Untitled Sermon (27)
While chapter 12 introduced the theme of spiritual gifts and discussed their importance in more general terms, this chapter focuses on two gifts in particular, being almost completely dedicated to establishing the superior value of prophecy over tongues.
Generally speaking, Paul “has two major concerns in this discussion: that Corinthian worship should manifest intelligibility (vv. 1–25) and that it should display order (vv. 26–40) so that all believers are built up and the unbeliever present in the assembly is challenged by the gospel, convicted, and converted (vv. 21–25).”
It appears that Paul has heard that there is a lot of speaking in tongues taking place in the church’s gathered worship. It is (usually) not being interpreted, and those who are not speaking in tongues do not understand and are feeling alienated by the experience. Those speaking in tongues evidently think that it is a wonderful experience and that it has strengthened their faith in God despite the fact that the rest of the church has not found it beneficial. Some wanted Paul to forbid people to speak in tongues (v. 39). Those speaking in tongues may be suggesting that tongues is a sign for establishing believers, that is, that it would be used to bring unbelievers to faith in Christ.
It seems that some women are not only prophesying and ministering in the times of worship but also asking other people questions in a way that did not seem fitting and which diminished the orderliness of the worship experience (vv. 34–35, 40).
Paul responds by building on what he had written about love in the previous chapter, emphasizing the need to prioritize the edification, or building up, of the whole church
Along the way he quotes one Old Testament text (Isa. 28:11–12 in v. 21) that suggests that tongues further alienate those who are already alienated, and he alludes to others (Isa. 45:14 and Zech. 8:23 in v. 25) that speak of the salvation of the nations.
14:1 The opening verse of the chapter introduces both the first paragraph (vv. 1–5) and the main section of the whole chapter (vv. 1–33), as well as reiterating the priorities that have already been suggested by Paul’s discussion in chapters 12–13
Christians should make love their priority, and only then (in light of that priority) pursue gifts: Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.
In this chapter Paul will highlight prophecy as a spiritual gift whose exercise would be more naturally promoted by the principle of love than the gift of tongues since it more clearly serves to edify the church (which is what love seeks).
by the time Paul finished 12:4–11 the Corinthians should have understood that in Paul’s own view many gifts were given and distributed by the Spirit, including many that were not speech gifts. The term used in 12:1 is understood to apply to all of the gifts mentioned in that chapter. The Corinthians would not be expected to apply a more restricted sense at the beginning of this chapter.
Paul to make it clear that he is not thinking simply about the value of prophecy compared to other gifts in general, but about the relative values of prophecy and tongues.
It does not indicate that it was not a human language, but that he did not expect that those gathered would normally know whatever language was spoken. It does suggest that speaking in tongues was understood as prayer, a view that is consistent with Paul’s other comments on the subject
A very important part, perhaps the most important part, of Paul’s message in this chapter is that the public worship of God is at its heart a communal experience in which one honors God by keeping a clear focus on him and those others with whom one is engaged in worship
Paul’s statement indicates that the tongues speech has specific content, even if it is not understood by anyone other than God (and those with the gift of interpretation)
Although no one understands them (except God), Paul wants us to understand that they are not merely babbling
In fact, not only are they expressing content, but it is Spirit-inspired content of the type that a prophet could only dream of comprehending!
Carson points out that this verse does not provide a definition of the gift of prophecy, but describes its function in terms that could also be applied to other gifts such as teaching or even the interpretation of tongues, but which contrast with the function of uninterpreted tongues. Still, the particular words chosen are undoubtedly significant for understanding the nature of prophetic ministry in the church.
The theme of edification or building up governs this chapter (14:3, 4, 5, 12, 17, 26). The gift of prophecy (properly used) results in people being stronger in their faith in and walk with Christ.
These three words strongly suggest that prophetic ministry, by its very nature, must flow out of a deep concern for the well-being of those who need to be strengthened, encouraged, and comforted
As Paul describes it, it is certainly not a ministry marked by a cold communication of theological or other truths, but one marked by commitment to and compassion for other members of the body
The power of speech suggested here is remarkable, reminding one of what James 3:5–8 says about the power of the tongue, except that Paul speaks of its positive power for edification while James has in mind its destructive power. Paul literally says that “those who prophesy speak strengthening, encouragement and comfort to people.”
The opportunity to bring strength, encouragement, and comfort to their brothers and sisters through our speech (as opposed to merely using our speech as an opportunity to express our thoughts or feelings) is to be highly valued and liberally employed.
