Lessons #513 and 514
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New American Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
+ 4. Text is based on 1984 edition of the NIV +
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Summing up Worship Instructions (1 Cor 14:36-40)
36 Did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached? 37 If anybody thinks he is a prophet or spiritually gifted, let him acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command. 38 If he ignores this, he himself will be ignored. 39 Therefore, my brothers, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. 40 But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.
We have come to the last section of the fourteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians that is part of the apostle’s discourse on worship matters with focus on speaking in tongues and prophesying. This last section may be seen as consisting of three paragraphs. The first is concerned with reminders given in verses 36 and 37. The second is concerned with a warning the Holy Spirit issued to every believer about rejecting apostolic teaching described in verse 38. The third consists of summarizing instructions given in verses 39 and 40. Based on these three paragraphs, we state a message we believe the Holy Spirit wants us to deliver to you. The message is this: You are not the only recipient of God’s word, so do not disregard its instructions but follow them correctly and orderly. It is this message that we will expound in the passage before us.
Apostle Paul introduced the reminders he set forth to the Corinthians with two rhetorical questions in that he began verse 36 with a Greek particle (ē) used twice in the verse although the first usage is not translated in the 1984 edition of NIV but translated in the 2011 edition. The particle may mean “than” as a marker of comparison as Apostle Paul used it to indicate that a person who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues if the tongues are not interpreted as we read in 1 Corinthians 14:5:
I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. He who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may be edified.
The Greek particle may mean “or” as a marker of alternative. The alternative may express opposites that are mutually exclusive as, for example, “to fall” is opposite of “to stand” as the apostle used it in rebuking those who judge other believers needlessly in Romans 14:4:
Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
The alternative may express related and similar terms, where one can take the place of the other or one supplements the other as Apostle Paul used the word “obstacle” as a word that can take the place of the expression “stumbling block” in Romans 14:13:
Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way.
The Greek particle is often used to introduce rhetorical questions to which a negative answer is expected as Apostle Paul used it to introduce a question that indicates that God is not only the God of the Jews but also of the Gentiles as we read in Romans 3:29:
Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too.
The translators of the 1984 edition of the NIV did not translate the Greek particle in this passage of Romans 3:29 but the 2011 did since it began the verse with the word “or” as found in many of our English versions. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 14:36, the Greek particle is used to introduce two rhetorical questions that the expected answer to each is the negative that is, “no.”
The two rhetorical questions of the apostle in 1 Corinthians 14:36 with expected answers of “no” enable us to assert that the apostle began his summation of his teaching on worship that he had discoursed: head covering, abuse of the Lord’s Supper, instructions about speaking in tongues and prophesying and silence of women in public worship, with specific focus on speaking in tongues and prophesying as evident in the space he devoted to them. He summarized his teaching by stating three reminders that the Corinthians should pay attention. The first reminder the apostle wanted the Corinthians to know is that God’s word did not originate from them as we read in the first rhetorical question of 1 Corinthians 14:36 Did the word of God originate with you? Literally, the Greek reads Or (did) the word of God go out from you…? This rhetorical question of the apostle reminds me of a comment of a professor made when I was in Seminary as he graded my project in a course that is titled “Marriage and Family.” The specific project is titled “Husband and Wife responsibilities in Marriage.” I considered several passages of the Scripture that deal with the subject matter and then provided what I considered to be biblically based responsibilities. The professor commented at the end of grading my paper and 1 quote him “I’m not sure that all of your advice will actually work in American culture but I think you’ve done a fairly good job separating cultural practices and biblical commands.” When I read this comment, my response was a question of whether the professor fail to realize that the Bible was not written for American Christians based on American culture. His comment to me typifies many Christians in this country that have the thinking that American Christians must be the standard of Christianity contrary to the question of Apostle Paul we are about to consider. I am saying that the question of the apostle to the Corinthians applies to many Christians in this country.
Be that as it may, the first reminder the apostle presented to the Corinthians as he summed up his teaching on worship with focus on speaking in tongues and prophesying as we have previously indicated is given in the first rhetorical question of 1 Corinthians 14:36 Did the word of God originate with you?
