Another failure is that of abusing the gift of tongue-speaking (1 Cor. 14:19-20, 23). Much of today’s tongue-speaking is not genuine. But even the genuine gift of tongue-speaking should not be abused; that is, it should not be used too much in the church meetings. Paul restricted the use of the gift of tongue-speaking in the meetings, saying, “In the church I would rather speak five words with my mind that I might instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue” (v. 19). This shows that speaking in intelligible words for the building up of the church, and not tongue-speaking, is needed in the church meetings.
First Corinthians 14:23 says, “If therefore the whole church comes together in one place, and all speak in tongues, and the unlearned or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are insane?” Here the word “all” refers to all the functioning ones, not all the attendants in the meeting. If in a meeting all the functioning ones speak in tongues, people may consider they are mad. Hence, to encourage all to speak in tongues in the church meetings is not right; it is against the Apostle Paul’s word. Paul’s word in verse 23 is a strong discouragement to the excessive practice of speaking in tongues.
In chapter fifteen of 1 Corinthians Paul deals with the Corinthians’ heretical saying that there is no resurrection of the dead. In verse 12 Paul asks, “If Christ is preached that He has been raised from among the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?” Some of the Corinthians were like the Sadducees (Matt. 22:23; Acts 23:8) in saying that there is no resurrection. Denying the resurrection is most damaging and destructive to God’s New Testament economy. This is worse than the heresy of Hymenaeus and Philetus concerning resurrection in 2 Timothy 2:17 and 18. Resurrection is the life pulse and lifeline of the divine economy. If there were no resurrection, God would be the God of the dead, not the God of the living (Matt. 22:32). He would be a dead Savior, not the One who lives forever (Rev. 1:18) and is able to save to the uttermost (Heb. 7:25). If there were no resurrection, there would be no living proof of justification by His death (Rom. 4:25), no imparting of life (John 12:24), no regeneration (John 3:5), no renewing (Titus 3:5), no transformation (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18), and no conformity to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). If there were no resurrection, there would be no members of Christ (Rom. 12:5), no Body of Christ as His fullness (Eph. 1:20-23), and no church as Christ’s bride (John 3:29) and the new man (Eph. 2:15; 4:24; Col. 3:10-11). If there were no resurrection, God’s New Testament economy would altogether collapse and God’s eternal purpose would be nullified.
In 1 Corinthians 15:12 Paul refers to the preaching that Christ has been raised from among the dead. This indicates clearly that the apostles preached the resurrection of Christ. According to the book of Acts, the preaching of the gospel was mainly the preaching of Christ’s resurrection. We today must follow the apostles to emphasize resurrection as well as crucifixion.
Finally, in the churches there was the failure of walking disorderly. Second Thessalonians 3:11 says, “We hear of some walking among you disorderly, working at nothing, but busybodies.” It may seem that walking disorderly is a small point. Nevertheless, it is practical. A disorderly walk is not only according to the flesh (Rom. 8:4), but is also against the building up of the church life (1 Thes. 5:11; Rom. 14:19; 1 Cor. 10:23).
According to Paul’s word in verse 11, those who were walking disorderly were busy but “working at nothing”; they were busy only with what was not their own business. Busybodies are nobody, and with them there is no Body of Christ.
I believe that the disorderliness in Thessalonica came from the misconception regarding the Lord’s coming back. Some believers thought that the Lord Jesus would be coming back soon, and therefore that it was not necessary for them to work. Their concept may have been that as long as they had something to eat and could survive, that was adequate. Those who hold such a concept go beyond the level of proper spirituality and walk disorderly.
In 2 Thessalonians 3:6 Paul charges the believers to keep away from any brother who walks disorderly. This indicates that Paul considers it a serious matter to walk disorderly, for this is a damage to the church life.
Even while the apostles were still on earth, there were many failures in the churches. These failures involved such things as ambition for vainglory, tradition, lust, not believing in Christ’s resurrection, and not having the proper practice of the Lord’s table. God’s intention in recording these failures in the holy Word is to give us a warning concerning the possibility of such failures recurring in the church life. We need to learn from all these failures and do our best to avoid them. If the churches in the apostles’ time could suffer all these failures, it is even more likely that today, if we are careless, we also shall suffer the same kind of failures. Therefore, we need to look to the Lord that we may be kept from these failures.
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