, what is the
outcome then? He’s not drawing a positive conclusion. Essentially what he’s doing is
holding a mirror up to the Corinthians so that they might see their
worship service for what it was. And Paul’s citation of this list
is also a description of the elements that contributed to
the bedlam at Corinth. And how sad is that? That the
very blessings that were given to the church for her good were abused to the point that
any intended benefit was lost entirely. The picture that Paul
paints looks like this. They were all eager to get to
church, not to worship, not to fellowship with other believers,
not to hear God’s word taught or preached, and certainly not
to serve. They were all eager to get to
church to flaunt their own particular gift. That’s what was going on
in Corinth. How could disorder not be far
behind? We’ve seen most of these gifts
already, and so briefly when Paul mentions that one member
has a psalm, he’s referring either to a reading of one of the psalms,
not unlike what we do each Lord’s Day, but he could very well be
referring to the singing of a song. Since that’s what psalms are,
They’re intended to stir the saints’ hearts to worship. And
in this case, an individual, maybe he started humming this
on Tuesday, and maybe he looked up the lyrics, and now he really,
this song is heavy on his heart. He can’t wait to get to church
to share it. Or this psalm. from the Old Testament Psalms
was heavy on his heart, and it was richly beneficial to him
personally. He cannot wait to get to church
and read it aloud in front of all the saints. Another member,
however, comes in with a teaching, something that he has studied
and worked on throughout the week, some doctrine. that is otherwise meant to instruct
and nourish God’s people, it’s not a bad thing. Still another
possessing at that time the gift of prophetic utterance comes
in with a revelation. He’s going to bring something
that no one has ever heard before because God gave it to him. Likewise, still another comes
into church with a message, a message to be delivered in a foreign
language, a tongue. And as is proper, alongside of
his fellow believer with the gift of tongues is the brother
with the gift of interpretation. And again, all of these God-given
gifts to the church in their time and place are fully appropriate
for a worship service. And Paul himself would be eager
to have these gifts exercised in a church, but not all at the
same time. And so Paul’s sudden description
there in verse 26 certainly seems to indicate that everyone was
plying or practicing their own particular gift at the same time,
indiscriminately, selfishly, walking all over everyone in
order to promote themselves and their gift as being superior. And it wasn’t just one particular
gift being promoted. This was like a noisy horse race. All of the gifts were in competition
with one another. If you’ve ever observed footage
from the floor of the stock exchange, Remember everybody waving and
clamoring to either purchase or sell? That’s the image that
comes to mind with what was going on in the first church of Corinth. It seems that each variously
gifted individual held their gift with elevated esteem so
that competition and self-assertion was the rule, not the exception.
The result was disorder. chaos, bedlam. This may not mean
that every person in the church was thwarting the efforts of
worship, but it was enough of them that it was a debilitating
distraction. And in order to counter this
production of disarray, Paul gives a single admonition, and
it isn’t even new. It’s a correction that he has
given over and over again throughout this chapter. Just glance down,
please, and look at the end of verse 26. Let all things be done
for edification. That’s it. That’s the encouragement. That’s the rule. And this is
the fourth time that Paul has provided that simple truth. He
spoke of it in the context of the gift of prophecy back in
verse 3. Glance there, one who prophesies
speaks to men for edification. In verse 5, he urged the interpretation
of tongues so that the church may receive edifying built up.
And he spoke of it generally as he does here back in verse
12. Seek to abound for the edification
of the church. In all of those places, just
as here, the word signifies the building up as opposed to the
tearing down of individuals in the church. The one simple fix
for the chaotic manner in which the Corinthians were exercising
their gifts was to seek to exercise those gifts instead with the
goal of edification. And it touches every aspect of
ministry. All things, as Paul says, Let
all things be done for edification. No matter what your gift is,
there ought to be order. It ought to be exercised to the
edification of God’s people. Instead of using their gifts
for their own purposes, they should be used for the good of
the church. Paul says, do no harm, The beneficial design of
all ministry efforts is provided in this protocol for all assorted
ministries. But he provides a specific protocol
for tongues. And we find it in verses 27 and
28. Not only protocol for assorted
ministries, but protocol even for tongues. Look at verse 27.
If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two or at the
most three and each in turn and one must interpret. But if there
is no interpreter, he must keep silent in the church and let
him speak to himself and to God. Now, we’ve already talked about
this. God has given us his full revelation. We don’t need revelation anymore. We don’t need someone bringing
a message from God in a tongue that needs to be interpreted.
