David Bahn – Reflections

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I’m using the 49 Week Bible Challenge for these blog posts. I encourage you to join me in this discipline. Today’s readings are 1 Corinthians 14; Isaiah 28; Amos 7; Numbers 10.

1 Corinthians 14:6-9, 13-19

Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? ⁷ If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? ⁸ And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? ⁹ So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. 

¹³ Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. ¹⁴ For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. ¹⁵ What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. ¹⁶ Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? ¹⁷ For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. ¹⁸ I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. ¹⁹ Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.

I have an untested theory about the Charismatic Movement of the 1970s. It may have risen, at least in part, as a response to a growing loss of confidence in Scripture. In those years, many dismissed biblical miracles as natural phenomena – a red algae bloom instead of the Nile turning to blood, Jesus “appearing” to walk on water rather than truly doing so. The supernatural was being explained away.

In that climate, a groundswell of people rediscovered a living faith in Jesus. The Jesus Movement spread across the United States and Europe, bringing with it a deep respect for Scripture and a renewed belief in God’s power. From it grew a wave of charismatic gifts – tongues, healings, and prophecies – vivid reminders that God was still alive and active among His people.

Without judging those sincere believers or their gifts, I sometimes wonder if this renewal was a Spirit-led answer to an age that had lost its sense of the spiritual.

Whether or not such gifts continue today, Paul’s warning to the Corinthians still applies: God gives His gifts for one great purpose – that all people might be saved and come to know the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). Religious enthusiasm may have its place, but the clearest sign of the Spirit’s work is when hearts are brought to faith through the plain, powerful proclamation of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

God wants you and me to know that clearly – and to live in ways that honor Christ in the ordinary rhythms of life. Most often, his work isn’t revealed through moments of religious euphoria, but through people who speak simply and clearly of God’s great love — the fullness of grace and truth found in Jesus.