1 Corinthians 13:4 - Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
First of all, in Verse 4, AGAPE suffers long. The Greek word for suffers has to do with being slow in reaction toward people.
The second thing: And is kind. It's literally the word useful, spiritually useful. I'm sure it helps to be kind, but God's Spirit makes it spiritually useful. The third thing: AGAPE envies not. There is no jealousy with AGAPE love.
Fourthly: Charity, or AGAPE vaunteth not itself. The word vaunteth is the translation of parade. AGAPE doesn't parade itself around for everybody to see. Fifthly, and this is associated with the fourth one: Is not puffed up. That's the word for arrogance. And it is literally the word for like blowing up a balloon. This is a person who is arrogant.
1 Corinthians 13:5 - Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
Sixthly: Does not behave itself unseemly. The word unseemly means shamefully. Number 7 is one we should all remember: Love does not seek its own. If I am under the influence of God's love, I will not be seeking anything for myself. Nothing!
Number 8: Love is not easily provoked. It's interesting that the word easily is not in the original language but they figured there's got to be some point of breaking here. The word provoked means to jab somebody with a spear. I guess we would call it irritated!
Number 9: Love thinketh no evil. Two words, the word thinketh is an accounting term that means to write things down. And the word evil is the word wrong. So, love does not keep account of wrong. I don't know if you have ever been around somebody that you have not seen for 10 years, but they already have it packed away in their brain "Yea, I know 10 things that you did to me!" They are keeping a list. It's all filed. But love doesn't do that!
1 Corinthians 14:13 - Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret.
Wherefore let him that speaks in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. Again, the word interpret means explain. It does not mean translate! There are people in churches today where someone will get up and "speak in tongues" and then someone else will come forward and translate. That is not biblical.
1 Corinthians 14:14 - For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.
For "if," same thing we had back in Chapter 13 Verse 1. He's not saying he does, but "if" I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. The word understanding is the Greek word NOUS, for perception. He's telling them what they do! If my spirit prays, but I have no understanding (Bypassing the brain), my spirit prays but my understanding is unfruitful.
1 Corinthians 14:18 - I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:
Paul says, "I thank my God that I speak with tongues more than you all:"
What a statement to make there! The one (Paul) who can speak in tongues (languages) more than anybody is the one who is correcting the problem! So, it's not like "Yea, I don't believe in that stuff. I've never done it and I never want to." Paul says, "No, God's Spirit through me has spoken in languages. I speak in languages more than you all." So that's not the problem!
1 Corinthians 14:19 - Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.
Does that tell you priority? Paul says that I would rather speak five words that everybody can understand, and it's for your spiritual benefit, than to speak in these unknown languages in ten thousand words. In fact, in the Greek, it's the word myriads which means infinity. The people in Corinth thought that it was spiritual to do that.
Now I encouraged you before and I will encourage you again to look up the mystic religions, the pagan mystic religions, and you will get a background on this. The spirituality was presented in these meetings as being so emotionally worked up into a frenzy that you bypass your brain. If you're still thinking, you haven't reached utopia.
Now some of the people couldn't reach that state. They were still thinking. They would give them alcohol and get them drunk to help them bypass the brain. And in their worship services, to reach this point of spirituality, it is interesting that they would clang cymbals. That's what Paul said earlier. If I don't have AGAPE, it's just clanging cymbals, noise!
And psychologically, it was to put their brain to sleep like hypnotism through the clanging of symbols. And if you couldn't bypass your brain to reach utopia, they would give you alcohol to drink. Now these people got saved. And now they're in the church and they're doing almost the exact same thing, only they are not doing it with cymbals and the pagan way of doing it. Somebody told them about the "gifts of the spirit."
They were being told that they can reach this level of spirituality and that they can speak the language of angels. They were being told that you are not in the spirit (meaning God's Spirit), unless you bypass the brain. And that's being taught today in the mainstream churches today. If someone says to me "I speak in the language of angels," I would say let's look what the word says about that. Right away they shut you off because they have to think. "Well, you know, there's other people that don't agree with that," or "that's your interpretation."
I was reading up on the mystery religions of the time of the early church. It seems that many of these cults were secretive about their rituals and beliefs; but the Christian faith was open and evangelistic. These mystery cults had a teaching of a dying and rising god and how this god brought salvation. And some of these cults had a mother goddess who gives birth to the god who dies and rises from the dead each year. Jesus was born of a virgin miraculously and died and rose only once for all.