The first concern in the rhetorical question is how to understand the phrase the word of God. This phrase is important for several reasons. First, it is a phrase used in the OT Scripture to describe Yahweh, God of Israel, although for the most part this fact is not recognized by many including myself until recently when the Holy Spirit enabled me to pay closer attention to what is written in the OT Scripture. I contend that when the phrase the word of God or its equivalent the word of the LORD is encountered many take the phrase as a reference to spoken word of God. The exact meaning is not always the case. Truly, the phrase could refer to Yahweh or to His spoken word. This must be determined by the context. When the phrase refers to Yahweh, the word “came” and “say” would be present in the verse. Let me substantiate this assertion with several examples. The Lord appeared and spoke to Abraham as we read in Genesis 15:1:
After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”
The translators of the NIV omitted a Hebrew verb that means “saying” after the word “vision” which if they included it would be clearer that Yahweh appeared to Abraham and communicated to him. In other words, the sentence the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram is more literally the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision, saying: “Do not be afraid, Abram. The literal translation indicates that it is Yahweh who came that spoke to Abraham. A spoken word does not come and then speaks, so it must be Yahweh that is meant in the phrase the word of the LORD. Yahweh appeared to Prophet Elijah and this appearance is described using the phrase the word of the LORD as we read in 1 Kings 19:9–10:
9 There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the LORD came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
There should be no doubt that it is Yahweh that appeared to Elijah since Elijah replied to a speaker as stated in the sentence of verse 10, He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. Yahweh appeared to Prophet Isaiah and communicated to him the message to deliver to King Hezekiah as we read in 2 Kings 20:4–5:
4 Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: 5 “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the LORD.
The instruction to the prophet indicates that the word of the LORD that came to him spoke. Prophet Nathan was visited by Yahweh as implied in 1 Chronicles 17:3–4:
3 That night the word of God came to Nathan, saying: 4 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD says: You are not the one to build me a house to dwell in.
The word of God that came to Nathan is Yahweh or LORD that spoke to him. Anyhow, we could go on citing other examples, but the ones we have given are sufficient to make the point that when phrase the word of God or its equivalent the word of the LORD is used with the word “came” and and/or “say” that the phrase should be recognized as a description of Yahweh, the God of Israel. When the phrase is used without the two words “came” and “say” then the phrase would refer to spoken word of God. Take for example, Moses in His final speech to Israel referenced the spoken word as we read in Deuteronomy 5:5:
(At that time I stood between the LORD and you to declare to you the word of the LORD, because you were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain.) And he said:
It is the spoken word that is meant when the phrase the word of the LORD is used in describing Israel’s obedience not to fight their brothers in 1 Kings 12:24:
‘This is what the LORD says: Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.’” So they obeyed the word of the LORD and went home again, as the LORD had ordered.
We should observe that the phrase the word of God or its equivalent the word of the LORD is predominantly used either to refer to Yahweh or His spoken communication in the OT. In the NT, the phrase the word of God is predominantly used for the spoken word that is in written form as we read, for example, in Jesus’ denunciation of the Pharisees as recorded in Matthew 15:6:
he is not to ‘honor his father’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
The thing the Pharisees nullified is the written word of God. Nonetheless, the phrase the word of God is used in the NT to refer to Jesus Christ as we read in Revelation 19:13:
He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.
Anyway, a first reason it is important to understand the phrase the word of God of 1 Corinthians 14:36 is that it is used in OT Scripture to describe Yahweh, God of Israel.
Second, the phrase the word of God as the spoken word of God is described in different ways in the Scripture. It is described as “flawless” in the sense of proven to be true in Proverbs 30:5:
“Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
The phrase is described as the sword of the Spirit in Ephesians 6:17:
Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
The phrase the word of God is described as “life-productive”, that is, to say that it is able to make things happen. It is this description that is given in Hebrews 4:12:
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
The words “living” and “active” are saying the same thing or we can say that we have a hendiadys where the author says something very important about God’s word using the word “living” and then elaborates on it using the word “active.” This passage also describes another characteristic of the word of God which is that it has the capacity to cut into someone’s soul or inner being efficiently like nothing else can on this planet. It is to underscore this property of the word of God that the human author makes the comparison given in the next phrase of Hebrews 4:12, Sharper than any double-edged sword. The word of God which can pierce the inner being of a person is a weapon that Satan does not like, as implied by the command for believers to take it up in the spiritual warfare. Another description of the phrase the word of God is that it is eternal as this is the sense of the description by Apostle Peter using the word “enduring” in 1 Peter 1:23:
For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
The phrase enduring word of God has been translated in different ways in our English versions. For example, the GW reads God’s everlasting word and the TEV reads eternal word of God that say essentially the same thing concerning the eternal nature of God’s word. It is because of its eternal nature that God will continue to preserve His word even in the written form. The Bible, more than any book in the world, has been attacked and threatened with extinction, but the more people attack it, the more its circulation keeps on increasing.
