Using the gifts of prophecy and tongues
14
📚Follow after love 📖, and desire 📖 spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy 📖. 2 📚For he who speaks in an unknown tongue 📖 does not speak to men, but to God 📖, for no man understands him. However in the spirit he speaks mysteries 📖.14:2 This seems to some people to be fully convincing evidence that speaking in tongues as practiced in Corinth was not exactly the same as the spiritual ability seen in Acts 2:4-11. At Pentecost the apostles spoke in languages they had not learned and did not know, and the people present understood them without translation. At Corinth people did not understand those who spoke in a tongue unless there was interpretation (vs 5,13). But what reason is there for thinking that “tongue” does not mean some language spoken on earth?⚜
3 📚But he who prophesies speaks to men for their edification, and encouragement, and comfort. 4 📚He who speaks in an unknown tongue edifies himself 📖, but he who prophesies edifies the church.
14:3-4 This is why “prophecy” was greater than “tongues” – it was for the benefit of others. See 1 Cor 10:24, 33.⚜
5 📚I wish you all spoke with tongues, but would prefer that you prophesied. For he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets 📖, so that the church may be edified.
14:5 Paul is not at all belittling the gift of tongues. He himself taught that it was a manifestation of God’s Spirit for the good of the Church (1 Cor 12:7, 10). But Paul is speaking against the misuse of this gift. He says they should not use the gift unless there was translation (vs 13,27,28).⚜
6 📚Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking in tongues, what benefit 📖 will I be to you, unless I speak to you either by way of revelation 📖, or knowledge, or prophesying, or doctrine? 7 📚Even lifeless things making a sound, whether a flute or a harp, unless they give out a distinction in the notes how will it be known what is being played on either flute or harp? 8 📚And if a trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who will prepare himself for the battle? 9 📚Just so with you. Unless you speak easily understandable words with your tongue, how shall it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air. 10 If there are many kinds of languages to be met with in the world, not even one of them is without meaning. 11 📚Therefore, if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the one speaking, and the one speaking will be a foreigner to me.
14:7-11 His whole point here is that speaking an unknown language without translation is useless for those who hear it. Verses 10,11 seem to indicate that by tongues Paul means nothing other than ordinary foreign languages.⚜
12 📚Just so with you. Since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, seek to excel in gifts that will edify the church.
14:12 Verses 3,4,6,19,26,31; 1 Cor 10:24.⚜
13 📚Therefore the one who speaks in an unknown tongue should pray that he may interpret what he says.
14:13 Only with translation would it edify others.⚜
14 📚For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. 15 📚What is the way then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also; I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.
14:14-15 Observe the importance Paul gives here to the mind and understanding. What does Paul mean by the difficult phrase “my understanding is unfruitful”? Possibly it means that if someone prays in a language he does not himself understand, his inner being may be praying but his mind is not a part of it. He himself does not understand what he is saying and so there is not even the fullest edification to himself that there would be if he understood. Or it may possibly mean that though he himself understands what he is saying, this understanding, this mental activity, bears no fruit in others because he is not communicating to them. In any case, it is clear from v 15 that Paul wanted his worship to be understood. He wanted his mind as well as his spirit to be engaged in it.⚜
16 📚Otherwise when you praise with the spirit, how will he who has his place among the uninstructed say “Amen” at your giving of thanks, since he does not understand what you are saying? 17 📚For you indeed give thanks well, but the other person is not edified 📖.
18 📚I thank my God, I speak in tongues 📖 more than all of you. 19 📚Yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, so that I might teach others 📖, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.
20 📚Brethren, do not be children in understanding. In regard to evil be children, but in understanding be mature. 21 📚In the Law it is written,
With men of other tongues
and other lips I will speak to this people;
and yet for all that they will not listen to me,
says the Lord.
22 📚Therefore tongues are for a sign, not to believers, but to unbelievers. But prophesying is not for unbelievers, but for believers.
14:21-22 Isa 28:11-12. The people of Israel had fallen into unbelief and would not listen to their prophets who spoke in a language they could understand. So in judgment God would send them people speaking a language they could not understand. Paul draws a lesson from this for Christians. He says tongues are a “sign” – they pointed to the presence of God’s Spirit (1 Cor 12:7). He says this “sign” is not to convince believers, or the person speaking in a tongue that God’s Spirit is in him (there is far greater and more necessary evidence than that). Tongues are a sign to unbelievers (compare Acts 2:4-13). Prophecy, however, was given for the edification of believers (vs 3,4).