Satan was hard at work from the time just after the flood deceiving people and nations with false gods/beliefs that would imitate the person and work of Jesus, the triune nature of the one true God as three gods: father, mother, and son. By the time that Jesus incarnated in the flesh, the pagan world was deep into such mystery cults. When the gospel was presented it seemed that many pagans eagerly embraced Christianity. It makes me wonder how deeply they held to their pagan beliefs to be so readily converted or even if they found it easy to believe the preaching of the gospel because of the similarities to their corrupt pagan beliefs. We can know that God the Father was at work drawing these people to Jesus and the Holy Spirit was at work regenerating them through grace and that Jesus was the one who chose them for salvation by election. It is so true that Jesus defeated Satan at the cross and despoiled him and his works. Praise be to God who is faithful and true!
"These mystery cults had a teaching of a dying and rising god and how this god brought salvation. And some of these cults had a mother goddess who gives birth to the god who dies and rises from the dead each year.
It is a fascinating study, and I find that there some similarities between the things that are going on in the church today and how the Corinthian church conducted itself.
The Corinthians was a Carnal Church and we see such Worldliness in the Church today.
The work of the Holyspirit is preached in a Charismatic way.
Teachings such as "believers can directly experience the Holy Spirit's presence through personal revelation, emotional experiences, supernatural gifts, ect.
Not enough emphasis on the fruit of the Spirit.
However there is a exaggeration in contributing everything we do to the Spirit when these acts may be the flesh.
The only instruction or teaching about tongues in the whole bible is in 1 Corinthians 14:20-25. That's the only place! Where are people getting these mystic experiences that they call the gifts of the spirit and speaking in tongues? It's only taught in one place. We only have one example.
But they are finding other places, and they are pulling out little words here and there, like in Chapter 13 Verse 1 where Paul says though I speak with the tongue of angels. "Ooh, there it is. You see, Paul can speak with the language of angels!"
But that's not what he said. They're taking the word "though" as meaning even though I do. But that is not what he's saying. Besides that, and this is the golden rule about understanding the bible. Since we only know in part. We don't know everything. God didn't reveal everything to us.
If indeed 1 Corinthians 14:20-25 is the only place that instructs us about tongues, then everything else has to agree with it. All the little things that people try to pull out of the bible, they have to agree with 1 Corinthians 14:20-25.
There are people that will say "Yes, that's what Paul taught, but see over here Paul said that he spoke the language of angels." And they use that as an excuse and a justification for what they do. There's only one example of it and the only instruction is in Verses 20 to 25. These two facts are very important for this particular subject.
Now I would like to share some background information. When these non-Jewish people were in the pagan world, and it goes all the way back to Chapter 12 Verses 1 to 3 (the beginning of this whole section), he says "When you were following after those dumb idols."
The word dumb means voiceless, couldn't speak! And he's chiding them by saying "however you were led by them," like they are alive or something. They are not alive. They don't talk to you. But they were being led, according to them, by the spirit of this idol.
1 Corinthians 14:5 - I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.
I would that you all spoke with tongues, but rather that you prophesied:
Paul is not saying don't do it. But he says, "For greater is he that prophesies than he that speaks with tongues, except you interpret." This word "interpret" means explanation, which is what happened in Acts Chapter 2, that the church might receive edification. Interpret here does not mean to translate.
Now the prophet means a spokesperson, but he receives the word from God and gives the word of God to God's people. He does two things. He receives the word from God and gives the word of God to God's people.
In our day, a prophet would be somebody who takes the word of God, but there's no new revelation because we already have it in written form. He takes the word of God and ministers it to God's people. A prophet would be somebody who ministers the word to both believers and unbelievers. But a teacher would be somebody that ministers to God's people specifically.
As far as tongues are concerned, the only example of tongues (which means languages) is in Acts 2:1-13. This is the only place in the whole bible where you can actually read about it and its description. It's when the disciples were filled with God's Spirit on Pentecost, and they spoke the various languages of the various people that were in Jerusalem at that time. They were known languages that God gave them the ability to speak that they had not known.
1 Corinthians 14:2 For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.
For he that speaks in an unknown tongue. I would like to share this about the King James because we've gone many years wondering why "unknown" is in italics. Obviously, it's not in the original text. But the translators are trying to get a message across. They're interpreting it for us.
