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In the entire New Testament, 1 Corinthians is almost the only book that deals with the matter of Christian meetings. There is nothing mentioned regarding Christian meetings in the book of Romans, and in all the other Epistles there is barely a mention of it. In 1 Corinthians there are sixteen chapters, out of which we have one portion or section which deals with the matter of meetings. This matter is very much related to the exercise of gifts, for when Christians meet together, it is time for them to function by using their gifts. Thus, in this section of 1 Corinthians, which is composed of chapters 12, 13, and 14, Christian meetings are related to the exercise of the gifts.
Chapter 12 mentions many things concerning spiritual matters. You may say “spiritual gifts,” but whatever you say, it means spiritual things. This word spiritual is not used first in chapter 12; its first use in this book is in chapter 2. In this chapter we read that the spiritual man, not the soulish man, understands the things of the Spirit (vv. 14-15). Then in 3:1 Paul says that he could not consider the Corinthians as spiritual men: “I, brothers, was not able to speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to fleshy, as to infants in Christ.” We have already pointed out that to be spiritual means to be in the spirit. Likewise, to be fleshly means to be in the flesh. When you act in the flesh, you are fleshly, but when you walk and act in the spirit, you are spiritual. A spiritual person is one who lives, works, and acts in the spirit. Undoubtedly, when we are in the spirit, there will be a certain kind of manifestation upon us — the manifestation of the Spirit.
Some Christians say that the manifestation of the Holy Spirit is only ninefold. But if you read through chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians carefully and through the remainder of the New Testament, you will discover that the manifestation of the Spirit is much more than ninefold. I would ask you to read verse 28 of chapter 12. In this verse we have helps and administrations. But these two items are not included in the manifestation of the Spirit listed in verses 7 through 10. God has set these helps and administrations in the church; are they not a further manifestation of the Spirit? Then in Acts 2 we have the matter of dreams. It says there that the young men shall see visions, and the old men shall dream things in dreams (v. 17). Are these not also the manifestation of the Spirit? You see, the nine items listed in 1 Corinthians 12:7-10 are not the only manifestation of the Spirit. People also say that the fruit of the Spirit, as listed in Galatians 5:22-23, is only ninefold. But do you really believe that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is only ninefold? In Galatians 5:22-23 there is no humility, no holiness, and no righteousness mentioned. But are these not also the fruit of the Spirit? Yes. Besides these, there are also many more aspects of the fruit of the Spirit.
Now let us come back to 1 Corinthians 12—14. At the conclusion of chapter 12, the apostle says that we should earnestly desire “the greater gifts.” This indicates that some of the gifts mentioned in this chapter are good, but they are not the best. The King James Version does not render this word quite accurately. It should not be “covet earnestly the best gifts” but “earnestly desire the greater gifts.” So we have gifts and greater gifts. Paul said that we should desire the greater gifts.
I believe that many of you have read these three chapters and are familiar with them. Let me ask you: Is healing a greater gift? Is speaking in tongues a greater gift? I believe that fairly speaking you will have to answer no. Then, comparatively speaking, which gift is greater? The answer is, the gift that builds up the church. So Paul says, “I would rather speak five words with my mind...than ten thousand words in a tongue” (14:19) that the church may be built up. The greater gift is not speaking in tongues or healing, but prophesying, for it is prophesying that builds up the church.
Paul told us that we should earnestly desire the greater gifts, yet he said that he would show us a most excellent way. So we not only need the gifts but also the way. You may have the gifts, but you may not have the way. You may be so great in the gifts but so poor in the way. On one hand, Paul said, “Earnestly desire the greater gifts,” but on the other hand, “I show to you a most excellent way.” What is the excellent way? Love! “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but do not have love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal” (13:1). What are sounding brass and a clanging cymbal? They are sounds without life. If I speak without love, I am a clanging cymbal; there is the sound but no life. Then the apostle goes on to say that prophecies will be rendered useless, tongues will cease, and knowledge will be rendered useless, but love never falls away (v. 8); love is the greatest. In 14:1 he gives the conclusion: “Pursue love.” “Pursue love, and desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.”
Then in verse 5 the apostle says, “I desire that you all speak in tongues.” This proves that not all the Corinthian believers spoke in tongues; otherwise, there would be no need for the apostle Paul to say such a thing. He says, “I desire that you all speak in tongues, but especially that you would prophesy.” To prophesy is a greater gift than to speak in tongues; the apostle was encouraging them to prophesy. In verse 31 he says, “You can all prophesy one by one.” If you take the initiative with your spirit to prophesy, then the Holy Spirit, who is one with your spirit, will cooperate with you. “The spirits of prophets are subject to prophets” (v. 32). You can give your spirit the order to prophesy; your spirit is subject to you. Then, finally, in verse 39 the apostle says, “So then, my brothers, desire earnestly the prophesying, and do not forbid the speaking in tongues.” The apostle is so balanced: to speak in tongues is not so great; it is not so important as prophesying, yet we should not forbid it.