In any case, our concern is to understand the phrase the word of God as used in 1 Corinthians 14:36. To do this, we should begin by recognizing that the word “word” is translated from a Greek word (logos) that concerns communication of what is in a person’s mind so that it means “word.” However, it has several nuances. It may mean “message” as it is used in Peter’s preaching of the gospel to Cornelius and those gathered in his house as we read in Acts 10:36:
You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.
The phrase the message is literally the word. The Greek word may mean “statement”, as that is the sense of its usage in Luke’s record of the response of the elders of the Ephesian church to what Paul said to them in Acts 20:38:
What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.
The phrase his statement is literally the word. The Greek word may mean “speech” as it is used in Apostle Paul’s encouraging the Corinthians about being generous as we read in 2 Corinthians 8:7:
But just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
The phrase in speech is literally in word. The Greek word may mean “instruction” as it is used in what Apostle Paul said to the Thessalonians regarding his letter to them in 2 Thessalonians 3:14:
If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of him. Do not associate with him, in order that he may feel ashamed.
The phrase our instruction is literally our word. It may mean “preaching” when it is used with the Greek word that means “teaching”, as it is used in describing the response of believers to their spiritual leaders in 1 Timothy 5:17:
The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.
The clause those whose work is preaching and teaching is literally those laboring in word and teaching. The Greek word may mean “reason, ground, motive” as the word is used to encourage believers to be able to defend what they believe in 1 Peter 3:15:
But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,
The phrase the reason for the hope is literally the word for the hope. The Greek word may mean “command” as it is used by Apostle John in recording the Lord’s message to the church in Philadelphia as we read in Revelation 3:10:
Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth.
The verbal phrase my command to endure is literally word of my endurance. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 14:36, the Greek word is used in the sense of “message.”
Our interpretation that the Greek word translated “word’ in 1 Corinthians 14:36 is a reference to “message” still raises the question of how to understand the phrase the word of God. This is in part due to the Greek construction. The phrase the word of God may be understood as “the word from God” or “the word about God.” It is probably that the apostle meant both meanings so that the phrase may be understood to mean the message from God and about God. This message from God that is about God is the “Christian message.” The Christian message the apostle had in mind consists first the gospel message and then Christian doctrines. We say this because the phrase the word of God in many contexts refers to the gospel message as, for example, we read of the church declaring the word of God boldly after they prayed and were specially filled of the Holy Spirit as we read in Acts 4:31:
After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
How can we be sure that the phrase the word of God here refers to the gospel? You may ask. It is the context. The church prayed because of what Apostles Peter and John told them as we read in Acts 4:23–24:
23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.
The Jewish religious authorities’ instruction to the two apostles that they reported to the church is prohibition against preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ as we read in Acts 4:18:
Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
Thus, when the church was empowered by God the Holy Spirit to preach in answer to their prayer, it is the gospel that the church preached, implying that the phrase the word of God in Acts 4:31 that we cited previously refers to the gospel message. But the gospel message is not the only thing that the phrase refers. It includes the teaching of Christian doctrines. Let me demonstrate that this is the case. When the apostles instructed the church to choose seven men that were to administer the physical affairs of the church, their reason was that they wanted to devote their time to the ministry of the word of God as we read in Acts 6:2:
So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.
The ministry of the word certainly involves the preaching of the gospel and the teaching of Christian doctrines to believers since the early church received teaching regarding the Christian faith from the apostles as implied in Acts 2:42:
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
The phrase the apostles’ teaching could not refer to the gospel since that is a message directed to unbelievers. Apostle Paul spent a year and a half in Corinth teaching the word of God to believers in Corinth as well as preaching the gospel as that is implied in Acts 18:11:
So Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.
Unlike what takes place in most of our local churches today, it is inconceivable that the apostle would have been preaching the gospel to those who are already saved throughout the period he was in Corinth. Therefore, it makes sense that the phrase the word of God should be understood as Christian doctrines. Furthermore, the context of the phrase the word of God in 1 Corinthians 14:36 is the apostle’s teaching of various practices in Christian worship. Hence, when the apostle used the phrase the word of God it should be understood that his focus was primarily on Christian doctrines so that the phrase the word of God should be understood as Christian message with a focus on Christian doctrines.
Be that as it may, the apostle’s first reminder to the Corinthians is that they are not the source of the Christian message that consists of the gospel and Christian doctrines as he stated in the first rhetorical question of 1 Corinthians 14:36 Did the word of God originate with you? The word “originate” is translated from a Greek word (exerchomai) that means to move out of or away from an area hence means “to go out, come out, go away, retire.” Thus, it is used with the meaning “to leave” to describe the action Jesus instructed His disciples to take regarding those who reject their message when He sent them on a missionary trip, as recorded in Luke 9:5:
If people do not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them.”