An unknown tongue is something that is totally foreign to Christianity. It is foreign to the bible. It's unknown. Now the people who misuse what they call "speaking in tongues" today, they say "See, it's an unknown tongue. I'm just babbling and carrying on and it's something that is unknown to the human."
But that's not true. Paul is applying it to their fleshy human way they are going. It's not spiritual at all. He's telling them, for he that speaks in an unknown tongue, speaks not unto men, but unto God: for no man understands him; howbeit in the spirit he speaks mysteries.
1 Corinthians 14:3 - But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.
But he that prophesies speaks unto men. Three things: To edification, which means development. It's a construction term. It means to build a house. It means development. Secondly: Exhortation, which means to encourage. And thirdly: to comfort.
So, he says this person in your group that's "speaking in tongues," they're talking to God in all these mysteries and you're standing there going "What in the world is that all about?" But the person who ministers God's word, it's part of your development, encouragement, and comfort. You see, he's showing the contrast between the two, and the priority!
1 Corinthians 13:7 - Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Love bears all things. The word beareth means to cover. In essence, God's love is more interested in covering someone's sin and weaknesses rather than exploit them. Love hopes all things. The word hope in Greek doesn't mean I "wish" it would. It's actually a word of expectancy. I expect everything's going to turn out okay. It's not a matter of positive thinking. It's a matter of God's Spirit saying, "God's love has got you covered!" And lastly: Love endures all things. All things! It remains under. It doesn't have to run away. It remains and endures all things.
1 Corinthians 14:1 - Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.
Follow after charity, or AGAPE. The word follow means to chase. In other words, pursue AGAPE. And also, desire spiritual gifts. Again, notice the word "gifts" is in italics. It is literally spiritual things, those things of God's Spirit. Pursue AGAPE and desire spiritual things. That's the literal translation from the Greek. But rather that you may prophesy. Remember prophecy is giving the word of God. It is taking the revelation of God and ministering God's word to people.
1 Corinthians 13:4 - Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
First of all, in Verse 4, AGAPE suffers long. The Greek word for suffers has to do with being slow in reaction toward people.
The second thing: And is kind. It's literally the word useful, spiritually useful. I'm sure it helps to be kind, but God's Spirit makes it spiritually useful. The third thing: AGAPE envies not. There is no jealousy with AGAPE love.
Fourthly: Charity, or AGAPE vaunteth not itself. The word vaunteth is the translation of parade. AGAPE doesn't parade itself around for everybody to see. Fifthly, and this is associated with the fourth one: Is not puffed up. That's the word for arrogance. And it is literally the word for like blowing up a balloon. This is a person who is arrogant.
1 Corinthians 13:5 - Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
Sixthly: Does not behave itself unseemly. The word unseemly means shamefully. Number 7 is one we should all remember: Love does not seek its own. If I am under the influence of God's love, I will not be seeking anything for myself. Nothing!
Number 8: Love is not easily provoked. It's interesting that the word easily is not in the original language but they figured there's got to be some point of breaking here. The word provoked means to jab somebody with a spear. I guess we would call it irritated!
Number 9: Love thinketh no evil. Two words, the word thinketh is an accounting term that means to write things down. And the word evil is the word wrong. So, love does not keep account of wrong. I don't know if you have ever been around somebody that you have not seen for 10 years, but they already have it packed away in their brain "Yea, I know 10 things that you did to me!" They are keeping a list. It's all filed. But love doesn't do that!
1 Corinthians 14:13 - Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret.
Wherefore let him that speaks in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. Again, the word interpret means explain. It does not mean translate! There are people in churches today where someone will get up and "speak in tongues" and then someone else will come forward and translate. That is not biblical.
1 Corinthians 14:14 - For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.
For "if," same thing we had back in Chapter 13 Verse 1. He's not saying he does, but "if" I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. The word understanding is the Greek word NOUS, for perception. He's telling them what they do! If my spirit prays, but I have no understanding (Bypassing the brain), my spirit prays but my understanding is unfruitful.
1 Corinthians 14:18 - I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:
Paul says, "I thank my God that I speak with tongues more than you all:"
What a statement to make there! The one (Paul) who can speak in tongues (languages) more than anybody is the one who is correcting the problem! So, it's not like "Yea, I don't believe in that stuff. I've never done it and I never want to." Paul says, "No, God's Spirit through me has spoken in languages. I speak in languages more than you all." So that's not the problem!
