NOTES for Co1 14:20-40

According to Paul's words, the problems with the adequate understanding of the words of the Savior that can enter the Kingdom only those who liken to the children, already belonged to the Christians of the first and second generation. There was probably, in the Corinthian church people thinking that to be children means refusing to use one’s own reason, that if it is necessary to be like children, then the head does not need it, but it is necessary to live with "the heart". In practice such a position brings either to total incoherence in the spiritual life (and not only in the spiritual), or in the fact that the one, who does not wish to live with his spirit, is obliged to live with the one of another.

The situation strange at first sight, for an adult is simple, however it is explained by the fact that it allows the one who lives like that to shirk responsibility for his own life, shifting it to someone else, for quite “evangelical” basis. And the apostle was obliged to remind in his message to the Corinthian Christians that Jesus, when comparing those who come to the Kingdom with children, meant something completely different.

He spoke about the relation of the children to this evil, which is more than enough in the fallen world. And the problem here is not probably in the fact that the children do not know evil: already Augustine observing attentively the children understood perfectly that children sin less than the adults not because there is less sin in them, but because they do not have enough strength to sin "in an adult way". Probably, the apostle also wanted to say the same thing: generally a Christian must be able to think, as know how to do it adult people, but, when it comes to evil, it will be good that the mind of the Christian refuses to help him in evil deeds.

Such Paul's reasoning, as we see, is considered as ideal for Christians. But there is another aspect here: the relation to evil. In the normal case, the child’s view of the world is an optimistic view, it is necessary to try a lot to make of a child a pessimist, or especially a misanthrope (although there is of course here nothing impossible for the fallen man). But the optimism of the child does not mean that children do not notice this evil, in which lies the world. It is just that this knowledge does not make them pessimists. Evil is not in the vision of the world of the child defining this world at first. And here adult Christians really have what to learn from children.

Apostle Paul explains to us today that infancy and adulthood are two parts of the paradox simultaneously existing in our life. We are called to be at the same time small, powerless, stupid in everything, where we try to make malice, - so that our malice becomes small, powerless and stupid, - and adults, wise men where we follow the Christ. We can see a special example of such a life in the holiness of the God’s fools for Christ sake, so respected in the Church. From the point of view of this world, Christianity can show itself "folly", but, as Paul writes "we have the spirit of Christ ".

Of the two very characteristic miraculous gifts of the ancient Church, the gift of prayer in other tongues and the gift of prophecy, the apostle Paul unhesitatingly chooses the latter as a gift absolutely necessary for the life of the Church and its witness. Today it is important for us to understand that by prophecy the apostle does not mean what we are used to calling by that word. This is not about dreadful predictions that come true to the greater horror of mortals. Once, speaking with the Pharisees, the Lord said, 'Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times' (Matt. 16:3). It is not so hard to predict the consequences of human actions, knowing that pride, greed, and lust for power lead to destruction, while compassion, forgiveness, and mercy lead to life. The apostle Paul speaks of prophecy in another sense: the ability of members of the Church to receive the Truth and bear witness to it. This gift exposes a person, and this same gift makes that person able in the Church to follow the truth. And this gift never ceases in the Church.

Concluding his discussion of gifts and ministries, Paul calls for order in church gatherings, while neither restricting nor condemning anyone, even for such ecstatic manifestations as glossolalia (vv. 39-40). Of course, in saying this the apostle also has church discipline in mind. But that is evidently not the whole matter. Above all, Paul has in mind the spiritual benefit of the Church as a community of Christians living in the Kingdom. The purpose of the Church's existence lies above all in being a place where everyone can partake of the Kingdom: both someone who has already made his choice and has experience of life in this Kingdom, and someone for whom it is still merely an abstraction, something he may have heard about but has not yet had the opportunity to touch. This is why Paul says that glossolalia and prophecy must above all serve the task of conveying revelation to the church community, rather than merely demonstrating to those gathered the personal “spiritual achievements” of those to whom these gifts have been given.

The task of explaining the meaning of a prophecy probably seemed to many less “exalted” than prophesying or “speaking in tongues,” but according to the apostle's testimony, without such an explanation both become useless to the Church (vv. 26-31). One can, of course, surrender to “ecstasy without limits,” but states of this kind bring nothing good from a spiritual point of view and say nothing about the authenticity of the experience: under normal circumstances, a person evidently should not lose self-control even in ecstasy (v. 32). The same applies to the natural emotionality and sociability for which women in particular were evidently distinguished in church gatherings (vv. 34-35).

