Dear friends,
Chapters 12-14 of 1 Corinthians are a unit. Paul uses one long argument that Paul is using. Most people think it is about spiritual gifts, but it’s much more about what he calls “the spirituals", whereas chapter 13 on the topic of love seems to have moved off topic. Chapter 14 brings us right back into the pointy end of the debate that Paul addresses. What of speaking in tongues? What of prophecy? What is the greater or higher gift? I hope you enjoy this chapter as Peter and I discuss it.
Yours,
Phillip
Phillip Jensen: Today and next week, we will be looking at 1 Corinthians 14, which is a terrific chapter which you would expect to be about the work of the Spirit, as it is part of this idea of ‘desiring spirituals’. But is it? I encourage you to read the book The Coming of the Holy Spirit1 that I wrote some years ago, published through Matthias Media. There are quite a few appendices in this book, including Appendix 11 which discusses speaking in tongues. We will quickly pass by that en route in this discussion, but if you want a fuller half-dozen pages on what speaking in tongues is about, I’d recommend that appendix.
We’re also going to talk about prophecy. Back in June this year, we held the King’s Birthday Conference during which we spoke on ‘Prophecy Today.’ If you would like to follow up on the subject of prophecy, the audio of these talks can be found at phillipjensen.com.
Prophecy and tongues are both involved in 1 Corinthians 14:1–19
Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.
Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me. So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.
Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.
Peter Jensen: This passage is dealing with a clutch of issues which we find hard to reconstruct, because the ancient world is something of a mystery to us. For instance, what did they actually do when they met as a church? Where is the pastor in all this? What ancient background noises are there? Is the world of the spirits a reality to them?
To understand this passage, I believe there are 5 doctrinal points on which Paul’s argument swings:
The preeminence of love in fellowship. As we saw in the conclusion of chapter 12, we are told, “But earnestly desire the higher gifts. I will show you a still more excellent way.” And 14:1 tells us, “Pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.”
Love that is dedicated to building up the church. We hear several times in this passage about this edifying of the church, particularly in 14:5 and 14:26.
Adult thinking; in 14:20, we are told, “In your thinking be mature.” He says the same thing in Ephesians 4:13 about becoming adults in the way we think.
Love of unbelievers; 14:25 tells us to reach out and seek the blessing of the gospel upon unbelievers.
Good order, which is key to the whole chapter, because the passage ends with these words, 14:40, “But all things should be done decently and in order.” They are sometimes neglected, because they’re the last words in the passage. But I tend to think that they’re important because of this.
So there are 5 pivots that the passage swings on, which have ongoing significance as we can understand them in our situation. But do you agree with my method? What would you take away from 1 Corinthians 14?
Phillip: By approaching it that way, you’ve avoided the context and close exegesis. I would say that your method is a lot easier, but is it what Paul wanted to communicate, or what we want to know? Answering our own questions can raise their importance when in fact, Paul may not be talking about what we think is important; or he may only be doing so tangentially. Therefore, we’re missing what is being said, and so we can distort Paul’s teaching in looking for our questions to be answered. For example, you talk of the love of unbelievers in 14:25, but that verse is specifically talking about what happens if an outsider comes into the church. If you’re speaking in tongues, he’ll think you’re mad, but if you’re speaking prophetically, he may well get converted. Though you and I both believe in the importance of loving the unbelievers, that is not what Paul is talking about here.
As to your choice of 5 doctrinal points, they’re fairly good given the method, but there are other questions you could raise. Your method avoids, for example, the hard answers about what he’s saying about tongues. Paul is talking so negatively about tongues that towards the end of the chapter, he has to clarify, “Do not forbid speaking in tongues.”
Peter: I’d like to defend myself slightly. See, the tongue-speaking phenomenon that we have today is relatively recent. For hundreds of years, it never appeared. So does this chapter then get consigned into the dustbin of history because it’s talking about tongues? What I’m trying to do is to see him grappling with this issue and find out why he decides what he does about the issue. That’s why I’m looking for these axioms, these things that have ongoing significance—not just about tongues, but about all sorts of things.
Phillip: I was in an Arabic-speaking church which had a translator, and in that experience I saw the wisdom of what Paul is saying here about the practicality of not having more than two or three translations, because even one translation took such a long time. Even the jokes were so dreadfully destroyed by the lack of timing involved in translation.