1 Corinthians 14:19 - Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.
Does that tell you priority? Paul says that I would rather speak five words that everybody can understand, and it's for your spiritual benefit, than to speak in these unknown languages in ten thousand words. In fact, in the Greek, it's the word myriads which means infinity. The people in Corinth thought that it was spiritual to do that.
1 Corinthians 14:5 Continued...
Now I encouraged you before and I will encourage you again to look up the mystic religions, the pagan mystic religions, and you will get a background on this. The spirituality was presented in these meetings as being so emotionally worked up into a frenzy that you bypass your brain. If you're still thinking, you haven't reached utopia.
Now some of the people couldn't reach that state. They were still thinking. They would give them alcohol and get them drunk to help them bypass the brain. And in their worship services, to reach this point of spirituality, it is interesting that they would clang cymbals. That's what Paul said earlier. If I don't have AGAPE, it's just clanging cymbals, noise!
And psychologically, it was to put their brain to sleep like hypnotism through the clanging of symbols. And if you couldn't bypass your brain to reach utopia, they would give you alcohol to drink. Now these people got saved. And now they're in the church and they're doing almost the exact same thing, only they are not doing it with cymbals and the pagan way of doing it. Somebody told them about the "gifts of the spirit."
They were being told that they can reach this level of spirituality and that they can speak the language of angels. They were being told that you are not in the spirit (meaning God's Spirit), unless you bypass the brain. And that's being taught today in the mainstream churches today. If someone says to me "I speak in the language of angels," I would say let's look what the word says about that. Right away they shut you off because they have to think. "Well, you know, there's other people that don't agree with that," or "that's your interpretation."
I'm looking at some writings of these Pagan mystic religions,
Interesting literature and explains a lot of the disconnect we have between the world and its worshipers and the things of God.
Blessings
I was reading up on the mystery religions of the time of the early church. It seems that many of these cults were secretive about their rituals and beliefs; but the Christian faith was open and evangelistic. These mystery cults had a teaching of a dying and rising god and how this god brought salvation. And some of these cults had a mother goddess who gives birth to the god who dies and rises from the dead each year. Jesus was born of a virgin miraculously and died and rose only once for all.
Satan was hard at work from the time just after the flood deceiving people and nations with false gods/beliefs that would imitate the person and work of Jesus, the triune nature of the one true God as three gods: father, mother, and son. By the time that Jesus incarnated in the flesh, the pagan world was deep into such mystery cults. When the gospel was presented it seemed that many pagans eagerly embraced Christianity. It makes me wonder how deeply they held to their pagan beliefs to be so readily converted or even if they found it easy to believe the preaching of the gospel because of the similarities to their corrupt pagan beliefs. We can know that God the Father was at work drawing these people to Jesus and the Holy Spirit was at work regenerating them through grace and that Jesus was the one who chose them for salvation by election. It is so true that Jesus defeated Satan at the cross and despoiled him and his works. Praise be to God who is faithful and true!
"These mystery cults had a teaching of a dying and rising god and how this god brought salvation. And some of these cults had a mother goddess who gives birth to the god who dies and rises from the dead each year.
Thanks for sharing!
Blessings
It is a fascinating study, and I find that there some similarities between the things that are going on in the church today and how the Corinthian church conducted itself.
Blessings to you also!
The Corinthians was a Carnal Church and we see such Worldliness in the Church today.
The work of the Holyspirit is preached in a Charismatic way.
Teachings such as "believers can directly experience the Holy Spirit's presence through personal revelation, emotional experiences, supernatural gifts, ect.
Not enough emphasis on the fruit of the Spirit.
However there is a exaggeration in contributing everything we do to the Spirit when these acts may be the flesh.
Blessings
1 Corinthians 14:5 Continued...
The only instruction or teaching about tongues in the whole bible is in 1 Corinthians 14:20-25. That's the only place! Where are people getting these mystic experiences that they call the gifts of the spirit and speaking in tongues? It's only taught in one place. We only have one example.
But they are finding other places, and they are pulling out little words here and there, like in Chapter 13 Verse 1 where Paul says though I speak with the tongue of angels. "Ooh, there it is. You see, Paul can speak with the language of angels!"
