14:26
The primary emphasis on the use of the gifts of the spirit has been on using them in love, which in the present context meant using them to build up others. In the final section of the letter Paul deals with another point, namely that everything in church meetings should be done “in a fitting and orderly way” (14:40).
“When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation”. How this applies depends upon the size of the church. The churches were rather small in the early days. In a large church, anything more than a couple of dozen or so, the literal interpretation of this verse would not be practical, especially if numbers start to go into the hundreds! However, the principle is that everyone has something to contribute, and the practical outworking of this can take place in small groups, house groups, or whatever your church calls them.
All this was to be done for the edification of the church, it was not to be done for the sake of your own ego!
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