Peter: You should never joke when you’re being translated. Very unwise indeed. But as for the context, which I happen to agree with you on, we’ve looked at chapter 12, concentrating on the points at hand rather than the details of, for example, what tongue speaking is these days. Again, your book The Coming of the Holy Spirit talks about this subject. The main point of chapter 12 is that all have to be blessed; that the exercise of gifts is for the blessing of all, so that no one has all the gifts. The gifts that we do have are to be used for the good of others.
You made an important point in an earlier episode about 12:1, which we’ll come back to in looking at chapter 14. The word is ‘the spirituals’ rather than ‘spiritual gifts’ or even ‘spiritual persons’. What impact does that have? Then, of course, the chapter makes its main point that we are to love each other. The gifts aren’t given — this is a particularly important point for our generation, the gifts are not given as a way of self-identification or self-authentication, but as a way of service motivated by love of others. In fact, whether you have the gift or not doesn’t matter, in a sense. You see the need, you seek to meet the need, and hence you discover that you are gifted to do so. But the gift is not the important thing. It’s the need and your love for others. That’s how I saw our treatment of chapter 12.
Phillip: That’s a good comment. That teaching is true as far as it goes, but I think the context with the Corinthians is more about the spirituals. You see, our translators are terrific. We can be very thankful that we have such good, godly, intelligent, and capable translations into modern English. But they do try to make it easier for us to understand. As a result, in 12:1 and 14:1, they’ve added the word ‘gifts’, which is not in the original. In 14:12, they added the phrase ‘gifts of the Spirit’, though our translation has gone for ‘manifestations of the Spirit’. What are the spirituals? What are the Corinthians concerned about? In our secular world, we minimise all spiritual realities as we give materialistic answers to all questions. But they lived in the age of supernatural spirits; to them, the supernatural was very much emphasised. So 14:12 presents a problem in the translation of the text, because while our translation says, “eager for manifestation of the Spirit,” the original says, “eager for spirits.” They lived in a world of angels, gods, and demons, and so they were interested in the spirits. So the context of what he says in chapter 12 is that there is only one Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who makes us confess that Jesus is the Christ, and gives in fellowship with the Father and the Son all the different gifts for the common good.
Peter: So you’ve demonstrated the importance of context and exegesis. I concede those points, though I hope you think my points are not unimportant. Proceed with chapter 14.
Phillip: Chapter 14 starts with contrasts. First, there is the contrast between speaking in tongues and speaking in prophecy. 14:2, “For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit.”
It’s like if I were to speak to God in Spanish. You do not understand Spanish; therefore, I wouldn’t be speaking to you. Likewise, speaking in tongues is not beneficial to others like prophecy is. Prophecy is for upbuilding, encouragement, and consolation, but speaking in tongues is for me to have a private conversation with God. So in doing that, I am building myself rather than building the church. Building the self is not what is being commended here; it’s being put down in contrast to building the church. So Paul’s desire for tongues is exceeded by his desire for prophecy, because prophecy is greater.
Remember back to 12:31, “Earnestly desire the higher gifts.” The translators have written, ‘higher’ instead of ‘greater’ as in chapter 14, even though the original word was the exact same in both chapters. But by translating it ‘higher’ in chapter 12 and ‘greater’ in chapter 14, people miss the connection. So now we know he is going to show you the greater gifts. How do you determine one gift is greater than another? The answer is that the gift that is exercised in love is the greater one. Speaking in tongues is not an exercise in love unless there’s interpretation or translation. So prophecy is always greater than tongue speaking, because prophecy is the one that fulfils love.
So the end of chapter 12 poses the question. Chapter 13 gives you the criterion for greatness, and then chapter 14 applies that criterion in this series of contrasts in the opening 5 verses.
Peter: So fundamentally, we don’t mark the being of a church by tongues or prophecy or other gifts, but by the word of God and love, which the gifts exist to serve. Is that a good way of putting it?
Phillip: Yes. John 13:35 says, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” That is the mark of the true church, not whichever gifts you are or are not using at any one time. But if you love one another, you’ll use those gifts in a loving way.
