Lesson 29 – 1 Corinthians Chapter 14:1-23
We have finished the love chapter, but know that love is never finished with us. Jesus told us that the greatest command for us was to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and then to project that love to those around us.
If it wasn’t for love, we would be eternally separated from God, doomed to an eternity of pain and suffering, with no hope of ever being with God.
This is holy week for Christians around the world, where we remember what God did for us all in the name of love.
John 3:16-17:
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”
Paul described love for us… “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails;”
Every description of love that Paul gives us describes the depth of God’s love for us.
As we begin chapter 14, Paul starts out by saying “pursue love.”
1 Cor. 14:1:
“Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.”
Pursue (dee-o’-co) means to seek after eagerly, earnestly endeavor, to acquire, to hunt, or to chase after with intensity. To run after with every intention of completion.
With this in mind, we should eagerly chase after love with a great intensity. Paul’s saying he’s come to an end in talking about love, yet he will never be done talking about love. His hope for us is that love will become “a way of life for us,” that in every situation we find ourselves in, everything needs to be looked at through the lens of “love.”
Love was one of the main stumbling blocks for the believers in Corinth.
If you could go back in time and quietly sit in a corner of the Corinthian church and just observe them for a while, it wouldn’t be long before you would fully understand that in all their actions, love was missing. The Corinthians weren’t “looking for love in all the wrong places,” they weren’t looking for love at all.
When the Corinthians read Paul’s letter, they would have to re-read the part about love over and over again. The fact that love should always be present in our lives doesn’t mean we should neglect everything else.
Yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts…
The Corinthians were definitely lacking in the love department, but as we say, “don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.” They were guilty of abusing the manifestations of the Spirit, as well as the basic principles of ministry, but there was no reason for them to deny the work of the Holy Spirit.
I think the Corinthians had this part down pretty good, they earnestly desired the spiritual gift of tongues, but Paul says spiritual gifts (plural), and the Corinthians wanted the singular, which meant they were just interested in “tongues.” They needed to strive after all the gifts, not just one.
We all should earnestly desire spiritual gifts, and when it comes to using our gift or gifts, we use them to help others and edify the church. Unlike the Corinthians, we never use gifts to try to show off.
But especially that you may prophesy…
Prophesy; means the telling of the future and the forth-telling of God’s truth.
But especially that you may prophesy… in this context it means that the whole church should desire this to be used in their meeting together, wanting and expecting God’s truth to be spoken.
1 Cor. 14:2:
“For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries.
Warren Wiersbe points out an error with the King James, “For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue” …he says, “The first thing we want to do is go through this chapter and cross out the word “unknown.” Paul is not discussing “unknown” tongues; those words were added by well-meaning but confused translators. Wherever you find “tongues” in the Bible, it refers to “known” languages (he notes, Acts 2:4, 6, 8, 11).
For one who speaks in a tongue…
Paul knows that when the Corinthians spoke in tongues, that it had no edifying value whatsoever, because when they speak, they do not speak to men… meaning that it had no instruction or encouragement for them, there was no interpretation.
Does not speak to men but to God…
As to a better translation in this part of the verse, without going into a deep grammatical definition of this, John MacArthur says it should be “to a god.” (small “g”).
He writes, “The translation here of “a god” is supported by the fact that the Bible records no instance of believers speaking to God in anything but normal, intelligible language. Even in Jesus’ great high priestly prayer (John 17), in which the Son poured out His heart to the Father, when deity communed with deity, the language is remarkably simple and clear. Jesus in fact warned against using “meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words” (Matt. 6:7).”
As the Corinthians insisted on their babblings and gibberish, it says, for no one understands. What this literally means is, “no one hears.”
I Googled “How to speak in tongues,” and this is what I got:
• Begin to thank God that He has given you the ability to speak in tongues. Keep praising Him and thanking Him in your native language.
• Turn on praise music and begin to worship God.
• Read the written Word until you feel another language bubbling up.
• Listen to someone else pray in tongues and try to “mimic” their language until your own language is coming out.
Does this sound biblical to you? It reminded me of “holy laughter” where the guy said, “Let it bubble out your belly.”
But in his spirit he speaks mysteries…
We’ve talked about mysteries before, and this has nothing to do with any reference to the mysteries of the gospel, but it does have to do with pagan mystery religions. It might help if we remember the background of the Corinthians, where most of them had their roots in paganism, they were sacrificing meat to idols.
One theologian says, “The pagan mysteries intentionally remained mysterious, as unknown truths and principles that supposedly only the initiated elite were privileged to know.”
