When God saves people, He miraculously makes them a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). His work of remaking people, however, is not complete at the initial point of salvation; He renews us on a continuing basis (Rom. 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 3:18).

Because He has ordained that there be such continual renewing, we must be mindful of potential lingering wrong thinking that biases our doctrine and practice. Biased doctrine and practice is sourced in wisdom that is not from God, but is “earthly, sensual, devilish” (James 3:15; cf. 1 John 2:16). Correcting such bias requires wholehearted acceptance of all that God in His wisdom has given us in His word.

Because the primeval account in Scripture of human failure to think properly (Gen. 3:1-13) highlights our first parents’ rejection of divine revelation about the doctrine of judgment (2:17; 3:3), we should not be surprised to find lingering manifestations of such bias in our doctrine and practice. In order to overcome any lingering inherited Edenic bias in our doctrine and practice, we must scrutinize our perspectives concerning the doctrine of judgment.

Beginning with the account of the Fall of man, Scripture provides us with key passages that suggest areas about which we need to examine our thinking concerning many potential manifestations of lingering Edenic bias against the full biblical teaching about the doctrine of judgment:

1. Is God’s punitive judgment to be viewed as a “negative” teaching of Scripture?

• See Deuteronomy 28:63, Psalm 119:119, and Revelation 18:20.
• Should we then have a “negative” perspective about God’s condemnation of unrepentant sinners?

2. Is judgment mainly condemnation that lost people will experience in the future?

• See Genesis 16:5, Psalm 75:6, Ezekiel 22:2, John 12:31, Romans 14:9-10 and 16:20, 
  1 Corinthians 11:32, and James 4:12.
• Scripture teaches that God/the Lord is the Judge who judges between believers. He is the Judge who presently abases people and exalts others, especially in the realm of civil authority. He sends people to judge others by declaring their sinfulness to them. At the Cross, the world was judged, and the prince of this world was cast out.
• Jesus died and rose again that He might be the Lord, the Judge of the living and the dead, who will judge all believers one day. God will shortly bruise Satan under the feet of believers. The Lord judges believers when He chastens them, and He does so that they will not be condemned.
• Is the doctrine of judgment, therefore, concerned mainly just with the future condemnation of lost people?

3. Why did Jesus come into the world?

• See Genesis 3:15, John 9:39, Hebrews 2:14-15, and 1 John 3:8.
• Both testaments speak of the woman’s Seed who would come to render judgment, especially on the evil one. Is it right, therefore, to focus mainly only on His coming as the One who would save people?

4. Who saves people?

• See Isaiah 33:22 and James 4:12.
• Both testaments explicitly teach that God/Jesus as the Judge is the One who saves people. Is it right, therefore, to say dichotomously that God/Jesus as the Judge is “the bad news,” while Jesus as the Savior is “the good news”?

5. What are we to preach to the world?

• See Psalm 96:10 and Acts 10:42-43.
• Both testaments explicitly teach that God has commanded us to proclaim who the Judge is. Is it right, therefore, to say that what we really have to preach is that God/Jesus is the Savior, but we do not necessarily have to preach that Jesus is the Judge?

These five points are representative of many major aspects of the biblical teaching concerning the doctrine of judgment about which we must allow all the Scripture to renew our minds if we desire to overcome any potential lingering manifestation of our inherited Edenic bias in our doctrine and practice.

(See this post with the full text of all the verses here.)

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

In any of its various forms, the word worship occurs only six times in the Pauline Epistles (Rom. 1:25; 1 Cor. 14:25; Phil. 3:3; Col. 2:18, 23; 2 Thess. 2:4). Of these, only one passage (1 Cor. 14:25) specifically speaks of worship in a church setting. This reference is especially striking because we would have expected that if Paul had used the word only once in First Corinthians, it surely would have been in his teaching about the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:17-34). Instead, he used it in the only explicit information given in Scripture about worship in an actual church service.

An examination of this passage (1 Cor. 14:23-25) brings out truth of great value for all churches. Paul begins by speaking of the whole church’s having come together into one place (14:23a). He argues with a rhetorical question that demands an affirmative answer that if all the believers were to speak with tongues, the resulting effect on unlearned or unbelieving people present in the service would be undesirable and unedifying (14:23b-c). Saying this, he makes clear that a proper church service is not one that is focused on speaking with tongues.

He then contrasts what would happen in that case with what would happen if all the believers were to prophesy (14:24). In that situation, he describes the very beneficial effects such activity in the church would have on unbelievers and unlearned people (14:24-25). Paul’s fivefold explanation of the effect on them provides crucial understanding about public worship.

First, he says that an unbelieving or unlearned person would be “convinced by all” (14:24c). Because of the congregation’s ministry, the person would be brought into conviction of sin.

Second, he would be “judged of all” (14:24d). The believers’ prophesying would bring conviction of judgment upon the person. Saying this, Paul made known that a church service is supposed to be a setting in which people become convicted of sin and judgment.

Third, his secrets would thus be made manifest (14:25a). Here Paul reveals that through the prophesying, God would make manifest to the sinner the secrets of his heart. In some unexplained manner, God would supernaturally confront the sinner with conviction of judgment to come upon him for his secret sins.

Fourth, he would therefore fall down on his face and worship God (14:25b). Recognizing that only God could have brought about such exposure of his secrets and convinced him that he deserves judgment for them, the person would publicly abase himself and worship God. Paul thus made known that the consummation of public worship includes sinful unbelievers’ and unlearned people’s publicly manifesting that God has convicted them of judgment and brought them to the place where they openly worship Him in acknowledgement of His supernatural working through the congregation.

Finally, he would report that God truly was in that body of believers (14:25c). Paul notes that the person thus brought to worship God openly would confess in some unexplained manner to the congregation that God was truly present among them.

Putting all these ideas together, we see that public worship is consummated fully when those whom God convicts of judgment for their secret sins openly acknowledge Him as God by publicly abasing themselves in some appropriate manner and then testifying of God’s working in their heart to that congregation. This passage therefore provides biblical justification for the use of some appropriate manner of public invitation in church services.

Moreover, Paul’s contrasting statements about the effects of the speaking with tongues versus prophesying strikingly show that speaking with tongues by all will not result in the desired worship of God by unbelieving and unlearned people. For them to be brought to worship God, they will have to hear prophesying by the congregation.

Furthermore, this passage teaches that unbelievers and unlearned people will only worship God aright in a service when they have been convicted of judgment to come for their secret sins. This teaching thus stresses that God desires to bring about that outcome in them through the believers’ prophesying to them. Those who minister publicly should consider these truths as they plan what the content of their prophesying will be.

Believers in all churches should be taught these important truths about the consummation of public worship. The Father desires that people worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23) according to the teaching of this important passage.

Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.