We don’t need someone prophesying a bit of revelation that no one
has ever heard given to us by God. God has given us his full
revelation in his word. But now remember, last week we
saw in the previous passage that Paul was once again limiting
or putting tongues in their proper place. They did have a place
in the early church. In the first century church in
Corinth, tongues had their place. And Paul acknowledges tongues
as a gift, even a good gift of God and one that he himself possessed. But it is limited. Tongues are
limited. They have their place, but even
that place is limited. Paul’s purpose is to instruct
his church as to the proper use of this limited gift. And one
of the first things that he indicated about tongues was that it is
not, as the Corinthians believed, the most prominent gift. It just
isn’t. It never was. As we saw in his
list in chapter 12, the last gift that he mentions And they further, the tongues
are further limited by the fact that the gift of tongues is not
given to everyone. If it was the most stupendous
gift, why not give the entire church that gift? In chapter
12, verse 30, he just says it plainly, all do not speak with
tongues. That was a simple fact. And then
in chapter 13, Paul further reined in the tongue speaker by informing
everyone that the gift of tongues one day will cease. And finally,
in chapter 14, Paul goes on to explain that tongues do not in
themselves edify. It’s like half a gift. You can
speak a message in a foreign language, but in the end, you’re
going to need the interpreter to come alongside. so that you
can enjoy the message provided in that foreign language. Because it’s in a foreign language,
without interpretation, it cannot edify, it can’t do anything beneficial
to the saints who are listening. And that is Paul’s immediate
point here in verses 27 and 28. And he delicately and surely
provides the means by which this supernatural gift of tongues
can be made to edify the church. He provides it right here. Look
at verse 27, if you would, please. If anyone speaks in a tongue,
it should be by two or at the most three, and each in turn,
and one must interpret. And unfortunately, the only way
that I personally have ever witnessed tongues being used is in a large
congregation of people all seemingly babbling away at once. And I have to tell you that I’ve
had people in the past few weeks tell me that they have been in
situations in churches where they have seen it properly used. All I’m saying is that I’ve never
seen it. I’ve never witnessed it. And if you turn on cable
TV to the religious channels, you can see plentiful examples
of what I’ve seen. Hordes of people all chattering
away, allegedly exercising the gift of tongues. And I say allegedly
because Paul tells us the manner in which the true, genuine gift
of tongues must be exercised. Look at he says, two or at the
most three. Not an entire congregation. Not
those that are all attending the revival that weekend. Two
or at the most three, not hundreds, not even dozens of people. Rather than a powerful display
of the use of tongues, it’s actually an indictment against them. when
you see an entire stadium full of people all chattering away.
That kind of thing is not of the Lord. In the previous section,
verse 23, Paul’s concern there was understandability. That if
it’s spoken in a foreign tongue, nobody can understand it, and
therefore it’s not edifying. Here, however, disorder is his
concern. And then if more than one or
two or three are all chattering away at the same time, there
is disorder. That kind of thing is dishonoring. In any given worship service,
whether in Corinth or anywhere else, the daily limit is two
or three and one at a time. Paul is waxing very practical
here. This is as much as any believer
could be expected to process on any given Sunday. Three max,
that’s it. And think of it, each of these
messages, this is the reason why, each of these messages would
have to be uttered by the tongue speaker, obviously in a foreign
language, and then they would have to be interpreted. and then
they would have to be processed by each believer in attendance. If the message was of any length
at all, this whole process would get very tedious very quickly,
wouldn’t it? The church just sitting there
waiting for the foreign language version to be completed before
they could even think to pay attention to the interpretation.
Two or three, that’s it, that’s what Paul says. And then he goes
on to say, each in turn, not all at once, one at a time, and
this almost sounds, this almost sounds to me like the schoolyard
playground monitor policing the ladder at the bottom of the slide,
right? How chaotic this church’s worship
service must have been that Paul has to tell them, One at a time. Paul effectively says that speaking
in tongues is not supposed to be a free for all. No more than
two or three and those in turn. And he adds a third limiting
element at the end of verse 27. One must interpret. It’s a must. It’s an absolute. Tongues are
not, as we have seen, for personal edification. It’s not just this
fantastic experience of the Spirit of God coursing through me as
I utter a message in a foreign tongue just as an experience. They are not for personal entertainment. They are not for some supernatural
supercharge of an individual. If they are legitimate at all,
they are to deliver a message, a message that must be interpreted. As he says, that one and only
one must interpret. Because if there were two interpreters
and they both agreed, what’s the point? And if there were
two and they disagree, we have more chaos. Besides, the interpretation,
just like the message itself, is from the one same Holy Spirit. So there can be no variance in
the interpretation of the message. You only need one interpreter.