What we have here is not a failure to communicate, but a self-indulged narcissistic way of trying to impress others with their counterfeit language.
1 Cor. 14:3:
“But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation.”
This is a positive and not a negative coming from Paul. This is the right way to do things. The one who prophesies is the one forth-telling of God’s truth, like I mentioned before. Paul gives the reason why… for edification and exhortation and consolation.
• To edify is the act of one who promotes another’s growth in Christian wisdom, piety, happiness, holiness.
• Exhortation: is one who is the encourager of others.
• Consolation: is the one who calms and comforts others.
You put these three together with the one who prophesies, and it becomes a real positive for all that hear.
1 Cor. 14:4:
“One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church.”
You can see why Paul puts prophesies over tongues.
One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself… I think Paul is being a little snarky with his sarcastic language here. In other words, the Corinthians were spinning their wheels with their self-styled tongues that they were speaking… they were only fooling themselves.
How could speaking in a tongue without any interpretation possibly ever edify anyone, when no one can understand a word they are saying?
It’s easy to see that Paul is on the side of the one who prophesies over the one speaking gibberish. Again, the one who is bringing forth the truth of God’s Word edifies the church… they are building the church up.
1 Cor. 12:7:
“But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”
The common good means to edify the body of Christ.
1 Cor. 14:5:
“Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy; and greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may receive edifying.”
Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues…
Paul is speaking of an impossible wish, making the point that if God decided to give everyone the gift of tongues, it would be fine with him. He had a similar wish back in chapter 7.
1 Cor. 7:7 (NLT):
“But I wish everyone were single, just as I am. Yet each person has a special gift from God, of one kind or another.”
Not everyone will speak in tongues, not everyone will be single.
1 Cor. 12:30:
“All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they?”
Paul adds, But even more that you would prophesy…
This one is included in Paul’s wish as well, which we know is also impossible. The point he’s trying to make is, if they were all going to be drawn to one gift, that gift should be prophecy. Paul knew that tongues was very temporary and that God would use prophecy way into the future.
In any case, even a believer with the genuine gift of tongues was never to use that gift unless he interprets. This needed to be pointed out because the Corinthians weren’t doing this. What happens when tongues “is” interpreted among the believers? It says, so that the church may receive edifying. This was necessary so the body of believers weren’t dangling out in left-field, they could understand what was being said.
The way the Corinthians were using tongues was nothing more than “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”
1 Cor. 14:6:
“But now, brethren, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching?”
Paul is talking about (B.C.) before Corinth, before he came to them. It’s kind of like he’s turning back time for them by saying, “Imagine if I came into Corinth with all my credentials as an apostle, and just spoke in tongues, what good would that have been for you? You wouldn’t understand a word I was saying to you.”
But instead, Paul came to them with revelation, knowledge, and prophecy.
1 Cor. 14:7:
“Yet even lifeless things, either flute or harp, in producing a sound, if they do not produce a distinction in the tones, how will it be known what is played on the flute or on the harp?”
Music was a thing for the Corinthians, it was special for them. Within their city they had one of the great ancient music halls that could hold about 20,000 listeners.
Paul is talking about musical instruments, that what good would they be without some kind of sensible sound coming from them? So, in effect, he’s saying, “If I come to you speaking with words that you can’t understand, it would be of no more value to you than listening to someone playing random notes on a musical instrument.”
For those who like disjointed jazz, I don’t know what to tell you. 😊
1 Cor. 14:8:
“For if the bugle produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle?”
In battles past, it was common to use a bugler to sound the troops, to call them into action. The piercing notes carried over the chaos of the battlefield, conveying commands to the troops when spoken orders would have been impossible to hear. Different bugle calls signified various instructions, like advancing, retreating, or even meal times.
Now imagine if a general orders someone with a great set of lungs to sound the call to arms, the problem is, this person doesn’t know how to play the bugle. What kind of effect will this have on the troops? You get the picture.
1 Cor. 14:9:
“So also you, unless you utter by the tongue speech that is clear, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air.”
Like in the famous line from the movie Rush Hour; “Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?”
The Corinthians were so carnally self-centered that they could not have cared less about communication. They were interested in impressing others, not communicating with the brethren, much less edifying them.
The main culprit was pride, and a complete lack of love for those around them… resulting in being confused, disorderly, and unproductive. They were just speaking into the air.
1 Cor. 14:10:
“There are, perhaps, a great many kinds of languages in the world, and no kind is without meaning.”
Even Klingon, the alien language in Star Trek, had meaning to its made-up words. A language without meaning is pointless. Every different language around the world has a single purpose in mind… to communicate.