Of course, emotions or sociability in themselves bring nothing bad. Problems begin when emotional and excessively sociable people do not consider it necessary to control themselves even when they are fully capable of doing so. And the main problem here, as in the case of uncontrolled ecstasy—especially when such ecstasy, like one's own emotions, could perfectly well be brought under control—is not that all these manifestations of religious or quasi-religious feeling often disturb those gathered, but that they are incompatible with life in the Kingdom. Natural emotionality, like a natural inclination toward ecstasy, is of course not in itself an insurmountable obstacle on the spiritual path. But spiritual and emotional self-indulgence, unless it is recognized as sin and resisted, will inevitably become such an obstacle. Moreover, it may well set a bad example for those who are new to the Church, for outwardly such self-indulgence closely resembles the spiritual freedom about which Paul speaks so often. In essence, however, it not only bears no resemblance to that freedom but is its direct opposite. Paul considers it necessary to remind the Corinthian Christians of this (vv. 36-37), for among them there were apparently some who often confused the one with the other.

As we can see, Paul is not against prophetic callings and not against glossolalia. This is understandable: if God gives a person a revelation, can he, God's servant, oppose it? But the apostle is certain: God will not destroy the church community by His revelation. Paul is not against any charismatic manifestations, as we would call them today, but on one condition: they must not destroy either the person himself or the church community to which that person belongs. It is in this sense that the apostle says that "the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets." And the issue here is not bringing spiritual life and charismatic phenomena within the framework of some formal church discipline.

The issue is that every prophecy, and every revelation in general, is a divine-human matter. God does not disregard the human being; He takes into account his abilities and capacities. Of course, if it were otherwise, a situation would become entirely possible in which a person simply disappears as a person, losing himself in the flow of God's power, which surpasses him in every respect. This has happened in every age; historians of religion call such ecstasy orgiastic.

Orgiastic ecstasies have been known to people since the Paleolithic. The world is permeated by God's presence, which is revealed in it as supernatural divine power, and people in every age have wanted to share in it and to possess it. But it is not for a human being to possess God, and all such attempts usually ended with the person becoming a plaything in the hands of a power far greater than himself.

If, however, a person sought God, then not only God's power but also God's will was revealed to him, and then God Himself revealed His power to the person to the extent necessary for that person's spiritual formation. That is why genuine revelation has always been a divine-human process: God does not suppress or destroy human nature; on the contrary, He reveals it in all possible fullness. And here the conscious participation of the person is absolutely necessary.

But for many people in every age it has been much simpler to give themselves over to the power of God's force, behind which they did not sense the presence of a Person: such an experience does not involve responsibility, without which there is no genuine communion with God. And Paul, understanding this perfectly, does not want to encourage anything of the sort. He knows that genuine spiritual life involves conscious communion with God, not turbulent ecstasies that impose no obligations and give almost nothing to the person.

Continuing the discussion of prophecy and glossolalia, Paul points to the importance of interpreting the revelation received by the one who "speaks in tongues" (vv. 13-15). He understands perfectly the difference between spontaneous ecstasy, which can pass without any spiritual consequences for the one who experiences it, and revelation as such, which necessarily touches a person's spiritual "I" or "mind." Ecstasy sometimes is indeed the result of the direct action of God's breath on human nature, but a person's own spiritual "I," which makes him himself, may remain entirely untouched. Then such a person will be able neither to understand the meaning of the revelation nor to pass it on to others (vv. 16-17).

Meanwhile, for a Christian, if he considers himself and truly is an adult, spiritually mature member of the Church, the primary task should be his own spiritual development and the spiritual development of his church community, not joy over his ecstatic experiences, like the joy children feel over a toy they like (vv. 17-20).

Of course, sometimes, especially for unbelievers, glossolalia, like any other obvious action of the Spirit of God, can become a kind of testimony to the reality of the spiritual world, about which most people, as a rule, do not think. But for Christians themselves glossolalia is not testimony, because it adds nothing to the spiritual experience either of those who undergo it or of those who observe it from outside (vv. 21-22). Prophecy in its traditional form is a different matter: here the spiritual benefit is evident, because in this case revelation takes a form in which it can be received and assimilated.

Once again, what comes to the foreground for the apostle is not the experiences of individual people in themselves, even if they are connected with their spiritual life, but the measure of the experiencers' participation in the life of the Church, and therefore in the life of the Kingdom, connected with those experiences. Indeed, any spiritual experiences, even the most intense, come and go in themselves. Only the Kingdom remains, and that measure of real participation in its life which determines a person's destiny in eternity.