Living Like God Is Among Us

The Goal: Living as Though God Is Among Us

The goal in these verses is to instill within the congregation of Corinth how they can live as though God is among them. It instructs them in a manner that demonstrates God actually is among them. We individually are the temple of God, His dwelling place. The gathering together of Christians is also the dwelling place of God. He lives amongst His believers.

If God is living among a group of Christians, they would act as though He is living among them. They would demonstrate the authenticity of that reality through the way they worship, do church, and live their lives. There would be a clear indication that when a church comes together, they demonstrate the reality of God's presence among them.

The purpose for their gathering is to offer worship to God and to hear from God. Christians come together to ascribe glory to God, telling Him He is glorious in worship, demonstrating that God is glorious, and hearing from Him. This assumes God is amongst the congregation.

If a church operates in a manner contrary to that, they give a false impression that God is not amongst them. They misrepresent that they have gathered for some other purpose. The Corinthians gathered for a different purpose, evidenced through the Lord's Supper. They did not come together for the Lord's Supper because they were not coming together in a manner consistent with demonstrating that God is among them.

The goal for us is to come together in a manner that demonstrates the reality that God is with us. As a youth group, we would live our lives and fellowship in a manner that demonstrates the existence of God within our lives and amongst our fellowship. Is God really inhabiting our praises? He is here always. If we are the dwelling place of God, God does not leave His dwelling place in the New Testament. Everything we do as a church should demonstrate that truth, because if we are a genuine Christian church, it is true.

Three Main Approaches to Living as If God Is Among Us

1. The Demonstration of the Dwelling of God Summarized (v. 20)

Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.

Verse 20 summarizes how a church can demonstrate the dwelling of God. It is pivotal in the context of chapter 14. Christians should grow in love to the point where their love causes gifts to cease. They have been spiritual infants and need to grow spiritually. As part of their maturity, they would publicly do away with certain gifts, growing in unity with the congregation.

The Corinthians elevated tongues and ignored prophecy, hindering their growth in the revealed will of God. Immature Christians trying to communicate in tongues leads to chaos, like children in a room competing, jealous, and envious of each other's gifts.

Don't be children in your thinking. Don't think about church the way children think about life. Grow. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. Immature spiritual understanding leads to acting like children, inconsistent with the dwelling of God.

The dwelling place of God is demonstrated by people who grow in their understanding of God and diminish in their experience of evil. How experienced in evil am I? The true mark of Christian worship is minds not infantile in understanding the revealed will of God.

Be educated in the Scriptures and have a mature grasp of what God has revealed. Every one of us contacts evil, but the manner in which we experience and understand it should be like an infant's grasp. Infants do not comprehend certain things, like drunkenness or malicious speech. They have no knowledge of how evil supplies temporary pleasure.

In our culture, evil has easy access through portals in our homes and hands. The focus is not to engage in evil to become experienced or mature in it. Don't be children in your thinking, but be infants in evil. Maturity involves doing away with tongues and engaging in love that does not rejoice in evil.

2. The Demonstration of the Dangers of Tongues (vv. 21-25)

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.” Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers.

This quotes Isaiah 28:11. In context, God speaks to Israel through strange tongues of foreigners (Assyria) as judgment, sending them into captivity, and even then they would not listen. Tongues here signify judgment, not something positive for the church.

Tongues were properly used in Acts for evangelism, so the gospel could be understood in known languages, leading to salvation. When used correctly, people understand. When used incorrectly without understanding, it mirrors Israel's captivity—a curse.

A church engaging in uninterpreted tongues demonstrates captivity, not freedom in Christ, who provides the real Exodus from sin. Tongues as a sign for unbelievers is a judgment sign; prophecy for believers is a sign of salvation.

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?

An unbeliever entering a tongue-filled service thinks everyone is crazy, missing the opportunity to minister to them. In Isaiah 28, the people were wicked and drunk, incurring judgment of tongues. The Corinthian church had rampant sin, like the man sleeping with his mother.

Be infants in evil. Don't live in sin that causes unbelievers to say we are out of our minds because our lives do not match our profession.

3. The Demonstration of the Demand for Prophecy (vv. 24-25)

But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, 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.

Prophecy is the proclamation of the revealed will of God. When everyone prophesies, an unbeliever is convicted, his heart disclosed, and he worships God, declaring God is really among you.

Prophecy reveals God's intolerance of sin, the judgment it incurs, and salvation in Jesus Christ. It changes lives. This should be evident among Christians. Prophecy convicts and holds accountable. The unbeliever either gets offended and leaves or falls on his face in worship.

It demonstrates freedom from captivity, living in newness of life. Prophecy is superior because it communicates salvation's reality.

Practical Order in the Church (vv. 26-33)

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.

Let everything be done for edification. If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be only two or three at most, each in turn, and let someone interpret. If no interpreter, keep silent in church and speak to God alone.

Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets.

There should be order, not chaos. Two or three prophets speak; others weigh. Not everyone prophesies simultaneously. All can prophesy one by one for learning and encouragement. Distinguish prophecy (proclaiming revealed truth) from new revelation.

The church should be infants in evil, mature in thinking, so unbelievers either turn away from the gospel or worship God, declaring He is among us. Do we enable that opportunity? Maturity comes through love, learning, and encouragement via prophecy, not tongues.

As Christians, always learn about God. Hindering learning hinders growth and demonstrating God's presence. Does our unbelieving friends or family question if God is really among us because of how we live?