I Corinthians 13:1  Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

I Corinthians 13 has been abused over the years. This seems to be the go to chapter for the heretics to try to silence those who love the Lord and thus love Truth. The false teachers start off with verse 1 and just continue to corrupt God’s Word all the way through the chapter.
God directed the apostle Paul to speak of the tongues of men and of angels. Again, we must understand that God is not talking of that human organ — the tongue. He is speaking of languages. The false teachers assume that angels have some unknown language that cannot be understood by mere mortals. Then they “elevate” themselves as the few who have attained to the “heavenly” language.
The Bible gives us many examples of where angels spoke to people. In every case, the people spoken to understood the angel without any interpreter. In Luke 2 we find that God sent angels to the shepherds to announce to them the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Shepherds were not known to be the most educated people in the world. They were simple folk in that they were not in high places. They were not dumb. David was a shepherd and he was much wiser than even king Saul. His wisdom came due to his fear of God. The angels that spoke to the shepherds spoke in the common language of the people. There was no interpreter and there was nothing the shepherds got wrong from the message.
The difference between the tongues of angels as compared to the tongues of men, is that the godly angels never lied. They were messengers sent from God and they never deceived anyone. Every word they spoke was truth. That is what God expects from us as people as well. The only way we can do that is if we are first of all saved, and then if we are walking in the Spirit as we can and should be. The sad reality is that no person can claim that they always walk in the Spirit. The “old man” loves to interfere and we sometimes let him.
The apostle Paul continued with the importance of charity. That is what chapter 13 is all about. The Greek word “agape’” means: “brotherly love, affection, good will, love, benevolence.” The born again Christian who is walking in the Spirit cares about the whole person. He or she is not interested in scoring some cheap points. He wants to see others know the full blessing of the Lord. The apostle Paul was not interested in scoring some “cheap points” in his life as a Christian. He knew who he was. He knew he was saved by God’s grace. He had nothing to boast of in himself. He had been trained as a Pharisee. He was a ‘God-hater’, prior to being saved by God’s grace. God demonstrated His love for man when He stepped into Saul’s path and stopped him from his wicked plans. Not only did God love Saul, He loved the saints that Saul was intent on harming. Saul was given a choice. He could repent and be saved or he could be taken out of the way. Either way, he was done persecuting Christians. God would see to that.
As a born again Christian, Paul knew he needed to be genuine. This attitude of “reaching out to people” because you assume they have something you can benefit from is not Biblical. Jesus Christ laid down His life, knowing that few would trust in Him for salvation. That is true of every generation. Few turn to God and are saved. The number of frauds far exceeds the number of saved.
The apostle Paul did not want to be that noisy brass or tinkling cymbal. The CCMer’s assume that with their noise that they can make, they are impressing God. Not so. The flesh loves the noise because it is one form of opening the person up to “foreign” interference. The native peoples of the world show us this. They use noise to get them into a trance state so that they can connect better with the evil spirits. Rock “musicians” have stated that their rock music is like an LSD trip. CCM tries to mellow that out, not because they like the mellow stuff, but because they know there are people that would never fall for the hard rock. CCMer’s love hard rock and they change it to break down the barriers. Of course the devil is behind all of this deception.
Paul was not interested in being a noise maker. Donald Trump just “won” the U.S. “election”. We know from the past that he is an noise maker. He promised to run the best government the U.S. had ever seen prior to and after being installed last time around. He was embroiled in fighting off false accusations for the entire four year term. He could not seem to find anyone who he could put into high positions so that they could fire the corrupt people. The few people he replaced were replaced with another form of corruption. Now that he is looking forward to being installed again, there are those who are again dependent upon this same “blow hard” to fix the U.S. Don’t misunderstand me here. Kamala Harris would have been far worse for the U.S. than Trump will be. God knows what He is doing and He is working to help people to see the importance of knowing Him. All of this is a precursor to the coming of the antichrist. We as people are slow learners. God puts men like him in high places so that we can see what the pride of man looks like. The wise person is the one who walks humbly with the Lord and serves Him faithfully.
Worse than Trump, we have men like Kenneth Copeland and his many puppets who also makes a lot of noise. He is not ashamed to stand before the cameras and blow and claim that with that breath he has removed the Wuhan virus from existence. People actually believe that, while they have their mask on, and social distance according to the lies of the officials.
Paul was not like that. There are too many people who dismiss what he wrote. People call him a “male chauvinist pig” and other derogatory terms. I remember some years back witnessing to an elderly woman and the topic of the apostle Paul came up. She stated that she would give him a swift kick when she got up to heaven. She obviously did not like him. She knows better now. She never made it to heaven. The apostle Paul is far from where she is. It is too late for her.
The apostle Paul was one of 40 holy men of God that He chose to give us His Word. Every Word of God is pure.

II Samuel 22:31  As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him.

We would be wise to humble ourselves and accept God’s Word as Truth rather than making a lot of noise that is intended on being a distraction to the truth. We are called upon to exalt His name and we cannot do that when we are a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. True humility will be demonstrated in exalting the true God and living according to His Word and thus being able to help others who oppose themselves, to know the truth.
The saints in Corinth were making a lot of noise. They were a deep distraction to the truth. Their strife about leadership and their acceptance of fornication and their taking one another to court, etc. was an interference that needed to be stopped. God directed the apostle Paul to expose these things and show them the right way to live. That involves addressing the sin and purging out the old leaven and being that new lump that is created in Christ Jesus. That must be true of all true saints.
Pastor Bartel