In 14:1 Paul says, “Pursue love, and desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy.” This charge is based upon the revelation in 12:31 through 13:13. To pursue love is to seek after the growth in life for the development of the gifts in life. Hence, it must be matched with an earnest desire for the most profitable gift, the gift of prophecy.
Paul was very wise, and he composed verse 1 in a wise manner. In this verse he was not actually encouraging the Corinthians to seek such gifts as healing, miracles, and tongue-speaking. Instead, Paul’s intention was that they would seek the gift of prophecy. However, Paul did not tell the Corinthians to forget all the spiritual gifts except the gift of prophecy. He told them to desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but rather, or especially, that they would prophesy. He wanted them to pursue what was best, what was most valuable. He knew that there was turmoil among the Corinthians and that they needed to be calmed down. For this reason, he exercised wisdom, telling them that love is the best way to exercise the gifts and then charging them to pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that they may prophesy.
Since to prophesy is to speak for the Lord and speak forth the Lord, that is, to minister Christ to others, which is the main thing in the church meeting, prophesying requires the divine life to fill it as its content. Love is the excellent way to experience the divine life and make it the content of the gift of prophecy for the building up of the church. Hence, we must pursue love and desire earnestly these greater gifts.
In verses 2 and 3 Paul says, “For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God; for no one hears, but in spirit he speaks mysteries. But he who prophesies speaks to men for building up and encouragement and consolation.” The apostle’s word in verses 2 through 6 gives a clear and definite view that speaking in tongues is much less important than prophesying. He strongly belittles the gift of tongues and exalts the gift of prophecy because his main concern is the church, not the individual believers. Speaking in tongues, even if it is genuine and proper, only edifies the speaker himself, but prophesying builds up the church. To prophesy in revelation or to teach in knowledge with clear, understandable words is more profitable to the church than to speak in tongues with unknown words. Since to prophesy, to speak forth the Lord, ministers Christ to others, it builds them up and gives them encouragement and consolation.
I would like to emphasize the fact that in the New Testament to prophesy is not mainly to predict, but mainly to speak for the Lord and to speak forth the Lord. Even in the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah prophesying is not mainly a matter of prediction, but of speaking for God and of speaking God forth. Of course, the element of prediction is included. Throughout the Bible, to prophesy means to speak for God and to speak forth God and, in a secondary way, to predict. To prophesy is to tell for, to tell forth, and also to foretell. This is a proper understanding of prophecy in the Bible.
To prophesy in the sense of telling for and telling forth requires much growth in life. For this, we need to know God and we need to experience Christ. If we do not have the adequate knowledge of God and experience of Christ, we do not have anything to say for Him, and we cannot speak Him forth. To prophesy in the sense of foretelling, of predicting something before it happens, is miraculous and does not require the growth in life.
To repeat, in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 the noun prophecy and the verb prophesy do not mainly refer to prediction; they mainly denote speaking for God and speaking forth God. Nevertheless, many of those in today’s Pentecostalism or charismatic movement place great emphasis on the element of prediction and neglect the more important matters of speaking for God and speaking God forth.
In verse 4 Paul continues, “He who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but he who prophesies builds up the church.” To prophesy, to speak for the Lord and speak forth the Lord, not only builds up the individual saints, but also builds up the church. Tongue-speaking, on the contrary, does not build up the church.
In verse 5 Paul goes on to say, “Now I desire that you all speak in tongues, but rather that you may prophesy; now greater is he who prophesies than he who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, that the church may receive building up.” What was on Paul’s heart was not that the Corinthians would seek the gift of tongue-speaking; it was to encourage them to prophesy so that the church might be built. Paul’s burden was the building up of the church. This was the concern deep in his heart.
In verse 6 Paul asks a question: “But now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what shall I profit you, unless I speak to you either in revelation or in or in prophecy or in teaching?” This implies that speaking in tongues does not profit anyone except the tongue-speaker. Here we again see Paul’s wisdom in writing to the Corinthians. He knew they were in turmoil, and he spoke to them with a certain amount of carefulness in order to calm them down. He pointed out to them that he would not profit them unless he spoke to them either in revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching.
In verse 7 Paul continues, “Even lifeless things, whether flute or harp, in giving a sound, if they give no distinction in the sounds, how will it be known what is played on the flute or on the harp?” The apostle’s illustrations in verses 7 through 11 indicate that the Corinthian believers abused speaking in tongues by doing it in a nonsensical way, uttering an “uncertain sound” (v. 8) of “no distinction” (v. 7), “without significance” (v. 10). They also overused it by practicing it in any place, in any way, and in any situation. Hence, Paul corrects and restricts them from their abuse and excessive use of such a small gift of the least profit, that they may seek the greater gifts and abound in the building up of the church.
In verse 7 Paul is definitely indicating that the Corinthians should cease uttering meaningless sounds. Today many practice tongue-speaking in a meaningless way. In many cases those who speak have no idea what they are saying.