One must interpret, and we have to believe that tongue speakers,
on the one hand, and tongue interpreters, on the other, were kind of a
team. they were mutually dependent. One could not exercise his gift
without the other. And so they must have known one
another. The church had to have known who the interpreter was
as well, and whether or not he was even present for the meeting.
Because if he’s not present, and the tongue speaker commences
with his message in a foreign language, He is already out of
line. Now Paul knows these people.
He knows their tendencies. And so he heads off an excuse
that may have been used frequently because Paul seems to be aware
of it before it’s even uttered. But Paul, on that particular
Sunday, no interpreter was available. What are we supposed to do, not
use our gift? Paul just quickly says that if
that’s the case, if there is no interpreter, basically he
says no tongues. Look at how directly he says
it in verse 28. If there is no interpreter, he
must remain silent in the church. Zip it, he says. Well, that rule
right there just did away with the great majority of our modern
day speaking in tongues in churches. No interpreter, no tongues. That’s
simple. He must keep silent in the church.
There may not be any ostentatious display garnering attention for
oneself in the exercise of this spectacular gift if it is not
attended with interpretation. That’s the bottom line. And Paul
concludes, verse 28, in his treatment of tongues, really, in this discourse
by saying, basically, no interpreter. The only thing left to do is
to pray silently to God. Let him speak to himself and
to God. It seems strange that God would
give a message by his Holy Spirit, but not provide the interpreter.
And so this immediately becomes suspect, this message in a foreign
tongue. He himself doesn’t even know
what he’s uttering. And if he did, he would be the interpreter. That’s exactly what Paul urged
him to pray for back in verse 15. If he does not have that
gift, if God hasn’t provided someone to interpret, he is to
remain silent. Pray silently to God. Paul tells
his beloved church, do no harm, not in the general use of your
gift, this wide variety of gifts. Do not harm the church with regard
to the gift, the signed gift of tongues or interpretation. And he says, do not harm the
church with the ever valuable gift of prophecy. That’s his
third point. He provides protocol, not only
for assorted ministry and for tongues, but in verses 29 through
33, he provides protocol for prophecy. Glance at verse 29
through 33, let two or three prophets speak and let the others
pass judgment. But if a revelation is made to
another who is seated, the first one must keep silent, for you
can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all
may be exhorted. And the spirits of prophets are
subject to prophets, for God is not a God of confusion, but
of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. Here again, With
regard to the gift of prophecy, Paul could be reinforcing the
revelatory gift of prophecy, which was prevalent in the early
church. We believe passed away even by
the end of the first century because God’s word was by then
complete. But he could also be referencing
the perpetual gift of prophecy in the sense of spiritual instruction. or he could even have reference
to both. And that’s probably the sense
that we have here. No matter what, neither was the
gift of prophecy to be indiscriminately unleashed on the church. Just
as with tongues, Paul says in verse 29, let two or three prophets
speak. No more. You’ve no doubt heard the old
adage, The mind can only take in what the seat can endure.
This is Paul’s version of that. God’s people could not be expected
to endure sermon upon sermon and lesson upon lesson. We need
to think about this realistically is essentially what he communicates.
I’ve said it before, people listen to too many sermons. Let me finish. People listen to too many sermons
that they do not apply. We are responsible to apply everything
we hear. Do you realize that? And so Paul says here, let’s
be realistic. If we’re responsible to apply
everything we hear, we need to be realistic that the average
person can only process and apply so much. Two, maybe three lessons. That’s all. That’s all that God’s
people can take in on one given Sunday. Why two or three? different texts, different passages
of Scripture, different styles, different aims with what is being
taught, whether it’s a rebuke or an exhortation or an encouragement. When I transitioned from here
to Sunday school, my teaching style is very different from
my preaching style, right? Paul says a congregation is blessed
by a diversity of men with different styles. And note this, while
one is speaking, Paul says, let others pass judgment. Now that sounds so harsh, doesn’t
it? Like a long line of dour critics
hacking away at the speaker’s message. The word just means to decide
or to discern, to determine. It is to evaluate. It does speak
of judgment, yes, with a small J, but it’s not harsh judgment. It’s examination, it’s evaluation. The gift of teaching is attended
as it should be with accountability. The questions would go like this.
Did you capture the meaning of the text? Did you explain it accurately? Was your message theologically
and doctrinally accurate? Was it biblical? Were your applications
clear? This verse immediately suggests
a principle that teachers evaluate teachers. That doesn’t mean that
the saints won’t at times, or every week, provide feedback. They do, and they should. And
you’re welcome when you do. But there is a special mutual
submission to be exercised among those who share the gift of teaching.
That’s what Paul’s saying. There’s another rule to be followed
for those who engage in spiritual instruction. Basically, just
like tongues, Paul says one at a time. Look please at verse
30, and this is almost a given It’s so logical that it hardly
needs to be said, but he says in verse 30, if a revelation
is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent.
