I’m currently preaching through 1 Corinthians 12-14 to our youth ministry, Nine37, on the topic of spiritual gifts. As I was preparing my message for tomorrow’s service, I stumbled upon 1 Cor 14:26 and began wondering what worship services looked like in the early church.
1 Corinthians 14:26 NIV – “What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.”
1Corinthians 14:26 ESV -“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.”
1Corinthians 14:26 NLT – “Well, my brothers and sisters, let’s summarize. When you meet together, one will sing, another will teach, another will tell some special revelation God has given, one will speak in tongues, and another will interpret what is said. But everything that is done must strengthen all of you.”
1Corinthians 14:26 MESSAGE – “So here’s what I want you to do. When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight.”
After looking at those different versions of the same verse, there seems to be 4 or 5 things that were a component of the worship services in the early church:
- A Hymn
- A Word of Instruction
- A Revelation
- A Tongue/Interpretation
The MESSAGE translation actually takes an interesting spin on the components of a worship service: “Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight.”
Upon examining this verse, let me ask you a question: How are your worship services? What happens in your worship services? Do they reflect this model? Or are they lacking any of these components? Is the verse inferring that we need all of those components in every worship service, or just that we eventually need to do all of them?
Any thoughts? Reflections?
Two initial thoughts. One, the Message is not a translation. It’s a paraphrase. If I remember correctly I think even the writer doesn’t like it to be referred to as translation. The difference is significant because the author of a paraphrase attempts to help interpret the text for the reader, which increases the likelihood of introducing error.
Second, ‘never read a bible verse’ Greg Koukl often says. Seeing this verse on it’s own instantly struck me with the desire to review what the context was. How should we interpret “When you come together”? Does the context suggest this is the same as saying “During your formal worship service”, or could it mean just generally in accessory to the formal worship service, and any time they “come together”. How could “each one” be doing all these things at once, and still have a sense of order during formal worship, that is commanded during the previous verses? If everyone is commanded to do it, it suggests to me that 1. it’s not happening all at once, and 2. is not practical during formal worship (it would take a super long time for everyone to get up and do something like that in an orderly fashion during one service), but rather suggest the general atmosphere in which worship is to take place. I would agree all these things are good to do, and perhaps all Christians (each one) should be able to do at least one of these things, at some time formally or informally, and be in the habit of doing it.
“What then shall we say” in my opinion screams “YOU MUST READ THE CONTEXT!!!!!”. It suggest that there was some instruction and explanation and that this is not a command but actually the result of all the commands and previous teaching. This view is taken a bit more by the NASB which has “What is the outcome then, brethren?”
It makes me think that a whole lot of people ought to be involved in the formal worship service. That every member of the church ought to be well equipped to perform, and have opportunity to perform some of these tasks. This verse tells me we have a responsibility to each other, to serve one another continually, and in various ways. It also tells me you can know to some degree about the nature of worshippers and the worship service by the result it produces. It produces people with abundant praise, and a desire to discuss the things of the Lord, and build one another up using their gifts.
Right on brother.
Forget the days when 20% of the people are doing 80% of the work. We are the Church and the Body of Christ – every body part must function in order for the body to be healthy.
And we wonder why so many churches are unhealthy…it’s because not every body part is functioning!
Yeah, I think part of that is that especially western churches don’t encourage people enough to serve. They just ask, but they don’t look for people and try to convince them. I find Korean churches it feels much easier to get involved and serve.
Nathan,
But then again, that is a huge generalization. I know of many Western churches who do a much better job at involving people in service way better than many Korean churches.
One of the common obstacles for Western churches in finding people to serve is apathy.
Some common obstacles for Asian churches in finding people to serve are time (they’re too busy, especially in Korea and Hong Kong), and perhaps false-humility.
What we must remember is that the home churches were small and very easy to have each individual to take part. Jesus made it clear that living by the letter of the law is not his goal. It is that it comes from the heart. So when we look at the average service we have song, message, and prayer. AND IF each member attends bible study, they have the opportunity to share and give a word.
How every we setup our service, it should be setup to worship God and not to see how good we preform, it wants our mind, heart and soul, not our preformance.
Hi Daniel,
I just found your post, a little late! You can also read come early church history to find out how the early church worshipped. I have written about this on my blog Not For Itching ears.
Thanks for your post.
Thanks for the suggestion