Did the word of God go out from you, or did it come to you only?
Paul has just set out how the church at Corinth should behave when it meets. He closes that section with two questions that are really a rebuke. Behind them is a question every church still faces: does the church produce the word of God, or only receive it?
These are not requests for information. One writer hears sarcasm in them, and answers the question for us as well as for Corinth.
There seems to be almost a touch of sarcasm in the apostle's words when he wrote, "Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached?" In truth the Word of God came to us only; it never came out from us. Our place is to receive it humbly and without question, and the more spiritual we are, the more fully we will do that.
The first question asks where the word starts. Wolston turns that into a choice each reader has to make.
Are you the source of the word of God, or is it God who gives the word through me, to you, to teach you? Are you going to be teachers, or taught, in this question? ... Every heart that loves Christ will now have to ask itself this question: Am I keeping His commandments when it comes to 1 Corinthians 14?
If no church is the source of the word, no church can make its own rules. Kelly turns that into a test reaching far beyond Corinth.
The word of God comes out from no church, and it comes to no group of believers to the exclusion of others. What a principle, and how deep-reaching and important for all! ... A church may lay down its rules. It may draw up its beliefs. It may put out something for people to act on in discipline, government or doctrine. If that is not in simple subjection to the word of God, it falls into the same error the Corinthian church is warned against here.
The second question asks whether the word reached them alone. It did not, so Corinth was no special case. That also settles what the church may and may not do.
The assembly must hold to the truth. While it bears with a lack of understanding (for we all know only in part), it must approve no error... But the assembly is taught. It cannot and should not teach. It is to accept those whom the Lord sends to teach... The word of God comes to the saints, and it comes to all of them.
The verse follows Paul's direction about women keeping silence in the assemblies. Fereday reads it as a further reason for that instruction, not as a new subject.
The word of God comes to the church (the woman), not out from it, as the Church of Rome would teach us. The Christian woman is to learn this great principle and act on it. She is to learn from the man, and not take on the role of the man's teacher.
Kelly answers a further objection. Having a gift is not the same as the right to use it anywhere.
No doubt they reasoned that if women had gifts, why should they not use them everywhere? But only the One who gives the gift has the right to say when, how, and who may use it.
The next verse supplies the proof Paul is after. He tests a claim to be spiritual by what a person does with what he has written.
With all their gifts, the word did not come out from the Corinthians, and it had not come to them only. They ought to submit to the universal order of the Spirit in the assembly. If they claimed to be led by the Spirit, let them acknowledge — and this would prove it — that the things the apostle wrote to them were the commandments of the Lord.
- Received, not produced — the word never came out from the Corinthians; it came to them. That single fact settles the whole argument.
- Received by all — the word did not reach them only, so no church is an exception to what binds every other.
- Received, so taught — a church that receives is a learner. It accepts the teachers the Lord sends, and never appoints itself teacher.
- Received, so no rule-making — when a church makes rules that Scripture has not given, it repeats Corinth's mistake.
- Received, so proved — you show you are spiritual by bowing to what is written as the Lord's commandment, not by claiming to be led.
If any one thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him recognise the things that I write to you, that it is [the] Lord's commandment.
Paul has just set out how believers should behave when they meet: who may speak, in what order, and why. Now he turns to the gifted people at Corinth who might push back. What he writes is not one man's preference. It is a command from the Lord, and a spiritual person will be the first to admit it.
This verse seals everything Paul has said. His claim reaches far beyond one city's problems. The quotes below use an older wording of the verse, "the commandments of the Lord":
The Apostle closes his directions with a firm claim: they are the commandments of the Lord. As such, they carry all the authority of the word of God. That word comes not only to the assembly at Corinth, but to all the assemblies of God's people. To ignore the Apostle's directions is to deny that the word of God applies to the whole church. The church's place is to be subject to the word of God, remembering that the word comes to the church, not from it. The assembly, as such, is taught; it cannot teach.
Calling Paul's letters a "commandment" raises a worry. Is this a slide back into rule-keeping? One writer answers that the letters were always Scripture, and time has not weakened them:
The instructions in the letters were always part of Scripture, nothing less. They speak straight to the heart and conscience of the people they were written to. They were commands, but they were not law. If they were law, the great apostle who taught us that we are set free from the law made a terrible mistake. He knew that the Spirit must work through the written Word for it to take effect, in sinner or saint. Yet that did not stop him from claiming complete obedience to what he wrote. We owe that obedience no less than they did.
Paul does not argue about whether the Corinthians are spiritual. He gives them a way to prove it, and the same test still applies:
The Spirit of God knew in advance that people would ignore or challenge these rules. Some at Corinth were already leaning that way. They might imagine themselves to be spiritual people. If they truly were spiritual, they would prove it. They would see that the rules Paul laid down were not his own ideas, but the Lord's commands given through him. The test of our spirituality today is just the same.
The word "thinks" points to where the Corinthians went wrong. A great gift felt like proof that they were spiritual, and it was not:
Someone might suppose himself to be spiritual because the Spirit had given him a great gift. But the one does not follow from the other at all, as we see at Corinth. The moral fruits of the Spirit were missing there. They were missing because the Corinthians were not walking in the Spirit. They were walking as mere men, ruled by the flesh.
Most people who escape this verse today do not deny it. They date it, treating these instructions as fit only for the church's early days. One writer meets that head on:
We all like to think of ourselves as spiritual. Now, fellow Christians, every one of you must face this: "the commandments of the Lord" must not be despised. You cannot treat them lightly... I know some will say that all this was for the early days. It worked then, but it cannot be done now. That is sheer unbelief, and nerve as well. God has spoken. Our place is to obey. It is not our place to tell Him that we are wiser than He is, and that we know how to run things in His house better than He did Himself.
Gift and obedience are not rivals. The more real the gift, the deeper the obedience:
Real insight into God's mind, or the fruit of it in a spiritual life, would only deepen the sense of the Lord's authority and of how binding obedience is. We see this perfectly in Christ Himself while He was here on earth. So let the power of the Spirit be shown by recognising His commandment! Does anyone refuse to submit, saying he does not know? Then let him keep the place of ignorance, and not pretend to teach.
- Commandment claimed. Paul calls his directions the Lord's commandments. They carry the authority of God's word — not for Corinth only, but for all the assemblies of God's people.
- Commandment, not law. These commands were never a return to law. Yet Paul claimed complete obedience to what he wrote, and we owe him that obedience just as Corinth did.
- Commandment as test. Anyone can think himself spiritual. The proof is seeing that these rules are not Paul's ideas but the Lord's commands. The test is the same today.
- Commandment above gift. Corinth shows that a great gift proves nothing. The moral fruits of the Spirit were missing there, because they walked as mere men.
- Commandment refused. Saying "that was only for the early days" is unbelief. God has spoken. Whoever refuses to obey by claiming ignorance should stay in that place, and not pretend to teach.