1 Corinthians 14:1-25--Prophecy and Tongues

1 Corinthians 14:1-25
English Standard Version

Prophecy and Tongues
14 Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. 2 For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. 3 On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. 4 The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. 5 Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.

6 Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? 7 If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? 8 And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? 9 So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. 10 There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, 11 but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me. 12 So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.

13 Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. 14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. 15 What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. 16 Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? 17 For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. 18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 19 Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.

20 Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. 21 In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” 22 Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. 23 If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? 24 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, 25 the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.

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Again, this is not a passage we can read in isolation and get the full meaning--it ties in to everything we have just discussed about love and gifts of the Spirit and also will be closely connected with our next topic of Orderly Worship--namely that there are right ways and wrong ways for gifts such as the gifts of prophecy and tongues to be used in a worship service.  We'll get to that next time though.

Paul tells us that as we pursue love, we should desire to have the gifts of the Spirit especially prophecy as it helps us to proclaim God Word and his nature and works to everyone.  Speaking in tongues only benefits those who can understand the one who is speaking and possibly the one who is speaking as they should know what they are saying, but prophecy is understood by all and is for the benefit and edification of the entire body of Christ and also calls those who are not saved to repentance and salvation.  In this context Paul says that tongues is only useful to the congregation if there is an interpreter, otherwise the person speaking in tongues is benefiting no one other than himself and there seems to be an indication that the Spirit would not want to act in this way as it is His purpose to glorify Christ and not the vessel through whom He is working.

Paul argues that only messages that have have meaning and can be understood are useful and he goes back to instruments and draws a distinction between wind or stringed instruments with distinct notes that can give different notes and tones for different meanings--such as a trumpet that would sound to let someone know that they need to prepare for battle.  Everyone clearly hears and understands the meaning of the sound because it is distinct, but something like a gong or drum that could have no such variation could not be used for messages with such meaning.  We've already seen in 1 Corinthians 13 where Paul has likened speaking in tongues to the noise of a gong.  So our speech must be intelligible to the audience to whom we are speaking or it would be as fruitless as shouting into the wind.

There is clearly a place for the gift of tongues as Paul says there are many languages in the world and that if they could not understand each other then no communication could take place.  We now spend long amounts of time training missionaries in language school and about the culture of the lands where they are going (assuming we have this information), and if missionaries are going to people without a written language, then establishing an alphabet, lexicon and rules for grammar and syntax are one of the important places to start--either teaching the people a known language or making a brand new written language for them as the missionaries want to get to a point where they can give the people the Word of God in their own language--even if that means that they need to translate the Bible into a new language for them.  There are entire missions organizations like Wycliffe Bible Translators (and their partners at JARS) and other organizations like Trans-World Radio (TWR) that are committed to getting the Word of God to unreached people groups--whether that's flying missionaries into jungle airstrips, making new translations of the Bible, or setting up radio stations and sending in pre-tuned radios to the people so that they can hear the Word of God in a language they can understand.

Paul argues here that speaking in tongues is less important than the interpretation and that the one who has the gift to speak in tongues should be praying for an interpreter so that the message may be heard clearly and understood by all and be edifying to all so that it is not heard as babbling (yes, that's connected to the Tower of Babel in Genesis 10 when the languages were confused and the people were divided).  If there is no interpreter, then Paul says that the person who wants to pray in tongues should pray silently in their heart because they are only going to edify themselves and God will hear and understand them either way--only speak out loud if it is something that the other can hear, understand, and give their agreement to by saying "Amen" ("it is true").  Notice that Paul says that he speaks in tongues and does it quite often, but that if he is among the congregation, he would rather speak 5 words they could understand than 1,000 words that they could not understand because he was speaking in tongues.

So, let's talk about the elephant in the room (and we'll get to this more tomorrow).  What then about the churches that seem to be built on violation of these principles who say that everyone must speak in tongues to prove they are saved and they encourage for many to speak in tongues "as the Spirit moves" and there is no interpreter and so many are speaking at the same time that nothing can be understood?  What about if there is supposedly two people with the gift of interpretation and they give different interpretations of what is said?  What if the person prophecies in tongues (quite common in some churches) and the prophecy fails to come true?  Paul has addressed some of these issues already, many are coming up in the next section of the text, and still others will be addressed in some of his other letters as he speaks more about false prophets and false teachers.

Paul then says that tongues are a "sign gift" not meant for believers, but for unbelievers so that they might believe the message that is being spoken to the people that is new and foreign to them.  Paul then says that if the speaking of tongues is done in a disorderly way like above where everyone is speaking in tongues all at once, would not an unbeliever who entered think that everyone were made and talking gibberish to themselves?  But if prophecy (speaking in a way that says "thus sayeth the LORD...." is spoken in a way that can be clearly understood by both believers and unbelievers, will not the unbeliever be convicted by the Word of God that they can hear and understand?  It is the Word of God that is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword able to divide joint and marrow, and it is the Word of God that we are promised will not return void.  Therefore, it makes sense that we should prophecy by proclaiming the Word of God and whether it brings forth repentance or condemnation as it goes it, it will accomplish its work, and it will be to the benefit of all who hear, both saved and unsaved alike, and it will bring people to a place of desiring to worship God--the ultimate goal of the Sprit as we exercise any of our gifts of the Spirit.