Now we have gone rapidly through these three chapters, chapters 12, 13, and 14. The main impression we get from them is that there are two outstanding things that we must seek — love and prophecy. We need to pursue love, and we must seek to prophesy. Forgive me to say a word to you at this time. Forget the impressions you have received in the past. Let us come to the pure Word and read these three chapters again and again. I have read through these three chapters many times, especially in recent days, with the purpose of getting more deeply into them. I have read them with the help of all kinds of versions and translations, with the concordance, and with the Greek. Out of it all has come this — the summary and main thought of the writer in these three chapters is that we must pursue love as the excellent way and seek prophecy as the greater gift. This is all the church needs today. The church needs love and prophecy.
Brothers and sisters, have you realized that both love and prophecy are things of the Spirit and that these are the very things that build up the church? If you read 1 Corinthians, you will see that in this one book there are only two things that build up: the first is love (8:1) and the second is prophecy (14:5). How can the church be built up? By love and by prophecy. What is love? Love is Christ as life in my spirit for my living in my daily walk. In other words, my living is Christ as life expressed in the form of love. What is prophecy? Prophecy is also Christ in my spirit as a kind of ministry for function in the meetings. In my daily walk I have Christ as life expressed in the form of love, and in the meetings I have Christ as my ministry for my function. We need love for our living and prophecy for our function in the meetings.
With the foregoing in mind, I would present to you a full picture of 1 Corinthians. These three chapters that we have been considering, chapters 12 through 14, are not an isolated portion but simply a part of the whole message of 1 Corinthians; so we must see them in relationship to the whole. Let us take a bird’s-eye view of the entire book — it is vital to our understanding of these three chapters.
In chapter 1 we are told that we have been called into the fellowship of Christ (v. 9). This means that we have been called by God into the enjoyment of Christ. Then we are told that Christ is God’s wisdom and God’s power as our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (vv. 24, 30). In chapter 2 we are told that this Christ, as God’s wisdom and power, as our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, is the depths of God (vv. 2, 7, 10); and if we are going to realize all these depths of God, we must be in the spirit, we must be spiritual (vv. 14-15). Then we go on to chapter 6, where we are told that “he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (v. 17). We are one spirit with this Christ, who is the power of God, the wisdom of God, and also the righteousness, sanctification, and redemption to us. We are actually one with Him in spirit. Then in chapter 10 we are told that this Christ is our food and our drink (vv. 3-4); He is our enjoyment. Finally, in chapter 15 we are told that this very Christ has been made a life-giving Spirit.
When we put all these points together, we get the full scope of the thought of the apostle in 1 Corinthians. In the middle of such a book, we have this section, chapters 12 through 14, dealing with the meetings and the gifts. This reveals to us that if we are going to have the gifts, if we are going to meet in a proper way, we must experience and enjoy the Christ whom this book presents; then we will have Him as our life in the spirit in our daily walk. When we come together, then, we need only exercise our spirit to prophesy something of Christ. When we meet together, we can say something of Him whom we have already experienced and enjoyed in our daily living. This is the way for us to meet.
Let us put it in this way. According to the entire context of 1 Corinthians, the proper way for us to meet together is that first we must have a daily walk with Christ as our life, with Christ as our enjoyment, with Christ as our everything. Then we will have the very love. Love is the expression of Christ as our life. It includes patience, meekness, endurance, long-suffering, and humility; it includes all the virtues of the Christian life. Love is so all-inclusive. Love is simply Christ expressed through us as our living. Love never falls away, because love is Christ Himself. Sometimes we must change the word love in chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians into Christ. “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but do not have Christ, I have become sounding brass...” “Christ never falls away...The greatest of these is Christ.” He is the excellent way. Praise Him!