But that's not what he said. They're taking the word "though" as meaning even though I do. But that is not what he's saying. Besides that, and this is the golden rule about understanding the bible. Since we only know in part. We don't know everything. God didn't reveal everything to us.
If indeed 1 Corinthians 14:20-25 is the only place that instructs us about tongues, then everything else has to agree with it. All the little things that people try to pull out of the bible, they have to agree with 1 Corinthians 14:20-25.
There are people that will say "Yes, that's what Paul taught, but see over here Paul said that he spoke the language of angels." And they use that as an excuse and a justification for what they do. There's only one example of it and the only instruction is in Verses 20 to 25. These two facts are very important for this particular subject.
Now I would like to share some background information. When these non-Jewish people were in the pagan world, and it goes all the way back to Chapter 12 Verses 1 to 3 (the beginning of this whole section), he says "When you were following after those dumb idols."
The word dumb means voiceless, couldn't speak! And he's chiding them by saying "however you were led by them," like they are alive or something. They are not alive. They don't talk to you. But they were being led, according to them, by the spirit of this idol.
1 Corinthians 14:5 - I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.
I would that you all spoke with tongues, but rather that you prophesied:
Paul is not saying don't do it. But he says, "For greater is he that prophesies than he that speaks with tongues, except you interpret." This word "interpret" means explanation, which is what happened in Acts Chapter 2, that the church might receive edification. Interpret here does not mean to translate.
Now the prophet means a spokesperson, but he receives the word from God and gives the word of God to God's people. He does two things. He receives the word from God and gives the word of God to God's people.
In our day, a prophet would be somebody who takes the word of God, but there's no new revelation because we already have it in written form. He takes the word of God and ministers it to God's people. A prophet would be somebody who ministers the word to both believers and unbelievers. But a teacher would be somebody that ministers to God's people specifically.
As far as tongues are concerned, the only example of tongues (which means languages) is in Acts 2:1-13. This is the only place in the whole bible where you can actually read about it and its description. It's when the disciples were filled with God's Spirit on Pentecost, and they spoke the various languages of the various people that were in Jerusalem at that time. They were known languages that God gave them the ability to speak that they had not known.
1 Corinthians 14:2 For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.
For he that speaks in an unknown tongue. I would like to share this about the King James because we've gone many years wondering why "unknown" is in italics. Obviously, it's not in the original text. But the translators are trying to get a message across. They're interpreting it for us.
An unknown tongue is something that is totally foreign to Christianity. It is foreign to the bible. It's unknown. Now the people who misuse what they call "speaking in tongues" today, they say "See, it's an unknown tongue. I'm just babbling and carrying on and it's something that is unknown to the human."
But that's not true. Paul is applying it to their fleshy human way they are going. It's not spiritual at all. He's telling them, for he that speaks in an unknown tongue, speaks not unto men, but unto God: for no man understands him; howbeit in the spirit he speaks mysteries.
1 Corinthians 14:3 - But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.
But he that prophesies speaks unto men. Three things: To edification, which means development. It's a construction term. It means to build a house. It means development. Secondly: Exhortation, which means to encourage. And thirdly: to comfort.
So, he says this person in your group that's "speaking in tongues," they're talking to God in all these mysteries and you're standing there going "What in the world is that all about?" But the person who ministers God's word, it's part of your development, encouragement, and comfort. You see, he's showing the contrast between the two, and the priority!
1 Corinthians 13:7 - Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Love bears all things. The word beareth means to cover. In essence, God's love is more interested in covering someone's sin and weaknesses rather than exploit them. Love hopes all things. The word hope in Greek doesn't mean I "wish" it would. It's actually a word of expectancy. I expect everything's going to turn out okay. It's not a matter of positive thinking. It's a matter of God's Spirit saying, "God's love has got you covered!" And lastly: Love endures all things. All things! It remains under. It doesn't have to run away. It remains and endures all things.
1 Corinthians 14:1 - Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.
Follow after charity, or AGAPE. The word follow means to chase. In other words, pursue AGAPE. And also, desire spiritual gifts. Again, notice the word "gifts" is in italics. It is literally spiritual things, those things of God's Spirit. Pursue AGAPE and desire spiritual things. That's the literal translation from the Greek. But rather that you may prophesy. Remember prophecy is giving the word of God. It is taking the revelation of God and ministering God's word to people.
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