Decency, Order, Love

Good morning,

I hope that our excursion through 1 Peter was a blessing to you.  Next we'll go back to the Old Testament, although the Lord hasn't said where yet.  Last night and this morning, the verse that was resonating through my mind was 1 Corinthians 14:40.

Let all things be done decently and in order.

(KJV)

This is one of those verses that is so often quoted that you are not sure it is even in the Bible!  There are some "sayings" which are attributed to being in the Bible but are not really there.  One example is:  "God will not give you more than you can bear."  But, I won't sashay off onto that tangent...

When I went to find the verse for today's focus, I found it at the end of chapter 14, which is a correction chapter for the Corinthian church.  The chapter deals with speaking in a private prayer language during corporate worship.  A lengthy blog post could deal with this topic, but that's not what is being spoken to my heart today.

Order is a beautiful thing, especially in the church.  In previous posts, we examined God's design for order in the family, for order in the community and nation and so forth.  The Holy Spirit can and does do the unexpected, the miraculous.  But, He expects us to be a people of decency and orderliness, as brothers and sisters in Christ, not just in how we worship but in how we relate to one another over all.

If you look at the overarching principles related to decency and orderliness in the workings of the Body of Christ, there are two reasons for this important mandate.

• The first is found in verse 12:  

Since you're so eager to participate in what God is doing, why don't you concentrate on doing what helps everyone in the church?

(The NIV phrases this as "builds up the church".  Amen!)

• The second is found in verse 23-24:

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....won’t they assume you’ve taken leave of your senses and get out of there as fast as they can? 

We are told in verse 33 of this chapter that God is not a god of disorder but of peace.  If, in our interactions in the local church we do things with decency and in an orderly fashion, we will be a peaceful people.  Disagreements will occur - - - we are a fallen race, us humans.  However, God has commanded that we handle our disagreements decently.

What does that mean?  Often in churches, there are "guiding documents" which are prayerfully designed and adopted by local congregations.  Assuming that these are in line with the Word of God, those documents should guide the governance of the church.  When individual members go off on their own tangents, abrogating the established procedures, this produces discord.  It does not build up the local group of believers.  If a particular church constitution, by-laws or other guiding document is found to be incomplete or insufficient, proper channels should be followed to amend it, according to the leading of the Holy Spirit and according to the dictates of the Word of God.

Furthermore, and this is even more important, when the Church operates in a disorderly fashion, it gives the unbelieving world something to "gawk at", as The Message version phrases it.  Such carnal, prideful behavior always leads to strife in the church, which causes unbelievers to want nothing to do with either our churches or, more importantly, our Savior.  How many of us want to be used to bring dishonor to our Savior's name?  

So, we won't always agree about everything in our churches.  But, when we disagree, we must do so with brotherly love, with an attitude of "let's work together to fix this", so that the Body will be strengthened, the name of the Lord will be magnified and the world will know we are Christians by the love we have for one another.  1 John 4 talks about this extensively:  "letting love have the run of the house" (vs. 17).

Love produces order and peace.  Pride is self-seeking, producing strife and discord.  The former is from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and seeks His will, His glory.  The latter serves the Enemy.

Sovereign Lord, be present among us, to work Your will in and through us.  Your order is seen in Your magnificent creation.  May we reflect Your glory in all our dealings with our brothers/sisters and with our fellow man, so that Your will may be done on earth as it is in Heaven and so that all praise may go to You.  In Jesus' name, amen.