In many churches the pastor opens the floor to the people of the church for “testimonies”—kinda loosely defined. Basically anyone may get up and say a little something, sing a little something, preach a little, teach a little, and so forth. The pastor moderates.
Sometimes the pastor is a great moderator. And sometimes the pastor sits back and lets the church turn into the worst of America’s Got Talent. We get mini-sermons which go on too long and misquote bible aplenty. Or stories about “God encounters,” which are obviously just coincidences, but the testifier lacks the discernment to know otherwise. Or “prophecies” which aren’t really, tongues without interpretation, singers without talent. In short, pastors need to pre-screen the people coming forward. Some do. Some don’t.
Why do the humbugs come forward? For the same reason they try out for TV talent shows: They think they’re anointed. God gave them the ability to preach, sing, prophesy, or pray really well. (Or so they believe.) So these gifts need to be displayed where everyone can appreciate them. Why not church?
Meh. There’s a place for these things, and the church’s testimony time isn’t necessarily the right place. If you’ve ever had to sit through one of these testimony times gone wrong, you know precisely what I’m talking about.
However if you think that’s bad, it ain’t nothing compared to what the church of Corinth used to do. Imagine the entire service was like a bad testimony time. ’Cause that’s what they did.
Why is it, Christians, that every time you gather together, every individual has a psalm, a lesson, a revelation, tongues, and interpretation? Everything must be done to build up the group.
—Paul and Sosthenes,
Kinda hard to build up the group when everyone has decided group time is really “Look at me!” time.
A big part of the problem was also how the Corinthians were blaming the Holy Spirit for this misbehavior.
The Spirit’s fault? Not in the slightest.
A few verses down, the apostles pointed out,
The Spirit of prophets submit to prophets, for God doesn’t do disorder, but peace.
—Paul and Sosthenes,
I popped that bit out of sequence because it’s the basis for all the apostles’ teaching. Chaos is not God.
Charismatics will actually try to blame our out-of-control revival services on the Holy Spirit. Prophets will blame him for their shouting, stamping, wild laughter, uncontrollable weeping, falling over, weird noises—really any weirdness for weirdness’ sake. “When the Spirit of the Lord comes upon my heart, I just can’t help it!”
Horseflop. They can so, and saying the Spirit is responsible for their bad behavior is slander. Or, if you wanna go there, and I will, blasphemy. Of the Spirit. No I’m not kidding.
The reality? It’s not God. It’s them. Yeah, the Spirit will empower them to do stuff. But any fruitless lack of self-control they practice as they do the stuff is not him.
For it’s totally possible to perform supernatural acts without practicing the fruit of the Spirit. In the previous chapter, the apostles gave this example:
When I speak in human and angelic tongues, and have no love, I became the sound of a gong, a clanging symbol. When I have a prophecy—“I knew the whole mystery! I know everything!”—when I have all the faith necessary to move mountains, and have no love, I’m nobody. Might I give away everything I possess? Perhaps submit my body so I could be praised
for my sacrifice ?Yet I have no love, so I gain nothing.—Paul and Sosthenes,
Love’s a fruit of the Spirit. And the apostles posit one can speak in tongues without it. Prophesy without it. Have great faith without it. Do great and good deeds without it. And as a result be useless, gain nothing, be nothing.
Yeah, the Spirit can empower people to do all sorts of miracles. And empower people to do the fruit of the Spirit. But doing the fruit is entirely on them.
Causing God to be slandered.
If a miracle-worker doesn’t produce fruit of the Spirit, the miracles are gonna lose their effectiveness.
Maybe God will still get praise for the miracles; hope so. But just as many people will respond, “Why, that schmuck can’t be legit. He loves only himself. He’s so joyless. So fearful, so impatient, so unkind. He misbehaves all the time. He fires his staff at the drop of a hat. He’s rough and wildly emotional; he’s throws tantrums like a baby. How does any of that behavior prove the Spirit empowered him?”
And they’re entirely right. None of it does. But I don’t blame them for leaping to the conclusion the Spirit isn’t in the miracle-worker: I lay the blame entirely on the fruitless miracle-worker. Jesus said his people—and the fakes—will be identified by their fruits. He also said lots of people will claim, “We did miracles in your name!” yet they’re still not his. Stands to reason people, who are practicing discernment exactly as Jesus instructed, would identify this fruitless miracle-worker as a fraud. And it’s entirely the miracle-worker’s fault for the misidentification. His fruitlessness gave them no other course of action.
Though in Romans, Paul was trying to make the point the Law doesn’t save and never did, he did point out that those who claimed to follow it and didn’t, were causing God to be blamed for their rotten behavior.
If you so-called Jews rely on the Law, boast in God, know his will, test for perfection because the Law instructs so, believe you’re a leader for the blind, a light for those in darkness, a discipline for fools, a teacher for kids, having the façade of knowledge and truth from the Law:
- So, you who teach others: You don’t teach yourselves.
- You who proclaim “Don’t steal”: You steal.
- You who say, “Don’t cheat on your spouse”: You cheat on spouses.
- You who’re “made nauseous” by idols: You defile temples.
You who boast in the Law: Because you break the Law, you dishonor God, for “God’s name is slandered in the nations thanks to you” —just as it’s written.
—Paul,
When we claim to follow Jesus, but are fruitless and misbehaving, we do the very same thing. We cause people to slander the Holy Spirit—“That wasn’t him; his people would behave better than that”—and make ourselves, our testimony, and our miracles useless.
It’s never “Look at me” time.
Back to the 1 Corinthians passage. What the apostles wrote about was how the Corinthians were practicing the supernatural—but not to help one another. Instead they were just showing off their individual gifting. They were being selfish with God’s gifts. It was about “Look at me!” not “Let me help you follow Jesus better.” Hence chaos.
When tongues-speakers and prophets are shouting over one another so they can be heard, and to hell with what the other people have to say, that’s fruitless; hence chaos. When those who want to teach, but don’t care to be taught, try to shout down or shut down other teachers, that’s fruitless; hence chaos. When musicians who want to perform, but don’t want competition, and block everyone else from doing so; or when they don’t want anyone to contribute to the church’s “sound” but them, that’s fruitless; hence chaos.
It’s up to the pastors, and the church leadership, to figure out how to organize and utilize the talent—and to kindly redirect those people who lack the fruit. Too often, they’ll accept Christians with talent, but don’t pay attention to the lack of fruit. It’s why we get musicians, prophets, and teachers whose Christian lifestyle is just awful.
But it’s gotta be done. The Holy Spirit is a God of order. We have to submit to him, and to one another, and keep the first priority what’s good for the Kingdom. Not the gifted individual; the church. Not the self; the Lord.