14:4 The two gifts are contrasted again—this time not in terms of who is addressed, but in terms of who is edified: Those who speak in a tongue edify themselves, but those who prophesy edify the church. The contrasts Paul makes between these two gifts in this and the prior verse may be diagrammed as follows:
Verses
Gift
Who is addressed
Who is edified
2, 4a
Tongues
God
The speaker
3, 4b
Prophecy
People
The church
When believers are gathered together, love calls for the exclusive use of gifts which will serve to build up the community. This principle may and should be applied beyond the very specific issue that Paul needed to address in Corinth.
Love calls for all believers to exercise discernment in the use of our spiritual gifts, preferring those that will make the greatest contribution to the health of the body over ones that we might personally prefer
The wish that they might all prophesy echoes Moses’ own “wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them” (Num. 11:29), which seems to be in mind in Joel 2:28: “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy.”
In some ways, Paul’s description of a worship meeting has more in common with some Bible study or fellowship groups in which all who attend are expected to contribute in some individual way to the group conversation and/or fellowship experience (perhaps by providing food or music).
Paul will make it clear that he does not want any speaking in tongues to take place in the public worship of the church unless someone (the tongues-speaker or another member of the body with the gift of interpretation) can be counted on to interpret it.
The word translated interpret was discussed above (see on 12:30). According to BDAG, the word meant either “to translate from one language to another” or “to clarify someth[ing] so as to make it understandable.” This verse is placed under the second meaning, with the stated understanding that it is a matter of interpreting “ecstatic speech.” The fact that the word is used in the context of speaking in tongues or “languages” (using the same terms as found in Isa. 19:18, Acts 2:4, 11) would seem to suggest that the first category would be the more intuitive one in this case.
Having argued in favor of the superior value of prophecy in comparison with tongues for the edification of the church, Paul now focuses on the question of intelligibility as the key to edifying speech.
Of course, Christians should learn some key theological terms and every community acquires its own terminology, but Christian leaders and churches must remain sensitive to Paul’s point that clarity of communication is essential for both edification and evangelism.
Putting the two verses together makes it clear that love entails seeking the gain/profit/good of those around us, and that only by living a Christian life that is dedicated to the benefit of others do we gain any eternal benefit ourselves.
Knowledge is sometimes associated with prophecy, and at other times seems to be distinguished from it (and here associated with teaching).
Hays is probably correct in suggesting that “the term ‘prophecy’ should be read throughout chapter 14 as synecdoche for all forms of intelligible speech gifts that edify the church.”
This fits with our suggestion that in 11:4–5 prophecy and prayer serve as broad terms for virtually all discourse in worship, with prophecy being used in that case for all discourse addressed to the congregation and prayer for discourse directed to God.
No recognizable music would be produced, and thus no useful purpose would be served
Paul stresses the importance of using the tongue to speak intelligible words rather than using the tongue to speak in tongues.
Paul’s language does not indicate that the speaker is not articulating words. It indicates that the words or speech being articulated is not “readily recognizable” (BDAG) or “easily understood” (Louw and Nida).
The result of speaking in tongues (without interpretation) is that no one understands what is being said. To speak into the air was evidently a known figure of speech meaning to utter words in vain
14:10–11 Paul compares the usefulness (or lack thereof) of the gift of speaking in tongues with that of the normal use of human languages when they are not understood.
Prior points to the Hellenistic hubris behind the term: “Greeks were very proud of the beauty of their language and regarded every other language as boorish and grating.”
He will cite the text that deals with Israel’s experience of not understanding the strange, unknown language of its foreign (Assyrian) invaders in v. 21.
Speaking in tongues is not the same as simply speaking a foreign language. Those speaking and hearing the tongues are not actually foreigners to each other
Even if the gift of tongues was understood to entail a Spirit-given ability to speak unknown human (and possibly angelic) languages to God (normally), as seems most likely, the closest thing to which some aspect of the experience could be compared would be that of engaging a foreigner where neither knows the language of the other.
How strange it would be for people who are not merely neighbors, but even brothers and sisters in Christ, to engage in an activity that turns them each into foreigners! This would not be a community-building experience but a community-alienating experience
Now Paul mentions the Corinthians’ passion for spiritual things. In the following clause he will show that that passion should be more wisely directed.