1 Cor. 14:11:
“If then I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be to the one who speaks a barbarian, and the one who speaks will be a barbarian to me.”
During Paul’s day, if you didn’t speak Greek, you weren’t part of the “in crowd,” they considered you to be a barbarian.
1 Cor. 14:12:
“So also you, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek to abound for the edification of the church.”
The Corinthians zealousness was misguided, they were focused on the flashy gift of tongues, and Paul is trying to redirect them. Paul says, seek to abound. The word “seek” (zay-teh’-o) points to a continuous habitual action on their part, to seek continually.
Everything they were doing was contrary to the edification of the church. The Corinthians needed to stop thinking about themselves, and start having a devotion to the body of Christ within their own church.
1 Cor. 14:13:
“Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret.”
The Corinthians, we can say, were mesmerized with the gift of tongues, so much so that most of them felt they needed to have that gift, even if it meant playing pretend, making those around them think they had the gift.
So when they exercised their so-called gift, nobody had a clue as to what they were saying. I imagine there were those who went along with this façade because they wanted to be a part of this as well.
I guess if you could speak in tongues, you were then part of the “in crowd.” The Corinthians had turned the gift of tongues into a toy that they were playing with.
From the first day at Pentecost, tongues were meant to enhance communication, not hinder it. Every time tongues were present, understanding accompanied it, whether it was a language someone in the crowd could understand, or an interpretation was there to explain it.
There is an important distinction in the way Paul uses the word tongue (singular) and tongues (plural). Whenever he uses tongue, he’s referring to the counterfeit that the Corinthians were using. When Paul says tongues, he’s speaking of the gift from the Holy Spirit. There is one exception found in verse 27, where the reference is to one man speaking on one occasion. Not all theologians agree on this.
Here in verse 13, Paul says, let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. This is Paul being sarcastic again. John MacArthur does a good job of paraphrasing this; “While you are jabbering away in your unintelligible pseudo-tongues, you could at least ask God to give you some means of making them beneficial to the church. As you now exercise them, they are both pagan and pointless.”
1 Cor. 14:14:
“For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.”
Paul says if he were to pray in a “tongue” (singular) which means this would be self-manufactured by him. My spirit prays… and this isn’t the Holy Spirit. The word spirit in this context can be defined as “of the wind, hence the wind itself” or “breath.”
Now Paul is speaking to us hypothetically, he’s kind of putting himself in their sandals. A good paraphrase would be;
“Guys, me being the apostle I am, if I were to imitate your gibberish, my own mind wouldn’t have any idea what I was saying… the words I would be making would be just blowing in the wind.”
1 Cor. 14:15:
“What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also.”
(NLT) “Well then, what shall I do? I will pray in the spirit, and I will also pray in words I understand. I will sing in the spirit, and I will also sing in words I understand.”
When it comes to praying and singing, our minds need to be engaged as well. When we’re praying and worshipping to our Lord and Master, we don’t do it mindlessly… our heart, soul, and mind are in it. This is how Paul rolls, and it’s how we should roll, we’re not to be zombie worshippers.
1 Cor. 14:16:
“Otherwise if you bless in the spirit only, how will the one who fills the place of the ungifted say the “Amen” at your giving of thanks, since he does not know what you are saying?”
(NLT) “For if you praise God only in the spirit, how can those who don’t understand you praise God along with you? How can they join you in giving thanks when they don’t understand what you are saying?”
In this verse it’s referring to the ungifted… the one who doesn’t understand, the outsider, the unlearned, and the uninformed… these are all different Bible translations.
Simply stated, someone who is ignorant of a language being spoken can’t possibly understand what they are hearing. They wouldn’t know when to say Amen… he does not know what you are saying.
Amen is a Hebrew word of agreement and encouragement, it means… “So let it be.” And no, it’s not from the old Beatles song “Let it be.” Saying Amen was common among the worshippers in the synagogue. It’s also common in many churches today.
1 Cor. 14:17:
“For you are giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not edified.”
In their minds everything was simpatico, they were pleased with themselves, not giving a second thought to those around them.
But the other person is not edified… the others that were around these people are left out in the cold… they were not encouraged by what was taking place.
1 Cor. 14:18:
“I thank God, I speak in tongues more than you all;”
Whoa, is Paul getting a little “high-minded” here? Not at all. Paul is speaking of the true gift of tongues (plural). There’s not record of a specific time when Paul spoke in tongues, but we can be sure he didn’t misuse the gift in any way. I imagine he used it in the same way as in Pentecost, where when Paul traveled, those around him heard the gospel in their own language, a miraculous confirming sign to unbelievers… pure speculation on my part.
