The Most Beautiful Music Needs Silence

Worship in the church of Corinth was devolving into chaos! Preaching on Paul’s instruction about tongues and prophesying, Deb pointed out the way that silence is essential to the way orchestras make beautiful music: only rarely do all the instruments play at the same time. This order isn’t about silencing some instruments, but rather a way of enabling a whole company of diverse sounds to play harmoniously together. It’s the same in a church:

Like the musicians in an orchestra, sometimes we need to remain quiet and let someone else carry the melody. That was the case with tongues-speakers, long-winded prophets, and disruptive women in Corinth. This was Paul’s advice to a first-century church that was trying to figure out how to shape their corporate life, how to be the body of Christ together in a way that unites believers, strengthens their faith, and welcomes curious visitors. To remain in tune, believers should be concerned not just with exercising their own gifts, but using those gifts with the goal of building up the overall spiritual health of the body of believers.