The word may mean “to escape,” that is, to get out from a difficult situation as the word is used in describing Jesus getting out from those who intended to seize Him, as stated in John 10:39:
Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.
The word may mean to discontinue association, that is, “to depart” as it is used with the meaning “separate” in the command issued to believers about this world in 2 Corinthians 6:17:
“Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”
The word may mean “to descend” as it relates to ancestry as in Hebrews 7:5:
Now the law requires the descendants of Levi who become priests to collect a tenth from the people—that is, their brothers—even though their brothers are descended from Abraham.
The word may mean “to depart in death,” that is, to “die.” In our passage of 1 Corinthians 14:36, it means “to go out,” that is, “to originate.” Thus, the first reminder of the apostle to the Corinthians is that the Christian doctrines and the gospel message did not originate from them. This first reminder is to guard against arrogance believers could get involved with.
The second reminder of the apostle to the Corinthians is that they are not the only recipients of God’s word in form of the gospel and Christian doctrines. It is this reminder that is given in the second rhetorical question in the NIV of 1 Corinthians 14:36 Or are you the only people it has reached? Literally, the Greek reads or did it come only to you? This is because of the Greek words used. The expression “only people” of the NIV is translated from a Greek word (monos) that may mean “only, alone” as pertaining to being the only entity in a class as the word is used by Apostle Paul to indicate that at one time all members of his missionary team had gone to several places but only Luke was with him as he stated in 2 Timothy 4:11:
Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.
The word may mean “only, alone” as a marker of limitation as Apostle Paul used it to describe the limitation of what the churches in Judea heard about him as we read in Galatians 1:23:
They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 14:36, it means “alone” in the sense of exclusive of anyone else.
By the way, the second person pronoun you in question Or are you the only people it has reached? refers to the Corinthian church as a whole and not to a select group or women as some contend. This is because the pronoun “you” is from a masculine plural in the Greek indicating that the apostle was thinking of both men and women in the local church in Corinth when he posed the second rhetorical question Or are you the only people it has reached?
The word “reach” is translated from a Greek word (katantaō) that may mean to get to a geographical destination, hence “to come (to), arrive (at), reach” as it is used in Luke’s description of the itinerary of the ship that took Apostle Paul to stand his first trial in Rome in Acts 28:13:
From there we set sail and arrived at Rhegium. The next day the south wind came up, and on the following day we reached Puteoli.
The word may mean to reach a condition or goal and so may mean “to arrive at, attain, meet” as Apostle Paul used it to describe the state believers should attain in Ephesians 4:13:
until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
The word may mean “to happen to, to come upon” as it is used to describe Israel’s experience in the desert that should serve as a warning to us as we read in 1 Corinthians 10:11:
These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 14:36, it means “to come to” or “to reach.”
In any event, the second reminder that Corinthians were not the only recipients of God’s word is a reality check on the arrogance of some in Corinth. These individuals should have recognized that the Corinthians were not the first to receive the gospel message or the last. The first missionary journey of Apostles Paul and Barnabas in essence started in Cyprus as implied Acts 13:4–5:
4 The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. 5 When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. John was with them as their helper.
The first missionary journey ended with preaching of the gospel to people in Derbe since it was from there, Paul and Barnabas visited the converts on their way back to the church in Antioch that sent them on their missionary trip as implied in Acts 14:20–21:
20 But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe. 21 They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch.
Apostle Paul’s second missionary journey technically, in the sense of covering new territory in the preaching of the gospel, began with the regions of Phrygia and Galatia according to Acts 16:6:
Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia.
The apostle then went to the region of Macedonia beginning with Philippi as we read in Acts 16:12:
From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.
After the apostle left the region known as Macedonia, he went to Athens as we may gather from Acts 17:13–15:
13 When the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, they went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. 14 The brothers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea. 15 The men who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.
It was from Athens that the Apostle came to Corinth as we read in Acts 18:1:
After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
The apostle left Corinth to Ephesus according to Acts 18:18–19:
18 Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Cenchrea because of a vow he had taken. 19 They arrived at Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. He himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.
Thus, the Corinthians were aware they were not even the first Gentile groups that received the gospel, and they were not its only recipients. Since they were not the first recipients of the gospel message, they could not claim that their worship practices are the standards by which the other local churches of Christ should be measured. The point is that the first reminder to the Corinthians that they were not the source of Christian message and the second reminder that they were not the only recipients of God’s word were intended to convey to them that they should not be arrogant to think that everything in Christianity revolves around them. Or even that their worship practices were the standard to be followed by other local churches. They should fall in line with the practices of the other local churches as the apostles had instructed them.