We can never stand up to prophesy in the meetings in a proper way if we are not taking Christ as our life in our daily walk. If we are not enjoying Christ as our life day by day, it is impossible to prophesy in the meetings. If we can, I tell you, we are just pretending. Sometimes when I have offended my wife just a little, before I come to the meeting, I must apologize and seek her forgiveness; otherwise, it is rather difficult for me to stand up and function in the meeting. Without dealing with the matter, there is a hole in my conscience. On one hand, I encourage everyone to prophesy, to function in the meetings, but sometimes you simply cannot do so, because there is not only one hole but several holes in your conscience. How can an electric light bulb give light if there is a hole in it? If our conscience is not covered by the blood, we have no boldness to rise and prophesy. Sometimes people ask how I can be so bold and strong to speak in the meetings. It is because I have a conscience without offense. This does not mean that I am perfect but that I am purged and purified by the cleansing blood. Put it to the test. Suppose that today you have told some lies, not big lies, just small ones. Try to stand up and function in the meeting. If you can, you are just pretending. To prophesy in the meetings depends on our living by Christ in our daily walk. We can all prophesy, but to prophesy in the meetings depends on our living by Christ. If we do not take Christ as our life in our daily walk, it is very difficult to prophesy in the meetings.
To live by Christ, to take Christ as our life in our daily walk, is absolutely a matter of being in the spirit. It is the real practice of the exercise of our spirit. Suppose you are quarreling or arguing with your roommate, your dear wife, or your husband. You know that when you persist in arguing, you are out of the spirit; you are exercising your mind and your emotions, not your spirit. You may feel that you are definitely right and the other party is wrong, but you are not in the spirit. If you do not live in the spirit and exercise your spirit in your daily walk, how can you possibly exercise your spirit to prophesy when you come to the meeting? If you have been exercising your mind and not your spirit in all your daily living, when you enter the meeting, you will do the same thing. You will consider this brother and that brother; you will criticize and analyze this brother and that brother. You will continue to exercise your mind and not your spirit — this is your habit. You have built up this habit in your daily walk. If we do not exercise our spirit all the day, every day, how can we exercise our spirit to prophesy in the meetings? In our homes, in our family life, and on our jobs, we must practice continually the exercise of our spirit. We need to build up the habit of exercising our spirit. I may have many matters with which to quarrel with my wife, but if I turn just a little to the spirit, the spirit will indicate not to quarrel, not to argue. The spirit will tell me, “Do not say that you are right, say ‘O Lord!’” Forget about so many things and just exercise the spirit to say “O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!” If you do not exercise your spirit to say “O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah” in your daily life, it is rather difficult to come to the meeting to say “O Lord.” If you can do it in the meeting without doing it in your daily life, you must be an actor or actress, and you make the meeting place a theater with some kind of performance.
The way we meet depends on the way we live. How should we meet? We must live in a proper way. We must live by taking Christ as our life, a life which is always expressed in the form of love. Love suffers, love endures, love forgives. How may we express this love? Just by exercising our spirit to contact the Lord and enjoy Him. Do you think that if you would exercise your spirit all day to say “O Lord Jesus,” you could hate others? Can we banish darkness and hatred by struggling with them and resisting them? The more we do this, the more we will be in darkness and filled with hatred. If we would simply turn to our spirit and say “O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah,” the Lord would be with us and be expressed in the form of love.
In one translation of chapter 13 we have this word, “Love never reckons others’ faults.” This is love. Love covers, love never reckons, love endures, love suffers, love believes and hopes all things. What is this love? It is nothing less than Christ in my practical, daily life. If we would enjoy such a Christ as our love, we need to exercise our spirit, not our mind. If we do not exercise our spirit, sooner or later we will always reckon the faults and failures of the brothers. Exercise your spirit continually, and you will enjoy Christ and experience Him; then when you come to the meeting, out of your habit of exercising your spirit, you will have the boldness to stand up and prophesy something of Christ. You will be able to say, “I do not care for anything but the spirit. O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!” This is your habit. This is my habit. It is wonderful! With such a habit it is easy to prophesy; it is easy to say something about the Lord and for the Lord in the meetings. This is the way to meet; this is the way revealed to us through the book of 1 Corinthians.
Christ is our portion, Christ is everything to us, Christ is the life-giving Spirit, and we are joined to Him in one spirit. It is by this way that we can live in Him, walk in Him, and have our being in Him. Then when we come together, as in chapters 12, 13, and 14 of 1 Corinthians, we gather with such a background; we come together with such a standing, with such a daily life, with such an exercise of the spirit. Then we need only take the initiative in the spirit to prophesy, to say something of and for the Lord Jesus.
Is this my teaching? No! This is the revelation of God in the Bible. It was buried, it was covered for centuries, but by His mercy it has been discovered. This book of 1 Corinthians is so open to us today. It is transparent from the first chapter to the last. Christ is so much to us that we may live by Him in a practical way day by day. Then when we meet together, out of such an experience of Christ, it is easy for us to exercise our spirit to share something of Him. We are no longer dumb, but bold to speak for the Lord Jesus. This is the way for us to meet.
