prophecy builds up
True prophecy is grounded in love and builds up the church.
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. “The pastoral dimension is underlined not only by the contextual particularity which distinguishes prophesying from teaching (which may be more doctrinal or general)” but also by the impression that encouragement29 “frequently rests on a personal relationship between the speaker and addressees
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. There are many other things that believers may find themselves interested in doing in worship which they find spiritually satisfying or beneficial for themselves, but which may not edify those gathered with them, or worse, which may serve as a distraction to others or otherwise detract from the edifying nature of the time spent together in worship. 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 to practice or that would seem to bring us greater respect or esteem (or power) in the community. As Witherington concludes, “Worship is mainly meant to be a group experience where one gives worship to God” and shares fellowship with others “so that all benefit
Without Purpose tongues are just a noisy instrument.
Like the modern military bugle it did not have the valves which have been associated with modern trumpets since the nineteenth century. It was “a long, straight metal wind instrument with a bell and a mouthpiece” which was “capable of producing only a few natural tones that could be articulated loudly and distinctly.”65 Those “few tones” needed to be clearly and distinctly sounded in order to communicate any one of a series of particular signals so that the troops would know how to respond. The War Scroll describes military bugle calls signaling muster, alarm, ambush, pursuit, reassembly, enlistment, encampment, battle formation, funeral, retreat, and homecoming (1QM ii 16–iii 11; vii 13–ix 6; xvi 3–9; xvii 10–15). If the trumpeter (we would say “bugler”)66 does not know how to give the proper call to battle, or if the trumpet itself was incapable of giving such clear signals, no soldier would know whether they should be preparing for battle, setting up camp, or watching for an ambush. Garland suggests that some of the Corinthians who spoke in tongues may have thought of themselves as virtuoso worshipers worthy of being admired by the rest of the congregation. But Paul “puts their performance in a completely different light with the implication that the indistinct sounds made by the flute, harp, and bugle are made by inexpert players—mere novices.
Prophesy brings more edification than tongues
Prophecy proclaims the gospel in ways tongues cant.
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. Paul surely knows that Israel’s experience was due to its rejection of prior revelation in the common language of the people, but he understands (and he wants his readers to understand) that Israel’s experience of hearing God speak in that unusual way (i.e., through the foreign languages of the invaders) did not have a spiritually transforming effect on them. This is most likely related to Paul’s understanding that Israel (for the most part) continued to stand in need of conversion and redemption until his day (Rom. 3:9–20; 9:2–8; 27–33; 10:1–3; Gal. 3:10–13; 4:4–5, 25; 1 Thess. 2:14–16). Thus not even exile brought the nation of Israel back to God. As Kwon puts it, “Paul’s textual purview appears to encompass a wider span of the historical narrative, namely, one that includes Israel’s enduring unbelief even after their encounter with ‘other tongues’ in exile.”137 God not only spoke to his people through foreign invaders in the day or year of their fall, but he continued to speak to them through their experience of foreign domination over a period of decades and centuries.
The effect of Christian prophecy on the unbeliever is threefold: He will be convicted of sin (cf. John 16:8); he will be called to take account of his sins and examine his sinful condition; and will have his sinful heart and past laid open to inspection (cf. John 4:16–19). The triple use of “all” in the Greek (v. 24) emphasizes that all the church through its prophetic message has, in God’s providence, a part in bringing the unbeliever to this place of conviction. For the unbeliever in the church service will recognize that God really is present and dealing with him.