More than you all… meant he had more experience than any of the Corinthian believers.
1 Cor. 14:19:
“However, in the church I desire to speak five words with my mind so that I may instruct others also, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue.”
Notice at the end of our verse we see the word tongue, it’s in the singular… this isn’t the gifted tongues.
Paul is showing us how to do church, that it is to be orderly.
Rather than ten thousand words in a tongue…
Ten thousand (more’-ree-ois), this is the largest number that the Greek had as a specific word, it means innumerable, or countless. It’s the term in which we get the word myriad.
Rev. 5:11:
“Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands,”
It’s kind of like when Carl Sagan used to say, billions and billions of stars.
The point Paul is making is, if someone in the church stood up and spoke in a tongue of thousands of words, it could not possibly compare to just five words of a prophetic nature. Five understandable words beats out myriads of gibberish any day of the week.
Worldly, self-serving, carnal attitudes have no place in the church. God-given spiritual gifts are what God has blessed His children with. It is most beneficial when they are used to edify the church, making the church a true sanctuary where the unsaved can find shelter, grace, and salvation.
1 Cor. 14:20:
“Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.”
Paul is saying, “Guys, it’s time to grow up!” It was the Corinthian’s immaturity that got them in trouble in the first place. They might have belonged to the church, but they had both feet in the world… they were “of” the world as we say. Paul says… Do not be children in your thinking.
Yet in evil be infants… when it came to evil sin, the Corinthians were anything but babes. They were full grown adults looking for the next “feel good” moment. For them, experience always won out over God’s truth, emotions took precedence over reason, and their will was always more important than God’s will. Jesus wasn’t Lord of their lives.
Judges 21:25:
“In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
But in your thinking be mature… Paul is bringing it to them, wanting them to grow up and be mature. I think it was more of a case of telling a ten-year-old, “When you wake up in the morning, I want you to be all grown up.” Not gonna happen.
1 Cor. 14:21-22:
In the Law it is written, “By men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people, and even so they will not listen to Me,” says the Lord.” So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers; but prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers but to those who believe.”
Paul is quoting from Isaiah 28:11-12, this is a difficult passage to discern because there are differing opinions on this.
Some say that tongues are for a sign to those who believe not, that Paul is speaking not of unbelievers, but to believers who like those in Isaiah’s day, have grown indifferent or callused toward the Lord.
Then that tongues was given as a sign, and as a sign to unbelievers, more specifically to unbelieving Jews, the unbelievers among “this people” as it says in the verse. That the gift of tongues was given solely as a sign to unbelieving Israel.
So it all depends how you interpret the phrase; not to those who believe but to unbelievers.
But prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers but to those who believe…
(NLT) “Prophecy, however, is for the benefit of believers, not unbelievers.”
Prophecy isn’t given as a sign pointing to something else, but it is given for the edification of the church, ministering to those who believe. Will unbelievers come into a church and hear God’s truth proclaimed? Most certainly, and they will benefit from it!
1 Cor. 14:23:
“Therefore if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad?”
If you’ve ever been in a Pentecostal church, you might be familiar with what’s being expressed in this verse.
I experienced this in a church I used to go to. At any service, before the message was given, a church leader would say, “Let’s worship the Lord together with praise and thanksgiving.” Then the whole congregation would erupt into people audibly thanking God, speaking in tongues, hands lifted in praise, and others were on their knees. It was a sight to behold.
Now if you were a baby Christian or an unbeliever (ungifted), seeing and hearing this for the first time, you might think that you just walked in to the devil’s clubhouse. It can be quite overwhelming.
Paul says, will they not say that you are mad?
Mad… of one who so speaks that he seems not to be in his right mind… loony tunes, cuckoo.
After they experience this, do you think the unbeliever will come back? The unbeliever, Gentile or Jew, just might sneak quietly out the back door, thinking that it was just another wild and meaningless ritual taking place, much like the pagans were into.
We’ll close with this…
In our last verse here, Paul is trying to paint a picture for the Corinthians believers. It’s like he got his hands on the security cam and he’s playing back the video for them, saying, “Look for yourselves, this is how you really look and sound, how would this look to an unbeliever?” But first they would have to care.
What’s our takeaway here? I think we need to always be aware of how others see us, not that we go around speaking some unknown language, but that when we engage with a complete stranger, they don’t see us as strange, but they see us as someone who is approachable, kind, and willing to listen. That way you might get to tell them about Jesus.