In this book we want to fellowship concerning our need to pick up the new way to practice the Lord’s present recovery. In order to meet the Lord’s present need, we must enter into two portions of His Word: 1 Corinthians 14 and Ephesians 4:11-16.
We want to begin our fellowship by studying 1 Corinthians 14. The subject of this chapter of forty verses is not only prophesying but also the encouragement to prophesy. In verse 1 Paul says, “Pursue love, and desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy.” This verse shows that we need to have an earnest desire to prophesy. In verse 5 he says, “I desire...that you may prophesy.” Then in verse 12 he says, “Seek that you may excel to the building up of the church.” To prophesy is to excel because “he who prophesies builds up the church” (v. 4). The gift of prophesying is an excelling gift. All the other gifts are not as high or excelling. In verse 39 Paul says, “Therefore, my brothers, desire earnestly to prophesy.” From these verses we can see that the Apostle Paul is encouraging, charging, and urging us to prophesy. After covering many items in the first thirteen chapters of 1 Corinthians, Paul encourages us in chapter fourteen to seek this excelling gift for the building up of the church.
To prophesy in 1 Corinthians 14 is not in the sense of foretelling or predicting. To prophesy is to speak for the Lord, and in our speaking for the Lord, we have to speak forth the Lord and speak the Lord into others. To prophesy is to dispense the very Christ whom we have experienced into others. The subject of 1 Corinthians 14 is prophesying, which is speaking Christ forth into others, dispensing Christ into others by our speaking. This is not human or ordinary speaking but divine and extraordinary speaking.
According to verse 2 of chapter one, 1 Corinthians was written not only to the church in Corinth but also to “all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, theirs and ours.” This Epistle is to us. It is an Epistle to all the local churches. First Corinthians is a book on Christ as our portion, so verse 2 refers to Christ as being “theirs and ours.” Christ is their portion and our portion. He is the portion of all His believers. A believer in Christ should be an enjoyer of Christ, a caller on Christ. Our calling on Him is to receive Him, to breathe Him in, to enjoy Him, and to take Him as our portion for our daily practical needs. Every day and every minute, we need this Christ as our support, as our supply, so we have to call on Him all the time. To exercise our spirit to call “O Lord Jesus” is our spiritual breathing. By this kind of breathing, we receive the life supply and the enjoyment of Christ to live Christ. We live Christ by calling on Him as our portion.
In the first two chapters of 1 Corinthians, we can see the enjoyment of Christ as our portion. In chapter three the growth in life is revealed (vv. 6-7). First Corinthians shows us that when we call on the name of the Lord Jesus to enjoy Him, this enjoyment issues in the growth in life. Little children grow by their eating, their enjoyment, of the proper food. If a child eats a lot for three years, but there is no evidence of his growth, something must be wrong. The eating, the enjoyment of food, issues in the growth in life. Furthermore, many of the problems that we have in our physical bodies can be solved by eating the proper food. The life supply that we get from the healthy food kills many germs within us. We may enjoy the taste of good food without realizing that we were taking in many antibiotics. While the food is nourishing us, it is also killing germs and healing us to give us the best health. Our physical strength comes from the nourishing food that we eat. Our eating of the nourishing food issues in the growth in life so that the problems within our physical body may be solved. In like manner, the growth in the divine life comes from our eating, from our enjoyment, of Christ. Because we eat Christ and enjoy Him, we grow, and as we grow, we heal ourselves. By the end of chapter eleven of 1 Corinthians many spiritual diseases have been covered. These diseases are healed by the enjoyment of Christ that issues in the growth in life.
Beginning in chapter twelve, Paul introduces another subject. This subject is related to our function. A healthy body not only grows but also functions. The more a child eats, the more he grows, and the more he grows, the more he functions. A newborn babe has ears, eyes, hands, and legs, but without the adequate growth, these members will not be able to function adequately. There is the need of development, and the development comes from the growth. Eating issues in the growth, and the growth develops all the parts of our body in their functions. A newborn babe cannot see clearly, but after a few months he is able to see. The seeing comes by the development of his seeing organ through the growth in life. First Corinthians shows us that we need to feed on Christ, to get the nourishment, to enjoy Him. It is a practical matter of life for us to enjoy Christ. Then we will grow and our function will be developed. Every member has its own function, but in the Body of Christ the top function is to speak for Christ, to prophesy.
First Corinthians firstly shows us Christ as our portion for us to enjoy. Out from this enjoyment comes the growth, and the growth serves to develop our spiritual organs. The functions of these organs are for the building up of the Body. Thus, 1 Corinthians eventually consummates in the building up of the church. It reveals to us that the final result of enjoying Christ is neither the growth in life nor the development of the gifts, but the building up of the Body, the church. Therefore, 1 Corinthians is a book on Christ and the church. Christ can be enlarged and extended by our enjoying of Him. This enjoying of Him issues in the growth in life, and the growth in life brings in much development. As we grow physically, every member and organ of our body is fully developed. Then our entire physical body with every member is functioning, and this functioning has one goal—to build up our body. The functioning of the organs and members of our physical body equals the building up of our body. The more we exercise, work, move, and function, the more our body is built up. Similarly, the functioning of the members of the Body of Christ is the building up of the Body. The more the members of the Body of Christ function, the more the Body is built up.
In Christ’s Body the excelling organ is the speaking organ. Paul, however, strongly belittles the gift of speaking in tongues and exalts the gift of prophecy to the uttermost. To build up the Body of Christ, the excelling function or gift is prophecy. In 1 Corinthians 14 Paul concentrates on prophesying. To prophesy is to excel, to place us at the highest point in the building up of the Body of Christ. In the building up of the Body of Christ, prophesying is the top function.