Thiselton thinks it “unlikely that even the Corinthians sought inspiration from a plurality of spirits; rather, they sought a plurality of manifestations (as many as possible) from God’s Holy Spirit.”
The remainder of the verse, understood in light of the context, leaves no doubt that that is what Paul is talking about, since the building up of the church is understood to take place through the loving exercise of spiritual gifts.
Their eagerness for gifts (or powers) of the Spirit was not something Paul was interested in squelching, but energy that he hoped to channel in more community-building, edifying directions.
Here Paul uses it to exhort the Corinthians to seek gifts on the basis of the advantage of the church as a whole rather than of their own personal edification.
The communal or community concern has been apparent throughout.
Fee applies the heart of this verse to concerns within the charismatic and Pentecostal movements:
The building up of the community is the basic reason for corporate settings of worship; they should probably not be turned into a corporate gathering for a thousand individual experiences of worship.
How many Christians gather for worship with the understanding that it is not about what they might gain from the experience but that their participation in worship should be focused on seeking to benefit and build up those who have gathered together with them?
What is clear is that not everyone who spoke in tongues had the gift of interpretation.
It is not surprising that the request, while ostensibly being made on behalf of oneself, is actually a request that the one praying might be enabled to more effectively build up and bless the others gathered for worship. This suggests once again that our fundamental orientation in worship should not be that of seeking to receive something that will be good for us, but seeking to bring greater benefit and advantage to others.
Paul wants to see “the spirit and the mind work together. His plea is for the complementarity of spirit and mind in prayer. Ultimately his anthropology is holistic.”
Paul wants the spirit and the mind engaged in worship.
The references to singing, along with prayer, remind us again that we are in a section of his letter dedicated to the subject of worship.
Presumably the scenario he describes in this and the following verse is actually playing itself out on a regular basis during the church meetings in Corinth.
As the saying goes, “It’s not about you.” Worship is not even about “you and God.” Jesus has shown us that it is always about “the other person.”
Oster comments, “Paul acknowledges, though perhaps with some sarcasm, that the self-centered believers are doing a good job in their individualistic ‘praise and thanksgiving’ worship. They have, however, taken their eyes off the compass that always guides believers in the direction of serving and edifying the other person.”
14:18 Paul is thankful that he is extremely experienced in speaking in tongues because it places him in a position to speak to the problem in Corinth with even greater authority
The clause to instruct others is the key.
The Greek word for ten thousand is the source of our English word “myriad.”
“used hyperbolically, as in Engl[ish] informal usage ‘zillion’, of an extremely large or incalculable number.”
Carson rightly sees that this verse, in conjunction with the previous one, provides an extremely strong defense of the private use of the gift of tongues: “If Paul speaks in tongues more than all the Corinthians, yet in the church prefers to speak five intelligible words rather than ten thousand words in a tongue (which is a way of saying that under virtually no circumstance will he ever speak in tongues in church, without quite ruling out the possibility), then where does he speak them?” Clearly he did so in private.
In this section an introductory verse emphasizing the need for maturity (v. 20) is followed by several marked by biblical interpretation (vv. 21–25)
), focusing on ministries that do and do not elicit the desired response to God’s appeal for repentance.
In Isaiah 28:11–12 the tongues of outsiders are used by God to appeal, futilely, to his disobedient people for repentance.
vocative Brothers and sisters
It often introduces a new step in the argument, and here it introduces his admonishment (in this verse) and the related biblical interpretation (vv. 21–25)
Isaiah 28:1–29, in its original (Old Testament) context, consists of an oracle against the political and religious leadership of God’s people (Samaria and Jerusalem). They had rejected God’s counsel to rest and trust in him as being too naïve
so now God’s voice of judgment will be heard in the barbarian language of their Assyrian invaders (v. 11).
The verses immediately preceding our text evidently represent their mockery of Isaiah’s message (vv. 9–10).
Paul is interested in this text precisely because of its reference to God’s use of unknown languages to communicate a message to his people
Isaiah 28:11–12 indicates that God would speak to his people in judgment through a strange language because they did not listen to him earlier when he spoke in clear and simple terms.
b) Conclusion drawn from quotation: Tongues confirm unbelievers in their unbelief, 14:22–23
While v. 22 mentions both believers and unbelievers, the illustrations in vv. 23–25 focus exclusively on unbelievers and the way they respond to an encounter with a community that is speaking in tongues or one that is prophesying.
