Verse 6
‘Whether prophecy, (let us prophesy) according to the proportion of our faith;’
The gift of prophecy was an important one in the early church, when there was no New Testament and the Spirit guided men in interpreting the (Old Testament) Scriptures for the benefit of the new community. It was not basically a gift of foretelling the future (although that did occur), but a gift of presenting the truth adequately. And it was not to be uncontrolled. In 1 Corinthians we learn that what was prophesied had to be assessed by other prophets (1 Corinthians 14:29-32). And here he stresses that it should be given ‘according to the proportion of our faith’. But in the New Testament faith is not a nebulous thing. It is faith in a revealed body of truth. So the prophet is both not to go beyond his own spiritual ability, and beyond the true knowledge which results from truly believing in what has been revealed. In other words, beyond the teaching which is in accordance with the traditions of the Apostles as maintained within the early church and finally laid down in the New Testament.
Any prophet or any church which goes beyond what is found there is to be brought back by other prophets and churches to that body of revealed truth. Anything beyond that is speculation.
Be the first to react on this!
