How often do we not just read 1 Corithans 14, but follow it?
Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. 21 In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” 22 Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. 23 If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? 24 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, 25 the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
26 What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. 27 If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. 28 But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God. 29Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. 30 If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. 31 For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, 32 and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. 33 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.
36 Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached? 37 If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. 38 If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. 39 So, my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. 40 But all things should be done decently and in order.
Francis Chan shares about the best gift he’s been given. He received it when he was 15 when a pastor taught him “how to read the Bible for myself.” And now, Chan shares, he’s made major, life-altering decisions with just him and the book.
Tim Mackie of The Bible Project says something similar about the best gift he’s received. A teacher taught him to see how “every book of the Bible fits together as a unified story that leads to and points to Jesus.” This teacher also taught him to read the Bible for himself and learn from it.
Chan says he’s frustrated about all the talk surrounding different speakers and the words they’ve spoken and the lack of talk surrounding what someone has learned for him or herself from the Bible. What would the church look like, Chan asks, “if everyone who showed up on a Sunday morning actually spent the whole week, everyday, alone with God?” Chan believes that would change everything.
