Daily Reading 10/14

Today we've got more about speaking. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 14, is still talking about speaking in tongues versus speaking plainly (what The Message calls private prayer language or tongues and plain truth speaking). The whole passage for today is 1 Corinthians 14:13-25, but I'd like to draw your attention to verses 20-25:

"It's written in Scripture that God said,

In strange tongues
and from the mouths of strangers
I will preach to this people,
but they'll neither listen nor believe.

So where does it get you, all this speaking in tongues no one understands? It doesn't help believers, and it only gives unbelievers something to gawk at. Plain truth-speaking, on the other hand, goes straight to the heart of believers and doesn't get in the way of unbelievers. If you come together as a congregation and some unbelieving outsiders walk in on you as you're all praying in tongues, unintelligible to each other and to them, won't they assume you've taken leave of your senses and get out of there as fast as they can? But if some unbelieving outsiders walk in on a service where people are speaking out God's truth, the plain words will bring them up against the truth and probe their hearts. Before you know it, they're going to be on their faces before God, recognizing that God is among you."

The sentences that most jump out at me are when Paul says "Plain truth-speaking, on the other hand, goes straight to the heart of believers and doesn't get in the way of unbelievers...But if some unbelieving outsiders walk in on a service where people are speaking out God's truth, the plain words will bring them up against the truth and prove their hearts." WOW.

There are two things I'd like to note in those sentences. The first is that plain speaking goes to the heart of not only unbelievers but believers as well. Even if you already believe in God and the Good News of Jesus Christ, if you're not speaking honestly and plainly about it, you might not understand (and won't be using your adult mind, as Paul asks us to do earlier in today's lesson). Our plain speaking is for the benefit of everyone, not just those who don't believe!

Furthermore, Paul acknowledges the awesome power of speech. If you were to walk into a church where the Gospel were really being preached, that would probably stand out to you (even if you're already a Christian). One of the things that draws people to particular churches is how good the preaching is, for example. But if we're preaching the truth, this will cause those who don't believe to come face to face with it. In other words, we can make God's love known by what we say.

This can be a hard thing for many of us. I know so many people who say they spread the Good News through their actions--if you're nice to people, someone might ask you why you're so nice and then (maybe) you can tell them about Jesus. We talked about this in Sunday School Awesomeness recently. How do you talk about Jesus without offending someone? How do we act as Christians in the world without stepping on the toes of those who have other beliefs? How can we be a missional people who are also compassionate towards others (and not condemning)? These are questions that we raised just by talking about our actions.

But Paul is telling us here that it's speaking that can be important, and while actions are still an important part of our work in spreading the Gospel, we have to be able to talk about it clearly and truthfully. But never fear-developing a "faith language" is something that we all struggle with--it's a growth process and it will change as we change. The important thing is that we are speaking about God's love in the first place. There are questions we can ask ourselves when we pray to think about how we talk about God.

Here's one for you: Who is Jesus? Who is he to you? What does he have to do with me ("me" being a friend who might be asking you this question)?

How would you answer these questions?