Thus far, Paul has dealt with the various spiritual gifts that operate within the church, and necessity of exercising those gifts in harmony and unity with others.  Then Paul went on to emphasize the pre-eminence of love in two areas:

• All the spiritual gifts need to exercised in love.  Paul describes what love is and what love looks like, and the fact that the “love chapter” is sandwiched between two chapters dealing with spiritual gifts indicates that the possessors of these spiritual gifts needed to add a heavy dose of love to their use of their gifts.

• Love needs to be sought after and expressed within the Church.  Throughout 1 Corinthians, Paul stresses the necessity of believers getting along with each other, respecting each other’s differing beliefs and  honoring whatever gifts they may possess.  This is agape love in action.

With chapter 14, Paul deals specifically with the question of “tongues.”  Whatever else Paul may say about “tongues,” he makes it clear that it is a legitimate gift, but at the same time, he stresses not to exaggerate the importance of this gift.  Throughout this chapter, Paul also stresses that the gift of prophecy, not tongues, is the preferred gift.  Paul teaches the Corinthians that “tongues” should not be exercised in public unless there is an interpreter.  Edification must be the prime consideration.  If we were to put “theme” on Paul’s view of spiritual gifts, it might well be, “It’s not about ME,” that is, spiritual gifts are for the good of all in the Church, not just the person exercising them.

Verses 1-5 (The Message)

1-3Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it—because it does. Give yourselves to the gifts God gives you. Most of all, try to proclaim his truth. If you praise him in the private language of tongues, God understands you but no one else does, for you are sharing intimacies just between you and him. But when you proclaim his truth in everyday speech, you’re letting others in on the truth so that they can grow and be strong and experience his presence with you.

4-5The one who prays using a private “prayer language” certainly gets a lot out of it, but proclaiming God’s truth to the church in its common language brings the whole church into growth and strength. I want all of you to develop intimacies with God in prayer, but please don’t stop with that. Go on and proclaim his clear truth to others. It’s more important that everyone have access to the knowledge and love of God in language everyone understands than that you go off and cultivate God’s presence in a mysterious prayer language—unless, of course, there is someone who can interpret what you are saying for the benefit of all.

The three verbs in verse one are directives:  the first two are imperatives (pursue love, strive eagerly), and the third is an indirect command (that you may prophesy).  All are in the present tense, which indicates that these are things the readers should always strive to do.

These opening words summarize Paul’s opinion on the matter.

• Pursue love.  “Love” was the emphasis of the previous chapter, and now Paul says to “pursue” (NIV), “follow” (KJV).  The Greek is diokete, and has the idea of an earnest pursuit; it “indicates a never ending action” (Grosheide).   Christians should always seek love above anything else; it is s imply putting in practice the teachings of chapter 13.

• Strive eagerly for the spiritual gifts.  This second command is slightly different from the first but is connected to it.  Kistemaker makes this observation:  The connection depends on less on these two successive verbs than on the nouns “love” and “spiritual gifts.”  With the phrase “an even more excellent way” (12:31), Paul shows that love dominates the greater gifts.  Paul now calls these gifts “spiritual” (see 12:1) and strongly urges the Corinthians  to desire them.  Perhaps the emphasis falls more on the concept “spiritual” than on that of “gifts.” (Kistemaker, p 477)
• Especially that you may prophesy.  Of all the spiritual gifts, prophecy deserves special attention.  The gift of prophesy denotes something similar to our preaching, but not identical to it.  It does not necessarily refer to the delivery of a carefully prepared sermon, but to the uttering of words directly inspired by God.

The reason for this “inferiority” of tongues is that they are unintelligible.  Speaking in tongues is a personal matter, between the one speaking and God because God is the only One who can understand what is being said.  Speaking in tongues is similar to prayer, then.  This “gift of tongues” is different from that in Acts 2, where all the people who heard the tongues understood what was being said, without exception.  The phrase “with his spirit” refers to the individual’s own spirit, not the Holy Spirit.  Speaking in these tongues is an activity of the spirit of man, but not of his understanding.  Apart from a special gift of interpretation, what is spoken in tongues is unknowable to men, including the one speaking.