You can’t both be talking at once. This is just a roundabout way
of saying one at a time. I take it like this. One teacher
is teaching while another teacher is seated, waiting for his time
to speak. He doesn’t just spring to his
feet and start in just because he thinks it’s his turn. The
time is up, it’s my turn, I’m going. In my now 29 years of
ministry, I’ve had two occasions where someone from the congregation
stood up and began to speak while I was speaking. That’s just a
little bit distracting, I don’t advise it. It’s very awkward,
completely out of order. And remember, Paul is pressing
for order in the church. Neither one of those situations,
by the way, ended well. There is a path, an avenue to
teaching in the church. Standing up and blurting out
your supposed message is not that path. Paul says when one
is speaking, when the one speaking is finished, I mean, this is
so simple, he is to take a seat and listen. He is to yield the
floor, or better yet, he is to yield the pulpit or the podium.
I’m not suggesting that a man needs to be in a hurry to sit
down, finish what you have to say, but neither should he dawdle. If there’s one thing that I’ve
observed of brand new, young preachers over the years, is
they don’t seem to know when to quit. They get to the end,
and they can’t end it. And they keep going, and they
think that by keeping going, people will, they won’t notice. They notice. They just keep rambling
on, and I suppose, I guess, that might happen to old guys occasionally,
too. Paul says it so tactfully here,
very directly, but tactfully, As you’re waiting, remain seated. And when you’re finished, sit
down. If this whole thing is of God,
surely the one providing spiritual instruction is himself under
control and able to stop when it’s time to stop. That’s why
one of the first lessons that I give someone who’s going to
take opportunity to deliver a sermon, You’ve got to be disciplined.
You’ve got to discipline yourself. You’ve got to limit your words,
limit your time. You’ve got to have some intentionality
built in to what you’re saying. Paul explains this whole thing
in verses 31 and 32. Just glance there briefly. First,
he gives the purpose for the orderly presentation of these
lessons. If everyone moves along one by
one, then all the listeners may learn and all may be exhorted. comforted, admonished according
to their particular need. After all, that’s one of the
main reasons we come to church, right? We want to hear God’s
Word. We want to hear His Word preached
and taught. We desire to be exhorted, or
at least we should. Such edification is not going
to happen if all the teachers are carelessly talking all at
once. And remember, the goal with any
gift is edification. Speaking one at a time in order
ensures that all of God’s people are going to be built up, and
that includes the teachers and preachers, right? This is just
Ecclesiastes 3. There’s a time to be silent and
a time to speak. Let’s make this really practical
for a moment as we close, shall we? This past week was Shepherds
Conference Week. Five, 6,000 men descending on
the Grace Community Church campus. If you haven’t been, it’s an
absolutely amazing, power-packed week. Basically 12 worship services
in three days. And I’ve noticed something over
the years. John MacArthur, takes two of those preaching opportunities,
two of the 12, the opening and the close. But for the other 10 sessions,
he’s seated in the front row, listening, no doubt evaluating,
but also submitting himself to God’s word, listening and being
edified. Those who provide spiritual instruction
also need spiritual instruction. Paul provides a second reason
for the orderliness of the teaching ministry. Just notice verse 32,
the spirits of the prophets are subject to prophets. Whatever
can this mean? Well, Paul is arguing for orderliness,
not chaos. One characterized it with this
single sentence, a preacher without self-control is no true prophet. The spirit of the prophet is
the inner, the spiritual man, the portion that is directly
influenced by God himself. And those who teach are to be
mutually subjected to one another and functioning as one. Jesus
said it, right? A house divided against itself
falls. Disorder among the prophets is
a sure sign that God is not among them. A man given to spiritual
instruction is submitted to others in that same role. They are to
graciously evaluate one another and hold one another accountable
to the text of scripture. And Paul provides one last piece
of support in verse 33. For God is not a God of confusion,
but a God of peace. And he adds that this is true
in all the churches of the saints. God is not a God of chaos. He’s a God of order. And so orderliness,
especially among those providing spiritual instruction, is to
be expected. in the exercise of our gift,
regardless of what gift it is, no matter how spectacular it
is or how simple, no matter how many people notice the exercise
of our gift or how many are served by it, whenever we exercise our
gift, do no harm, either by creating confusion or disorder or contributing
to strife or disunity or stepping on others or putting yourself
and your gift above others or by the careless misuse of your
gift or the complete abuse of that gift. Any of those kinds
of things does real, sometimes irreparable harm to the body
of Christ. Do no harm. Would you humble
yourself before him?