NOTES for Co1 14:26-40

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.