The contrast between speaking in tongues and prophesy now becomes obvious: the one speaking in tongues in public fails to communicate, but the person who prophesies addresses people with a message from God.  The prophet does three things in the congregation:

•     He strengthens them.  The word can also be translated “edification.”
•     He encourages them.  That is, the prophet build s up the congregation.
•     He comforts them.  The Greek is paramythia, which suggests comforting those in great sorrow.

Prophecy, then, is a means of building up Christian character, of strengthening the individual believer and of giving comfort in their distress.  However, Paul does not deny that “tongues” have a value for edification, but it is only the person who exercises the gift who is edified.

Verse 5 is a curious verse.  Paul “wishes” that all the Corinthians would speak in tongues.  It should be noted, though, that he is not promoting tongues, but rather contrasting this sentence with the next one, which exalts the gift of prophecy.  Given the curious nature of the first phrase (“I wish that all of you speak in tongues”) it seems certain that Paul is alluding to the the words of Moses when he was told that Eldad and Medad were prophesying in the camp of Israel.  Joshua felt threatened, so he urged Moses to stop the rival prophets.  Moses responded:

“Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!” (Numbers 11:29)

Following example of Moses, Paul earnestly desired that the Holy Spirit would come upon God’s people in full measure.  As we have seen earlier, there is clear evidence that the Corinthians exaggerated the importance of speaking in tongues; the “spectacular” nature of ecstatic utterances seemed to appeal to their pride.  Paul, without decrying the gift of tongues, roundly affirms the superiority of prophecy to tongues, unless the speaker also has the gift of interpretation.  The criterion is simply that of edification.  If the tongues are interpreted, the hearers are edified, and there is then no great difference from prophecy.  Both are inspired speech and both now convey a message to the people.

2.  Verses 6-12 (The Message)

6-11Think, friends: If I come to you and all I do is pray privately to God in a way only he can understand, what are you going to get out of that? If I don’t address you plainly with some insight or truth or proclamation or teaching, what help am I to you? If musical instruments—flutes, say, or harps—aren’t played so that each note is distinct and in tune, how will anyone be able to catch the melody and enjoy the music? If the trumpet call can’t be distinguished, will anyone show up for the battle?

9-12So if you speak in a way no one can understand, what’s the point of opening your mouth? There are many languages in the world and they all mean something to someone. But if I don’t understand the language, it’s not going to do me much good. It’s no different with you. Since you’re so eager to participate in what God is doing, why don’t you concentrate on doing what helps everyone in the church?

As is his habit, Paul takes the edge off his rebuke with the affectionate address, “brothers” or “friends.”  Paul, like any good preacher, reinforces his teaching with an apt illustration.  In this case, his point is illustrated from other spheres, first of music and musical instruments.  The point of this analogy is that a melody finely played speaks to a person’s heart and soul.  An aimless jangle of sound means nothing.

As it is in the sphere of music, so it is in the military sphere.  In verse 8, the trumpet conveys the commands of the leader to the troops remote from him.  If the trumpet sound is uncertain, the blowing of the trumpet has failed in its purpose.

In verse nine, the phrase, “So it is with you,” is very emphatic.  What Paul is saying applies to the Corinthians.  Because they were speaking in tongues, their speech was unintelligible, as though they were just speaking into the air.  With their wonderful gift of tongues, they were doing exactly the wrong thing.  This thought is amplified in verse 10, where Paul says that languages are supposed to communicate something to somebody, but there is no real difference between unintelligibility and dumbness.  The whole point of speaking out loud is to communicate something to those listening.

Within the Corinthian church, those speaking in tongues during the worship service were voicing meaningless things.  Paul shows that when he is with the believers he will bring them something meaningful; a word or prophecy, knowledge and teaching.  Paul’s job is to preach the Gospel, and the Gospel is intelligible and edifying only with the Holy Spirit is associated with it.  J. Stanley Glen commented:

The Spirit of God signifies the ultimate intelligibility.

Word and Spirit go hand-in-hand when a preacher or teacher clearly communicates God’s Word, His revelation, for the Holy Spirit is inseparably connected with the Word of God.  Again, Kistemaker says succinctly:

The Spirit explains the Word intelligibly.

