When Christians assemble, their attention is due to God and their conduct affects what others are able to receive from the gathering. Paul brings these responsibilities together when he directs the Corinthians to do everything for building up and to do it decently and in order (1 Corinthians 14:26, 40). A reading builds up the congregation when people can hear the passage and follow its thought. Prayer gives them words of thanksgiving and petition they can understand and make their own. Teaching explains the truth they have heard and shows what it requires, while singing gives them a way to express that truth together before God. Reverence governs how believers approach Him, and order enables them to take part in what they have gathered to do.

Why Paul Required Order at Corinth

The Corinthians came together with various contributions, including a psalm, a teaching, a revelation, a tongue, and an interpretation (1 Corinthians 14:26). Paul directs the whole gathering with the words “Let all things take place for building up” (1 Corinthians 14:26, UASV). The instructions that follow show the difference this made to people who wished to speak. Those speaking in a tongue were to speak in turn, and without an interpreter a speaker was to keep silent in the congregation (1 Corinthians 14:27–28). Prophets were also to speak in turn so that all could learn and be encouraged (1 Corinthians 14:29–33). Paul was regulating gifts then exercised in the congregation, and the arrangements he required show how seriously he took the ability of others to understand and benefit from what was said. Paul says that prophecy and tongues would cease (1 Corinthians 13:8), while his requirement to build up the congregation still governs how believers use the inspired Scriptures when they assemble.

Paul closes the discussion with the instruction, “But let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40, UASV). The preceding directions give order a definite function in this passage. A person yields the floor so that someone else can be heard, and a contribution that cannot be understood is withheld from the assembly. Paul also considers what an uninstructed person or an unbeliever would encounter upon entering the gathering (1 Corinthians 14:23–25). That concern gives a congregation a practical reason to notice things regular members may take for granted, such as whether people know who is speaking, what passage is being read, or why they are being asked to turn to it. An orderly transition can help someone follow what comes next without requiring him to know the congregation’s habits beforehand.

Reverence in the Presence of God

Hebrews connects gratitude for receiving an unshakable Kingdom with rendering acceptable service to God with reverence and awe (Hebrews 12:28–29). The reason for reverence lies in the One whom believers serve. A congregation gives practical expression to that attitude when it listens attentively to His Word, speaks to Him with sincerity, and considers what the gathering asks of other worshipers. Gratitude and gladness have a place in such worship, as the believers in Jerusalem showed when they praised God with glad hearts (Acts 2:46–47). Reverence is visible when that gladness has a recognizable object, such as gratitude for forgiveness or joy in the resurrection hope. The way people listen, pray, and sing can show that they understand whose kindness they are acknowledging and whose teaching they are receiving.

Giving Public Reading Its Proper Place

Paul tells Timothy, “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching” (1 Timothy 4:13, UASV). The three activities belong together, and each makes a contribution to the congregation. Public reading lets the people hear the words on which the instruction rests. Teaching explains their meaning, and exhortation urges people to respond to what has been explained. The arrangement matters when a preacher quotes only a few words from a passage and then builds most of the message around a point the congregation cannot see in the text. Reading enough of the passage for its thought to be heard gives listeners a basis for following the explanation and examining the exhortation.

Nehemiah records that the people assembled to hear the Law and that the reading was accompanied by explanation so that they understood what was read (Nehemiah 8:1–8). The account shows the importance of attention to the hearers as well as to the written words. A reader can prepare by identifying sentence boundaries, practicing unfamiliar names, and noticing expressions that introduce a reason or a contrast. If he reads Philippians 2:1–11, for example, a brief introduction can tell hearers to listen for the relationship between Paul’s appeal for humility and the conduct of Christ. Reading the appeal and Christ’s example together lets people hear why Paul brings the two into the same argument. The reader can then allow time for people to find the passage and use a pace that lets them follow it without losing the connection between its parts.

Public reading also exposes believers to portions of Scripture they might rarely choose for themselves. A congregation hearing the closing paragraphs of a letter can learn what requests, greetings, and accounts of fellow workers reveal about the needs and relationships of the first-century congregations. Paul directed that his letter be read to all the brothers in Thessalonica, and he told the Colossians to exchange letters with the congregation in Laodicea (1 Thessalonians 5:27; Colossians 4:16). Those instructions show that the writings were to reach the assembled believers. A congregation gives effect to that purpose when the reading is clear enough for a person without a Bible in his hands to hear it and sufficiently complete for those following in their own Bibles to understand its place in the book.

