哥林多前书14章宁可用悟性说五句教导人的话，强如说万句方言

19节：但在教会中，宁可用悟性说五句教导人的话，强如说万句方言

谢谢主，让我一如既往的来到你的面前，思考你的话语。也谢谢主的带领和保守。虽然总是有各种让人心累担心的事情，但是靠着主，我们有盼望有真平安。主啊，我在这里特别为你赐给的美满家庭来献上感恩。这么一个大家子，唯有你能替我托住。谢谢你，亲爱的主基督耶稣。

今天读的第十四章，讲的是方言的问题。这个不由的令我想起了我和齐欣初到奥克兰寻找教会时的情形。当时，我们先是找了一家叫灵粮堂的教会。当时去的时候，他们的的祷告的情形可把我们吓坏了，还以为误入异端教会呢（那时不像现在了解多些）。牧师还是长老们口里喊的叫的，一句也听不懂，还有被按手在身上的弟兄在祷告期间，居然会躺倒在地上。到了气氛热烈的时候，牧师和长老们居然下来见人就按手祷告，可是一句也听不懂。我和齐欣去了第一次就没敢去第二次了。毕竟，我们刚从北帕那僻静的乡下来到大都市，没见过世面。后来才略微知道，当时他们用的是“方言”做祷告。从我们的切身经历来看，保罗在十四章关于方言的评论实在正确。我和齐欣都是已经信主的人了，只是长期呆在一个浸信会里，尚且一时半会的无法接受这么“属灵”的祷告，何况一个未信的人，岂不是很容易被吓跑？保罗说：“宁可用悟性说五句教导人的话，强如说万句方言”亦使我想起前端时间健宁信心满满的分享说一定可以明白上帝启示的真理的时候说：“上帝已经启示我们真理了，并且赐给我们启示神真理的灵，再加上从他而赐给我们的理性，悟性。我们是可以明白的，因为他是愿意向我们启示的神。”也提到这个悟性。我就想啊，我现在是不是缺这个悟性啊，总不明白，看来得好好的向上帝求给悟性了，光求智慧还不行。

这个第十四章有一个地方，让我很困惑，就是从34节，34节，突然提到妇女在教会中不准说话的问题，我看了圣经前前后后，也没有别的地方对妇女有如此严厉的要求，不知道时什么缘故？是否和那时的一些背景文化有关？还望各弟兄姐妹解答。