3.  Verses 13-17  (The Message)

13-17So, when you pray in your private prayer language, don’t hoard the experience for yourself. Pray for the insight and ability to bring others into that intimacy. If I pray in tongues, my spirit prays but my mind lies fallow, and all that intelligence is wasted. So what’s the solution? The answer is simple enough. Do both. I should be spiritually free and expressive as I pray, but I should also be thoughtful and mindful as I pray. I should sing with my spirit, and sing with my mind. If you give a blessing using your private prayer language, which no one else understands, how can some outsider who has just shown up and has no idea what’s going on know when to say “Amen”? Your blessing might be beautiful, but you have very effectively cut that person out of it.

Throughout this chapter Paul stresses the importance of edification when using spiritual gifts.  In this section, he writes that when praying, singing, praising, and giving thanks to God, a person needs to employ his mind, which necessitates worshiping God in an orderly fashion in a language that is understood by those who may hear, or if it is done in tongues, an interpretation must be given.

The one who has the gift of tongues should not rest content with just that gift, but rather should realize its limited value and pray for the gift of interpretation, so that what the person says may be useful for edification.  This would suggest that the gifts of the spirit are not static; that one who has, in this example, the gift of tongues, need not assume that he should stop seeking other gifts.

A key point in Paul’s teaching is that the one who prays in tongues is not using his mind, or his understanding.  The Greek word he used is nous, which properly means “intellect.” Of course, the Christian life is far more than merely an intellectual exercise, yet the one whose mind is unfruitful is not being true to his Christian calling.  Verses 14 and 15 are very important for they gives us an understanding of the proper place of intellect.   Notice that this is stated without any diminution of spiritual expression.  Paul is not arguing for a kind of cold intellectualism.  There is a place for demonstrative worship and even the use of tongues in worship.  But everything we do in worship must involve our minds as well as our emotions.  This the unrestricted use of tongues does not provide.  In worship, Paul singles out two activities: prayer and singing.  Both these activities should be done in such a way that everybody in the service can participate and everybody can contribute.  For this to happen, it must be done using both the emotions and the intellect.  All too often, however, prayers are offered in a kind of emotional jargon and hymns are chosen merely on the basis of attractive tunes rather than sound theology.

4.  Verses 18, 19 (New Century Version)

I thank God that I speak in different kinds of languages more than all of you.  But in the church meetings I would rather speak five words I understand in order to teach others than thousands of words in a different language.

After everything he said regarding tongues, Paul makes it clear that he has the gift and that he thanks God for it.  But in church, (“in the church meetings”), he would prefer to speak a few words of intelligible speech than a flood of unknown words.

5.  Verses 20-25 (The Message)

20-25To be perfectly frank, I’m getting exasperated with your infantile thinking. How long before you grow up and use your head—your adult head? It’s all right to have a childlike unfamiliarity with evil; a simple no is all that’s needed there. But there’s far more to saying yes to something. Only mature and well-exercised intelligence can save you from falling into gullibility. It’s written in Scripture that God said,

In strange tongues
and from the mouths of strangers
I will preach to this people,
but they’ll neither listen nor believe.
So where does it get you, all this speaking in tongues no one understands? It doesn’t help believers, and it only gives unbelievers something to gawk at. Plain truth-speaking, on the other hand, goes straight to the heart of believers and doesn’t get in the way of unbelievers. If you come together as a congregation and some unbelieving outsiders walk in on you as you’re all praying in tongues, unintelligible to each other and to them, won’t they assume you’ve taken leave of your senses and get out of there as fast as they can? But if some unbelieving outsiders walk in on a service where people are speaking out God’s truth, the plain words will bring them up against the truth and probe their hearts. Before you know it, they’re going to be on their faces before God, recognizing that God is among you.

At this point, Paul reminds his readers of the importance of love and wants them to stop thinking like immature children.  Godet comments:

It is indeed the characteristic of the child to prefer the amusing to the useful, the brilliant, and the solid.  And this is what the Corinthians did by their marked tasted for glossolalia. 

In other words, Paul’s opinion is that those who practice the unrestricted use of tongues in public are behaving like babies.  His exhortation is to “grow up” and act like mature believers.

With verse 21, Paul quotes from Isaiah 28:11ff.  The chapter refers to the failure of Israel to listen to the words of the prophet.  God will use Assyrian invaders to judge His people.  These are the men of “strange speech.”  Exactly what Paul’s point is shrouded in mystery, but Morris suggests:

[As] those who had refused to heed the prophet were punished by hearing speech that was not intelligible to them, so would it be this day.  Those who would not believe would hear “tongues,” and not be able to understand their wonderful meaning.