In verse 8 Paul asks, “For if indeed the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who will prepare himself for battle?” Among many Pentecostal people today, no one can prepare for battle, because there is no definite direction.
In verse 9 Paul says, “So also you, unless you give by the tongue an intelligible word, how will it be known what is being said? For you will be speaking into the air.” The tongue here refers to the physical tongue, not to a language or dialect. Certainly in this verse Paul is not encouraging the practice of tongue-speaking.
Verse 10 says, “There are, perhaps, so many kinds of voices in the world and not one without significance.” In Greek the word rendered voice is the same as sound in verse 7 (the singular one) and verse 8. Here it denotes voices, that is, languages.
Verse 11 continues, “If then I do not know the meaning of the voice, I shall be to him who speaks a barbarian, and he who speaks a barbarian to me.” Literally, the Greek word rendered “meaning” means power, force. The Greek word translated barbarian, barbaros, means foreigner, that is, a non-Greek, one who does not speak Greek. “Supposed to be originally a descriptive word of those who uttered harsh, rude accents.…Later, the word took the sense of outlandish or rude” (Vincent).
In verse 12 Paul declares, “So also you, since you are zealots of spiritual gifts, seek that you may abound to the building up of the church.” From this verse we see that the Corinthian believers were not only zealous; they were zealots. They had become such persons.
In this verse we see once again by the words “abound to the building up of the church” that the apostle is fully occupied with the consideration of building up the church. He is fully church-conscious and church-centered, altogether different from the self-centered Corinthians. Their problem with spiritual gifts was due to their self-seeking, not caring for the building up of the church. In dealing with the first six problems, in the realm of human life, the apostle stresses Christ as God’s unique portion to us. In dealing with the last five problems, in the realm of the divine administration, he emphasizes the church as God’s unique goal for us. The Corinthians were not only devoid of Christ, but also ignorant of the church. The apostle’s completing ministry (Col. 1:25) is comprised of Christ as the mystery of God (Col. 2:2) and the church as the mystery of Christ (Eph. 3:4). However, the Corinthians missed both, even though they were under the apostle’s ministry. They were pitifully in themselves, blind and ignorant.
In verses 13 and 14 Paul continues, “Wherefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.” For our spirit to be used and exercised in prayer is surely healthy to our spiritual life. But for our mind to be unfruitful and unused is absolutely unhealthy. We must exercise our regenerated spirit with our renewed mind in praying to the Lord. Our mind should be set on our spirit (Rom. 8:6), never detached from it, even in our daily walk, needless to say in our prayer. Our prayer must be from our God-contacted and God-contacting spirit and through our sober and understanding mind, with clear and understandable words, that our prayer may touch God, nourish and strengthen ourselves, and build up others.
Verse 15 says, “What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray also with the mind; I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing also with the mind.” Paul’s word about praying “also with the mind” implies that he encourages the receivers of his letter to pray not merely in an unknown tongue, but also with clear and understandable words.
The phrase “with the mind” does not mean with the mind only and not with the spirit at all. In Ephesians 6:18 the apostle charges us to pray at every time in spirit. Prayer is worship, which should be in spirit (John 4:24). When we pray with the spirit, not in an unknown tongue, but in understandable words, our mind is automatically used to interpret and express the thought of the spirit. What the apostle means here is that in the church meeting, for the profit of all the attendants, we should pray with our mind in intelligible words (1 Cor. 14:19) to express the burden in our spirit. In a church meeting our prayer should not only be heard by the Lord for His answer, but should also be intelligible to all the attendants for their profit. For this purpose we should also learn to use our mind in public prayer as we do our spirit, training our mind to cooperate with our spirit, even to be one with our spirit, that the spirit may become the spirit of our mind (Eph. 4:23).
Verse 16 continues, “Otherwise, if you bless with the spirit, how shall he who fills the place of the unlearned say the Amen at your giving of thanks, since he does not know what you are saying?” This reveals that in the church meetings during the apostle’s time, when one prayed all the others said Amen, even “the Amen,” at his prayer.
In verse 17 Paul again indicates how much he is concerned for the building up of the church: “For you indeed give thanks well, but the other is not builded up.” This indicates that not only our prophesying and teaching in the church meetings should build up others, but also our prayers and thanks to the Lord. This shows how much the apostle is concerned with the building up of the church and the saints. His word in this verse is not only a correction but a charge.
Those who advocate the practice of tongue-speaking appreciate Paul’s word in verse 18: “I thank God I speak in tongues more than all of you.” However, they often seem to forget that Paul’s thought is not completed in verse 18, but continues into verse 19, where he says, “But in the church I would rather speak five words with my mind that I might instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.” This shows how much speaking in intelligible words is needed in the church meeting for the building up of the church, and how speaking in tongues actually is not needed at all. To be sure, in these verses Paul is not encouraging us to speak in tongues.