写到这里，我得收笔了，明天是非常忙的一天，求慈爱的天父带领我们，看守我们全家。

阿门

回应

Alvin Shi In verse 34, the women are commanded to remain silent and not to speak publicly213 “in the churches.” Paul’s instruction here is not just for the Corinthian church, but for the churches. Those who would tell us that only the Corinthian women were to refrain from publicly participating in the church gathering overlook other Scripture which is equally clear on this subject. Paul instructed Timothy to teach the women to remain silent in Ephesus (1 Timothy 2:11-15). In this Corinthian epistle, Paul claimed that his teaching was not provincial, but universal. His practice conforms to his preaching, and his preaching is consistent in every place (4:16-17), even with regard to the role of women (11:16). That women should remain silent in the church meeting is no new revelation, unique to Paul’s teaching. This practice is not based upon special circumstances in the Corinthian culture, but on the biblical principle of submission. How common are the attempts to brush Paul’s teaching aside, as though it was some idiosyncrasy of his, some quirk, some chauvinistic hang-up that is inconsistent with other biblical revelation. Yet the silence of women in the churches is not a new revelation, based upon some set of circumstance unique to Corinth and unrelated to 20th century Christians. The practice that Paul requires is based upon the principle of submission. This principle is so generally recognized as being taught in the Old Testament that Paul does not even find it necessary to cite a particular passage.214 If verse 34 is difficult to accept, verse 35 is even more so. It would almost seem that Paul is “rubbing salt in the wound” here. A woman cannot even ask a question in the church meeting, but she must ask her own husband at home because it would be disgraceful215 for her to speak in church. Why would God forbid a woman to ask a question in the church meeting? What would be the harm of a simple question? Questions are seldom neutral. While some are sincerely asked to gain information or insight, many are posed for other reasons. Satan, for example, commenced his conversation with Eve with a question (Genesis 3:1). He was not trying to learn from Eve, but to deceive her and tempt her to sin against God. The opposition which our Lord faced from the scribes and Pharisees frequently came in the form of an apparently innocent question (cf. Matthew 22:15ff., 23ff., 34ff.). Many who ask questions are really trying to make a point or to challenge the position of the one being questioned. I saw this frequently in my seminary days (and probably was often guilty myself). The power to question is the authority to lead and to correct, and thus it should be exercised by the men, whom God has appointed to exercise and illustrate headship in the church (1 Corinthians 11:3ff.). Since the principle of edification underlies this passage, there should be positive reasons why the Scriptures prohibit women from asking a question in the church meeting. This prohibition will prove to be edifying to the men in two ways. First, the men will be stimulated to more serious study and diligent leadership when their wives look to them for the answers to their biblical questions. So long as the wife looks to someone other than her husband, he will not feel the weight of his responsibility as a husband and leader in the home. That is why Paul says, “… let them ask their own husbands at home.” Second, the husband will not be threatened or put on the spot publicly if he is asked at home. If he does not know the answer, he will be able to investigate the matter more fully and without embarrassment. Having the women ask their questions at home builds up the men, but it also edifies the women. The woman who understands that it is shameful for her to exercise authority by publicly addressing the meeting of the church will certainly be reluctant to question anyone aggressively in the meeting of the church. If the answer she is given is vague or inaccurate, she will not be able to pursue the matter further without instructing the men or challenging their teaching. Paul therefore instructs the women to ask their questions of their husbands at home. There they will have the freedom to probe, to discuss, and even to challenge until they are satisfied with the answer they are given. I believe this is why Paul chose to employ an intensive form of the verb “to ask,” which might be rendered, “to interrogate.” This will be far more edifying to the women than trying to ask a question with the limitations placed on them in the church meeting. In other words, Paul does not forbid women to speak so that the church gains at their expense, but that all will gain, the women included. This truth is so important I want to take the time to illustrate it. There was a godly woman in my home church who was as good a student of the Scriptures (and possibly better) as any man. One Sunday she was asked to open the adult class in prayer. She very graciously declined by saying that she would rather not. She did not explain why. The reason she did not explain declining to pray was that she would have had to teach men in order to do so. She was willing to allow someone to conclude that she might be “out of fellowship” in order to be obedient to the Word of God. So, too, a truly submissive woman would find it difficult, even impossible, to interrogate without violating the principle of submission.

Alvin Shi I believe that verse 36 must apply most directly to women rather than to the Corinthian church at large. After all, this is the context of verses 34-36. I have yet to read a commentary which interprets verse 36 as I do, so perhaps I am wrong. And yet whom is Paul addressing here, and why is he so forceful if it is not those women in Corinth who have tasted some of the liberties of the women in that day and found Paul’s teaching unacceptable? I can almost hear a prophetess or perhaps a woman with the gift of tongues protesting that unless she can speak in the church meeting, the church will suffer for it. How can the church get by without my tongue, without my revelation, without my teaching? If Paul’s words are addressed to a woman such as this, no wonder they sting. “Are you really so ignorant as to think that the Word of God (especially the Old Testament Scriptures) was revealed by a woman” Paul asks. In other words, what Old Testament book can be named which has a woman as its author? True, there were women prophets in days of old, women like Deborah, but the Scriptures make it clear that her leadership was to be a reproach to weak men, such as Barak: Then Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” And she said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman” (Judges 4:8-9). If it is to the strong-willed and contentious women of Corinth that Paul is speaking in verse 36, he has turned their attention to the way God spoke to men in the past. God had chosen, with few exceptions, to speak through men. Men, not women, were the priests and the kings. Such was also the case in the ministry of our Lord. He chose no women to be His apostles, nor did He send women forth to preach. While Jesus esteemed women highly, much more highly than His contemporaries (cf. John 4:9, 27), He withheld from them the task of leadership in the church and public preaching. But the arrogance of such women who would challenge Paul is not yet fully exposed. Paul goes on to say, “Do you think God can only speak through you?” If there is a protest by women because they cannot address the entire church, Paul simply asks if God is thereby restricted. It is a presumptuous and arrogant spirit which supposes that God can speak only through oneself. And this is not just a problem for women. That is why Paul has spoken to the prophets already. They did not all have to speak at any one meeting. Their revelation could wait. Neither did they have to speak too long, for God wishes to speak through others as well. While I am inclined to think that verse 36 applies specifically to those women who would object to Paul’s teaching, it certainly has application to men and to the church corporately. Any church that begins to think of itself as the sole custodian of the truth has very serious problems. There is a sense in which autonomy is an unbiblical attitude, whether in a church or in an individual. It is diametrically opposed to the mentality of the servant.

