What's Love Got to Do With It?

If I were to ask you about the most messed-up church, what name would come to mind? What if I began naming some of the problems in this church? They were defined by their charismatic, sophisticated leaders, devoted more to their preacher than Christ. They tolerated forms of sexual immorality declared deviant by the most pagan of their neighbors. They had no problem partaking in the idolatrous worship of others, irrespective of how it affected their brothers and sisters in Christ. They would have church potlucks where the rich got drunk and gorged themselves, while the poor had nothing to eat.

But gifted? This church was gifted. They had some of the most on-fire, Pentecostal services known. They especially liked to exercise the gift of tongues when they all gathered together. They would all pray in tongues. They were full of the Holy Ghost, or at least full of the Ghost. I’m not sure how holy they were. And Paul, frankly, was scared of Pentecostal worship with the Spirit but no holiness and transformation. I'm talking, of course, about the church at Corinth.

Paul spends three chapters of 1 Corinthians dealing with Pentecostal worship, especially sorting through the proper exercise of the gifts of the Spirit. In doing so, he emphasizes equality, love, and ordered care as the proper environment for Pentecostal worship. Equality over status and position. Love over power and giftedness. And ordered care over charismatic chaos. Holy love was at the center of true, Spirit-filled worship. I wonder, just wonder, what the Wesleyan roots of Pentecostalism might teach us about biblical Pentecostal worship. Wesleyans, you see, believe in heart purity that removes the selfish bent within the sinful heart of humans, so that we can truly love God and others. Was that why Paul put Agape love at the center of Pentecostal worship? Can selfish hearts be truly Pentecostal? How much of our Pentecostal/Charismatic worship is what Paul described in 1 Corinthians 13:1 as “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." Could it be that these three themes of chapters 12, 13, and 14 define Pentecostal worship?

Equality Over personality

One of the most revolutionary aspects of Pentecostalism has been its leveling of the playing field. The societal barriers of gender, race, and class often melt away in the fires of revival. Surely, reading the stories of Azusa Street, you see how blacks and whites, rich and poor, male and female worshipped together in that building at 312 Azusa Street. Interesting that Paul would ground the Corinthian church in their unity in the Spirit.

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​1 Corinthians 12:4–6 (ESV)
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.
 
1 Corinthians 12:11 (ESV)
All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
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Paul points to the unity of the gifts in the Spirit of God as grounds for an equal recognition of all members of the church. Comparing the church to a body, Paul suggests that no one member of the body is any more important than the other. There’s an absurdity in suggesting that one spiritual gift or manifestation is more important than any other; one member with the gifts of healing and the other member with the gifts of helps are equal in the Spirit, empowered for the common good of the body.
Think about how revolutionary this would’ve been to the Corinthians, who identified with their leaders. “I follow Paul. I follow Peter. I follow Apollos. Well, I follow Jesus.” This was common to the culture around them, for there were often public speakers in Greek culture who would travel and gather crowds by their slick speech and gifted oratory. It was only natural, then, that the Corinthians would platform their favorite preacher.
Into a church divided by personality and platform, Paul emphasized gifting from the Spirit for the common good. There was a unity and an equality in the Spirit that militated against the cult of personality. No part of the body could be exalted over another. No one gift could be more important than the other. 

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​1 Corinthians 12:15–16 (ESV)
If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.
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Instead of gathering around personality, Paul emphasizes a pursuit of equality and unity in the Spirit, working individually in the Spirit for the common good of all. My gift is from the same source, the Holy Spirit, and is aimed at the same goal, the common good of the community. We’re all working together, aiming at a transformed community. 

Care over Chaos

Jumping over to chapter 14, Paul tackles the issue of chaos in worship. It seems that the Corinthian church had a habit of gathering and all speaking in tongues, all at once, with no interpretation. Paul says that the environment created in this setting was one of confusion and chaos. 

1 Corinthians 14:23 (ESV)
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?
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When the outsider comes into the meeting, Paul says that the chaos created by the unrestrained gifts of the Spirit leads them to say that Christians are out of their minds. Does that mean, then, that the gifts of the Spirit have no place in corporate worship?
Some Pentecostals, turned off by the experience of chaos in Pentecostal/Charismatic worship, have tried to relegate the gifts of the Spirit to the back room. They’ve disallowed the expression of public tongues and interpretation, prophecy, and ministry at the altars where someone might fall out in the Spirit. Is this the intention of a Spirit-filled church? Surely, their heart for the outside is commendable, as they do not want an unbeliever turned off from the gospel by chaos. 

Yet, Paul’s answer to chaos was not to turn off all Spiritual gifts. It was ordered care for the body. Rather than focus on the gift of tongues, Paul told the church to pursue prophecy, delivering a Spirit-inspired message in the language of the people. Why? “On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation” (1 Corinthians 14:3 ESV). Prophetic ministry brings upbuilding and encouragement to the people, caring for them. Care for others, in the Spirit’s power, dictates the public exercise of the gifts of the Spirit. It’s not that tongues can’t happen, with interpretation. An interpreted tongue brings the same positive care and encouragement as prophecy, though tongues have a different aim. What dictates is care. How can I care for others in the Spirit’s power?  

tHE cOMMUNITY OF eMPOWERED lOVE

If care is to overcome chaos and equality is to overcome personality, holy love should stand at the center of Pentecostal worship. What good are my spiritual gifts if I don’t have love? What good is my tongue if it just appears to outsiders as chaos? But what if love tempered my exercise of the gifts so that instead of seeing a chaotic community built on the loudest personalities, I saw a caring community built on Christ?
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​Imagine with me a Spirit-empowered community of empowered love. Listen to the community Paul describes: 

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​1 Corinthians 12:8–10 (ESV)
For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.
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Imagine coming into a community confused, not knowing what to do or where to go, and then someone, without knowledge of your situation, is given a word of wisdom or knowledge supernaturally. In a moment, the Spirit cuts through the confusion and brings supernatural peace. Imagine coming in sick, with a body filled with disease, and a brother or sister lays hands on you and prays the prayer of faith. The Spirit gives a gift of healing, and in a moment, the tide turns as you begin a healing journey. Imagine needing a miracle, and instantaneously, you rise from a wheelchair or throw crutches to the wind as a kingdom miracle is manifest in your midst. Imagine coming in discouraged, and the Spirit gives a prophetic word that is spot on for your situation or a tongue and interpretation that declares the greatness of God—imagine knowing that God sees, hears, and knows you personally.

This, my friends, is what love has to do with it. Love compels us to be a gifted community where all prophesy, all pray for one another, all hear from God, so that we can care for one another. This is a community of empowered love. This Valentine's weekend, consider what the Spirit might want to do to your love. Think about how the Spirit might empower you to love your brother, your sister, or your neighbor. Think about what the gifts of the Spirit are really about, and ask God to fill you with holy love, the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Maybe that filling will empower us to love supernaturally and truly live Pentecostal lives in the power He has for us.