The third reminder of the apostle to the Corinthians is that his instructions were from the Lord. The apostle did not immediately present this reminder to the Corinthians instead he introduced a condition that leads to the third reminder. This condition is that of a possible claim regarding spiritual matters by some in Corinth as we read in the first clause of 1 Corinthians 14:37 If anybody thinks he is a prophet or spiritually gifted. Literally, the Greek reads If anyone thinks (himself) to be (a) prophet or spiritual. We state that the condition is that of a possible claim regarding spiritual matters by some in Corinth because of the Greek words used in the clause. The word “if” is translated from a Greek particle (ei) that is used in different ways in the Greek. For example, the Greek particle is used as a marker of condition that exists in fact or hypothetical so that it is translated “if.” On the one hand, if a writer presents an action associated with a verb as real, although the writer may or may not believe the action to be real, there is the implication there is no doubt or uncertainty about what is stated when our Greek particle is used. Thus, in some context the meaning “if” may be understood to mean “since”, especially if the action has already taken place as in the statement of the brothers of the Lord Jesus to Him about public display of Himself based on His miracles as we read in John 7:4:
No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.”
The clause Since you are doing these things is literally If you are doing these thing. On the other hand, if a writer presents the action associated with a verb as possible the implication is that the thing in question is possible but uncertain, though assumed probable. Thus, it is used to state the possibility of suffering of Christians, recognizing that not everyone may suffer in a given time as we read in 1 Peter 3:14:
But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened.”
It is in the alternative usage of something possible but uncertain that the word is used in our passage. In other words, the apostle assumes that it is possible that a person may suppose or make the claim he indicated in 1 Corinthians 14:37 If anybody thinks he is a prophet or spiritually gifted.
The word “thinks” is translated from a Greek word (dokeō) that may mean “to be convinced” as it is used to describe the belief of Apostle Paul when he persecuted Christians as recorded in Acts 26:9:
“I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
The word may mean to appear to one’s understanding hence means “to seem” as Apostle Paul used it to describe some of those that appeared to be important in the church of Christ in Galatians 2:6:
As for those who seemed to be important—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance—those men added nothing to my message.
The word may mean to consider as probable so means “to think, believe, suppose, consider” as Apostle Paul used it in asserting that he has more reasons to have confidence in human advantages of being a Hebrew as we read in Philippians 3:4:
though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 14:37, the word has the sense of “to suppose,” that is, to “to consider as probable.”
There are two things a person in Corinth could suppose or claim. The first is to be a prophet as in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 14:37 he is a prophet. The word “prophet” is translated from a Greek word (prophētēs) that we considered in greater details in our study of 1 Corinthians 12:28 but let me briefly review what we said. The Greek word refers to a person inspired to proclaim or reveal divine will or purpose. In other words, a prophet is a proclaimer or expounder of divine matters or concerns that could not ordinarily be known except by special revelation. Such a person rebukes people or predicts events. To function as a prophet, of course, requires that a person should have the gift of prophecy. So, the apostle states that the first claim or supposition of a person is that the individual is a prophet implying the person has the gift of prophecy. The second claim a person in Corinth could make is that of being a spiritual person as that is what the apostle intended in the phrase of 1 Corinthians 14:37 or spiritually gifted. The expression “spiritually gifted” of the NIV is translated from a Greek word (pneumatikos) that means either “belonging to the Spirit” or “determined by the Spirit.” As an adjective, the word means “spiritual” as it is used to describe the drink involved in the Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians 10:4:
and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
But when the word functions as a noun in the neuter gender in the plural with a Greek definite article the word means “spiritual things/matters.” It is in this sense that the word is used in Apostle Paul’s argument that as an apostle he should be supported by those who have been blessed spiritually by his ministry as we read in 1 Corinthians 9:11:
If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?
The clause If we have sown spiritual seed among you is literally If we have sown spiritual things among you. It is in the sense of “spiritual matters” that the apostle used the word to indicate that Gentiles owe sharing their material blessings with the Jews because the Jews through the Apostles have shared their spiritual blessings with them as stated in Romans 15:27:
They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings.
The phrase Jews’ spiritual blessings is literally their spiritual things. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 14:37, the word has the sense of “spiritual,” that is, “possessing the Holy Spirit.” Thus, the apostle states that it is possible for someone to claim to be a spiritual person in such a way that the person may put himself up as an expert in spiritual matters. It is after the apostle had stated the two claims that we mentioned that he proceeded to state the third reminder but we are out of time so we will pick up that third reminder in our next study but let me remind you of the message of our section. It is this: You are not the only recipient of God’s word, so do not disregard its instructions but follow them correctly and orderly.
04/21//23