When tongues is looked at like this, as a sign to unbelievers, it becomes a means to judge or to discern unbelievers in the congregation.  Prophecy, by contrast, is directed to believers because it brings a message of God to those who want to hear it.  Furthermore, if unbelievers happen to walk in and hear people babbling in tongues, it does nothing to draw them to God, but if they walk in and hear a message of prophecy in a language they can understand, they might be led to God.

6.  Verses 26-33 (The Message)

26-33So here’s what I want you to do. When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight. If prayers are offered in tongues, two or three’s the limit, and then only if someone is present who can interpret what you’re saying. Otherwise, keep it between God and yourself. And no more than two or three speakers at a meeting, with the rest of you listening and taking it to heart. Take your turn, no one person taking over. Then each speaker gets a chance to say something special from God, and you all learn from each other. If you choose to speak, you’re also responsible for how and when you speak. When we worship the right way, God doesn’t stir us up into confusion; he brings us into harmony. This goes for all the churches—no exceptions.

34-36Wives must not disrupt worship, talking when they should be listening, asking questions that could more appropriately be asked of their husbands at home. God’s Book of the law guides our manners and customs here. Wives have no license to use the time of worship for unwarranted speaking. Do you—both women and men—imagine that you’re a sacred oracle determining what’s right and wrong? Do you think everything revolves around you?

As Leon Morris out, here in these verses we get a small glimpse into the way of the early Church and how they conducted their services.  We are struck, though, by the words of verses 34 and 35:

[W]omen should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. 35If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.  (NIV)

Misinterpretation of these verses abound.  Part of the problem is the preceding verse.  Most translators and scholars break verse 33 the way the NIV does; they make 33b the introduction to verse 34.  However, if we read verse 33 as one complete thought, it looks like this:

For God is not a God of disorder but of peace,  as in all the congregations of the saints.

With that reading, God is a God of order in all congregations.  However, the way the verse is parsed in many translations, it sounds as though the second phrase, “as in all the congregations of the saints,” applies not to an orderly God but to silent women.

Another observation: if we read verses 34 and 35 from the NRSV, it looks like this:

(As in all the churches of the saints, 34women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says. 35If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.* 36Or did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only ones it has reached?)

Notice that in the NRSV these verses are in parentheses.  Many scholars call this segment–the teaching about the conduct of women in the church service–a gloss, that is, an addition to the original Biblical text.  Though there is no MSS evidence to support this claim, there are some version that indicate the questionable nature of these verses by using parentheses or footnotes.  Verse 40 is also questionable in the minds of some translators.

If we assume that these verses to form part of Paul’s original thoughts, what does he mean?  Moffatt offers some valuable insight:

Paul never vetoed a devout woman from exercising, even at public worship, the prophetic gift which so many women in the primitive church enjoyed.  This prohibition refers to women taking part in the discussion or interpretation of s\what had been said by some prophet or teacher during the service.

Obviously this ban on women speaking in church cannot refer to an outright ban because that would contradict Paul’s teaching elsewhere–

And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is just as though her head were shaved. (1 Cor. 11:5  NIV)

We may also assume that everybody, men and women and younger members, sang hymns and worshiped together.  What Paul is saying, as Moffatt suggested, is that these Corinthian women should show respect for their husbands in accordance with the teachings of the Old Testament.  In other words, women were free to sing, to prophesy, and to worship in church but were forbidden to speak when their husbands spoke or taught or when prophecies were discussed.  Context is everything, especially with these kinds of verses which address situations and people long since faded away.

When Paul says that it is disgraceful, or shameful, for a woman to speak in church, he is differentiating between the home and the church.  In the privacy of one’s own home, wives may learn from their husbands.  But in a worship service, a wife who questions her husband about spiritual truths runs the risk of dishonoring him in the presence of the rest of the congregation.  Kistemaker observes that no pastor wishes to be criticized  by his wife in church; if she does, she undermines his ministry and is a disgrace to him.  Paul simply wants the women of Corinth to honor and respect their husbands in harmony with the Scriptures.

So we see that even this “difficult” teaching is another way to apply agape love within the body of Christ.