In the Old Testament context the experience of the invading Assyrians was God’s execution of the covenant curses on his unbelieving and unfaithful people
Just as the experience in Isaiah 28:11–12 did not result in the conversion of the hearers but expressed alienation between God and his people, Paul indicates that the use of the gift of tongues tends to result not in the conversion of unbelievers, but in their further alienation
Paul’s citation of Isaiah 28:11–12 highlights the fact that God could not even get his own people to respond to him, even when he spoke to them in an extreme, attention-grabbing manner (having tried more subtle approaches previously)
Isaiah 28 is referring not to the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues, but to the foreign language(s) spoken by the Assyrian invaders which served as a sign of God’s judgment executed against his people.
Paul clarifies in the context that a “sign for unbelievers,” in this case, does not mean a sign benefiting unbelievers but the sign normally reserved for unbelievers, which communicates God’s judgment on them as such. The tongues of the Assyrians (and then Babylonians, Medes, and Persians) were a sign from God, a constant reminder to the Jews of their alienation from him and their need for forgiveness and restoration, a restoration that would bring salvation to the Gentiles as well.
Seen in this way, tongues are a sign to unbelievers in that the public experience of unintelligible communication from God highlights the sense and reality of alienation between the speaker(s) and those being spoken to
Thiselton points out that “the experience of ‘not belonging’ to which Isa 28:11–12 witnesses as a sign of judgment … should not be illegitimately imposed upon believers who do belong and should feel “at home” in the worship of the Christian community.”
Prophecy was a sign for believers in that God would speak to and through them again in power only after they had been restored. If he was speaking prophetically through them again (speaking not in judgment but speaking “to people for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort”; 1 Cor. 14:3), it was a sign to them that the age of restoration and salvation had been inaugurated.
14:23 Earlier Paul pointed out that uninterpreted (i.e., untranslated) tongues are not useful to the church. Now he makes the point that they may even have an unintended negative impact on those who observe them and on the reputation of the church.
Hays suggests that a “typical pagan Corinthian observing such a scene would say, ‘Oh, this is just another group like the devotees of Dionysius or Cybele’—one more consumer option in a pluralistic religious market.”
He considers it “possible that the tumult of a large number of Corinthians speaking in tongues simultaneously would remind them of the frenzy of Hellenistic cult groups” but thinks it more likely to elicit “the thoroughly negative reaction ‘you are all crazy.’ ”
Forbes is probably correct that Paul’s basic point is that the reaction would be a negative one, in contrast with the reaction described in the following two verses. He believes that “Paul’s understanding of part of the problem in Corinth (the observed fact that uninterpreted tongues in the presence of unbelievers leads them to reject what they see and hear) has consciously or unconsciously shaped his quotation of Isaiah, in order to make precisely that point: ‘they (outsiders) will not listen to you, or to what you say about God.’ ”
3) Argument regarding the Positive Effect of Prophecy: Prophetic Ministry Leads to the Glorification of God on the Part of Converted Unbelievers, 14:24–25
But since all believers do have the Spirit and are real candidates to speak prophetically (see Joel 2:28), Paul encourages the Corinthians to pursue gifts such as prophecy and seems to think that any believer might try their hand and see if God might in fact use them to bring prophetic insight to the community.
Paul’s expectation that the prophetic ministry of the gathered community will lead to the conversion of visiting outsiders who will respond by bowing down and worshiping God and declaring “God is really here in your midst!” echoes Isaiah 45:14 and Zechariah 8:23.
In 1 Corinthians 1:2 Paul referred to the Corinthians as “those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours.”
The Corinthians have been reminded at key points throughout this letter that they are supposed to bring glory to God as Gentiles who have come to find true wisdom in Christ and his cross and who have learned to flee sexual immorality and idolatry and to give proper worship to the one true God. Their own encounter with Christ had kept them from being led away to idols to being led by the Spirit to confess “Jesus is Lord” (12:2–3) and worship God aright. Their conversion and worship are intended to lead others to do the same. In this way, the gift which has been promoted as the one most effective at building up the community is also now seen as most effective at bringing God glory through the conversion of the nations.
As Carson explains, while it may be “communication designed by the Spirit to expose the secrets of [the unbeliever’s] own heart and thereby to convict him of sin, bringing him to repentance and worship,” it may be stressed that the unbeliever “comes in and overhears what is going on in the assembly, and by that means is brought to recognition of need, and to repentance and worship.”