We should notice that in v 21 “tongues” surely refer to languages spoken in foreign countries. Can it be otherwise in v 22?⚜
23 📚Therefore if the whole church has met together in one place, and all speak in unknown tongues, and some who are uninstructed or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are insane?
14:23 In v 22 Paul speaks of the gift of tongues properly used. Here he speaks of it being improperly used – everyone speaking in tongues and no translation.⚜
24 📚But if everyone prophesies, and an unbeliever or uninstructed person 📖 comes in, he is going to be convicted 📖 by everything, he is going to be judged by everything, 25 📚and so the secrets of his heart are going to be laid bare. And so, prostrating himself, he will worship God, and declare that God is really in you.
26 📚How is it then, brethren? When you meet together, each one of you has a psalm, or has a teaching, or has a tongue, or has a revelation 📖, or has an interpretation. All things should be done to edify 📖. 27 📚If anyone speaks in an unknown tongue, it should be done by two, or, at the most, by three, and that by turn 📖, and someone should interpret 📖. 28 But if there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church, and speak to himself 📖 and to God.
29 📚Let the prophets speak, two or three of them, and let the others judge 📖 what is said. 30 📚If anything is revealed to someone else sitting there, the first speaker should be silent.
14:30 Verses 6,26.⚜
31 📚For you may all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn, and all may be encouraged.
14:31 See how often in this chapter Paul says everything must be done for the good of everybody.⚜
32 📚And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. 33 📚For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
14:32-33 Using spiritual gifts did not mean losing control of oneself. There was no sweeping away of the will and mind of the individual in whom they were at work. Those who had the gift of prophecy and tongues (and doubtless any other spiritual gift) could keep silent if they chose (vs 28,30). Otherwise there would have been disorder, and disorder and confusion are contrary to God’s very nature.⚜
34 📚Your women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but are to be in submission 📖, as the law also says.
14:34 The subject of this chapter is using certain spiritual gifts in public meetings of the church – gifts which involve speaking. Paul says women must not do this. They may have these gifts but they must be used at other times. Note at 11:5-6; 1 Tim 2:11-14. Some think that Paul is forbidding women even to pray in public meetings, but this is very doubtful indeed. The context is prophesying and speaking in tongues and translating tongues (vs 26-31). The Greek word translated “speak” in these verses is the same as in vs 5,6,9,19, etc.⚜
35 📚And if they wish to learn something, they should ask their husbands 📖 at home. For it is shameful 📖 for women to speak in the church.
36 📚What? Did the word of God come from you? Or did it reach only you? 37 📚If any man thinks he is a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write to you are the commandments of the Lord.
14:37 Some Christians there thought they were spiritually very able people. If this was really the case they should have been able to discern a command of the Lord Jesus Himself given through Paul.⚜
38 📚But if any man is ignorant, let him be ignorant.
14:38 This seems to mean that if any such person ignores the Lord’s command he is not worthy of being heard himself.⚜
39 📚Therefore, brethren, have an earnest desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues 📖. 40 📚Let all things be done decently and in order.
14:26-40 Paul here speaks of the proper use of spiritual gifts in the meetings of believers. His emphasis is on orderliness (vs 26,31,33,40).⚜
14:40 Verse 33. In chapters 12–14 Paul has written of a number of spiritual gifts believers had during the early days of the Church. Have these gifts passed away? Certainly we should not think there are now any apostles of Christ like the original apostles – those who saw the Lord Jesus and heard Him, those whose inspired teachings are infallible. It is a huge mistake to say that any man now has the same authority and infallibility that Christ’s apostles had. The Bible was completed in the first century and it contains all the inspired, infallible writings and teachings God wanted men to have. The Bible alone must be the final authority for all of us, and it is the only infallible teaching we need or have or should want to have.
But some of the other gifts mentioned in these chapters (for example, helps and teaching) have certainly not passed away. Have any of the others passed away? The author of these notes does not believe the Bible anywhere indicates that they would either pass away or not pass away in this present age of the Church.
We should understand that God has freedom to do what He wants to do. And if it is His good pleasure to give those gifts to anyone today, or to withhold them from anyone, He will do so (1 Cor 12:11).
Another thought that comes to many believers is this: if these gifts passed away in the first century it seems strange that the Holy Spirit would include Paul’s instructions about them in this portion of the Word of God which is surely for all churches throughout this whole age.⚜