Alvin Shi 实在是抱歉，这么长的一段解释。It’s Ref: Spiritual Gifts, Part 5: Spiritual Gifts and Self-Control (1 Cor. 14:26-40). By Bob Deffinbaugh https://bible.org/seriespage/spiritual-gifts-part-5-spiritual-gifts-and-self-control-1-cor-1426-40?fbclid=IwAR2-KoYd1inXYNFSWNJuHH0pE3kdbZUkTPY9UqxbcLW6P62AkSvlcxaDDcA

Alvin Shi 另外，其实万历在日志中提到的“悟性”。这个悟性在希腊文原文当中就是“心思”，“意思”，“Understanding”。其实与“理性”，“思想”是一个词根。就是指着不仅仅要用灵祷告，歌颂；也要用理性来祷告，歌颂。因为14节讲的非常清楚：“我若用方言祷告，是我的灵祷告，但我的悟性没有果效。” 我的心思，我的理性没有果效。举个例子：就好像我们唱敬拜赞美的一些诗歌，我们不断地重复副歌，一次又一次。一直唱，一直唱，其实这就是一个沉浸在一种感觉当中的宣泄，是一个杀死理性的过程。对灵性，悟性都没有果效，帮助。而一些传统的，经典的经过时间的考验的好诗歌，里面无论是旋律还是歌词都有很深的神学蕴涵，我们在唱得的时候，就会用理性思考，这样就有帮助了。所以，我们要知道我们在唱什么，有时候我们经常很陶醉的在场一些敬拜赞美的诗歌，很投入，却根本不思考歌词的含义。就好像是在唱通俗歌曲，卡拉ok。正如万历弟兄的题目：“但在教会中，宁可用悟性说五句教导人的话，强如说万句方言” 就是因为，方言造就个人，自己；而用理性，真理对会众的教导却是造就他人，众人，是更重要的。愿上帝帮助我们，进入他的真理当中。阿门！

Wanli Huang 谢谢健宁的推荐文章。长还是英语，我读了好久。虽然没有完全弄明白，但是大概有个轮廓，还得再仔细读读。另外，关于“方言”的问题，我看《使徒行传》里的各使徒所说的方言，好像是现实生活中实实在在存在的区域性的语言，只是外地人不懂而已。不过，我以前听人说，现在教会所指的“方言”，说是一种“属灵”的语言，就好象我在灵粮堂看到的那样。这个到底是什么回事？

本文在2009年11月23日发布于我的Facebook https://www.facebook.com/notes/wanli-huang/%E5%93%A5%E6%9E%97%E5%A4%9A%E5%89%8D%E4%B9%A614%E7%AB%A0/218576145557

2009年-2010年和健宁弟兄相约写灵修心得，并且和职青团契的弟兄姐妹分享，内容都发表在FACEBOOK NOTES上，链接可以点这里。现在我移到这个博客网址，重新整理，将自己的过去归档。