Prayer the Congregation Can Share

Paul’s discussion of prayer and thanksgiving in Corinth assumes that a person who hears a prayer should be able to say the amen (1 Corinthians 14:15–17). His question is how someone can do that when he does not know what is being said. The problem in the passage is speech the hearer cannot understand, and the principle also applies when the language of a public prayer is so vague or complicated that the congregation cannot follow it. The person leading the prayer is addressing God while giving other believers an opportunity to join in the requests and thanksgiving. He can speak plainly, at a pace people can follow, and refer to circumstances in ways they can recognize. A congregation can more readily assent to a request for courage to explain the good news to neighbors than to a succession of phrases whose meaning remains uncertain.

Jesus’ model prayer gives direction to the things believers ask for together (Matthew 6:9–13). It begins with the Father’s name, Kingdom, and will, and it includes daily needs, forgiveness, and protection from temptation. Those concerns give substance to congregational prayer when the details of a particular week might otherwise occupy all its attention. A prayer for a congregation facing discouragement can ask for daily necessities and endurance while giving thanks for what God has already provided through Christ. A prayer following instruction about reconciliation can ask for the willingness to forgive and the courage to put right a wrong. The congregation hears in such petitions how the truth it has received bears on its responsibilities before God.

Paul also calls for petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for all sorts of people, including kings and others in authority, with a view to believers living peaceably in godliness (1 Timothy 2:1–2). That instruction widens the congregation’s attention beyond the people and circumstances it would remember most readily. The person praying can ask that believers be able to live quietly, gather peaceably, and carry out their responsibilities with dignity. He can also pray for people whose suffering or work is easily overlooked, speaking with discretion where a need is private. The congregation learns from the concerns brought before God, because repeated prayer for others helps members remember people they may be able to encourage or assist during the week.

Teaching That Helps Hearers Respond

Paul tells Timothy to pay close attention to himself and to his teaching and to persevere in both for the good of those who hear him (1 Timothy 4:15–16). Teaching in worship serves the people present when the teacher shows how his explanation arises from the text and how its demands reach their conduct. If Philippians 2:1–11 has been read, the teacher can show how Paul moves from a concern for unity to the command to look to the interests of others and then to the example of Christ. The congregation can see from the passage why humility includes taking account of what another person needs. An exhortation can then ask a believer to consider whether he has insisted on his own preference in a matter where a fellow Christian’s welfare deserves his attention. The application follows the movement of the passage and gives hearers a way to act on what they heard read.

A gathering can also make good use of what its teachers know about the people who attend. Some may have heard biblical teaching for years, while others may need help understanding why a particular statement was made or how to locate it. The teacher can explain a term in ordinary language, let people hear the verse in its setting, and give an example they can examine against the text. The reading and exhortation will then serve people at different stages of understanding without requiring separate messages for each of them. Paul’s stated purpose in regulating speech at Corinth was that all might learn and be encouraged (1 Corinthians 14:31). A teacher who gives hearers time to follow his reasoning treats their understanding as part of the work he has been entrusted to do.

Singing That Lets the Word of Christ Dwell Richly

Paul directs the Colossians to let the word of Christ dwell richly among them as they teach and admonish one another with wisdom, with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God (Colossians 3:16). The verse joins the truth believers express, the help they give one another, and the worship they direct to God. In the surrounding passage Paul has told them to put on compassion, kindness, humility, patience, forgiveness, and love (Colossians 3:12–15). Words sung together can help keep those duties in mind and give believers a shared language for acknowledging the mercy they have received. A song expressing gratitude for Christ’s forgiveness can reinforce the reason believers are to forgive one another when they have a complaint. When the words accurately convey that connection, singing helps the congregation remember the truth in a form its members can carry into their dealings with one another.

The way a song is led affects whether the congregation can make that contribution. A melody within a range people can sing, a tempo that allows them to finish the words, and a clearly given beginning help the assembly sing together. The person leading can also introduce an unfamiliar song by explaining a line whose sense may be missed on first hearing. If a song addresses the resurrection, for example, the congregation should be able to understand what it says about Christ being raised and the hope His resurrection gives those who belong to Him (1 Corinthians 15:20–23). Hearing other believers sing that hope intelligibly can encourage someone who has come to the meeting grieving a death. In that setting, attention to words and melody serves the work of teaching and mutual encouragement that Paul associates with singing.

An Order That Gives Each Part Room to Do Its Work

A congregation can examine a gathering by asking what each part gives the people an opportunity to do. If a passage has been announced, the reading can be given enough time for the congregation to hear it before the teacher begins to explain it. If a prayer follows, it can give thanks for the truth heard and ask for help in carrying it out. A song may express the same truth from another biblical passage and give the whole congregation words to sing together. This is one way of arranging a gathering, and Paul’s instructions leave room for practical decisions about sequence while requiring that everything serve the building up of the congregation (1 Corinthians 14:26, 40). The value of the arrangement can be seen when the worshipers leave able to recall what they heard, recognize what they asked of God, and encourage one another with the truth they expressed together.

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