Peter: Having opened with these words, he now moves in 14:6 to illustrations. How do tongues benefit just on their own without interpretation? Indeed, how do prophecy and teaching benefit? If there’s no knowledge and understanding, it is like Paul’s illustration of instruments with indistinct notes, like bugles that sound but don’t actually gather the troops. Unintelligible speech is just noise, like when I sometimes overhear people speaking in a foreign language. They are enjoying their conversation, but to me it just sounds garbled.
By the way, I presume Paul must have spoken two or three languages. He wouldn’t come and speak Hebrew or Aramaic to the Corinthians. That’s speaking in tongues. Languages have meanings, but of course those who don’t have that language don’t understand the meanings; therefore, it is of no use in church unless it’s interpreted. The conclusion of this section is 14:13, “Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret.” I take ‘tongues’ to mean speaking a foreign language.
Phillip: Yes. The angels may have a language—that’s the only reference that’s beyond just a human foreign language in chapter 14—but that’s a rhetorical usage. The phrase ‘speaking in tongues’ is not used very much in the New Testament, but when it is described in chapter 2, it’s clearly meant to mean speaking a foreign language, as happened in Acts 2.
Peter: 14:12 redirects the Corinthian misunderstanding of spirits, saying, “Since you are eager for manifestations of spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.”
Phillip: There are all kinds of spirits, and people who have this spiritual worldview are eager to get these gods, angels, demons, etc. to be actively involved in their life. But what we’re concerned about is building the church, and intelligent communication of the wisdom and understanding of God and his word is what works. It’s like those churches that pray to saints, attributing different saints to different purposes. St. Christopher is the Saint of Travellers, and St. Luke is the Saint of Medicines, and so on—rubbish. There is the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is the point. The Holy Spirit has given us different gifts, and we are to use them for building the church. Tongue speaking with interpretation can build the church, but without interpretation, it can’t, because it’s unintelligible to the church. Prophecy, however, will build the church, because it’s the very nature of speaking God’s word.
Peter: Yes, and we’ll think more about prophecy next week, because the answer is yes, but not always. There are such things as false prophets.
Phillip: But everything we do must have this sense of the mind. I remember that John Stott book, Your Mind Matters,2 where he traces through the New Testament about the importance of the Christian mind. Your mind must be fruitful, and it will be fruitful if it understands what is being said. But there’s no fruitfulness in going to church and not understanding anything that is being said. The kinds of songs which do not in any way reflect the truth of the scriptures are really unhelpful.
But there are songs which are full of the truths of the gospel, and as we sing them many times, our minds as well as our hearts are filled. Music is very emotional, but it connects our emotions to our mind, our mind to our emotions, and our fellowship for the benefit of others. As Paul says in 14:19, “Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.”
The absurdity of this statement is like if I were to offer you 5 cents if you’ll give me $100 in return. It’s worth having 5 words that address the mind, compared to 10,000 words.
Peter: What is your summary of this section?
Phillip: We’ve been challenged, at the end of chapter 12, to seek the greater gifts. We’ve been told by chapter 13 what the greater gifts are: the ones that are most loving. In chapter 14, we discuss 2 gifts: prophecy and tongue speaking. Quite clearly, prophecy is the greater of the 2, because it always engages the mind. Whereas tongue speaking, unless it’s translated, doesn’t address the mind at all, and therefore in church, it’s not loving to speak in tongues.
Peter: As we shall discover next week, unless you tell me I’m wrong here, prophecy too has its limitations.
How do you see modern churches—the ones we’re familiar with—fulfilling the underlying pattern of this? Are we doing what the Apostle wants us to do in our church life?
Phillip: There is a great division in churches at this point. When people say, “Your church is too cerebral,” I say, “I know what you mean if what you mean is ‘academically detached from real life.’ But if you mean ‘It’s too much about what you think and understand,’ then you can’t be too cerebral.” Because the gospel is addressed to the mind as well as to the heart. The activities of church are mental activities, and so we need to be wary of the church gathering that is structured to stir emotions, but doesn’t address the mind for our encouragement, rebuke, building, and consolation. You’re not loving people if you’re leaving them in mindless Christianity, because we’ve got to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. So those churches which emphasise, exhibit, and participate in experientialism rather than in addressing the mind of a person are not loving, even though they mean to be.
Peter: What about the sort of churches you and I might go to? Do you think that we exhibit love?
Phillip: Yes and no. One of the things about the great commandment, “Love your neighbour as yourself,” is that you can never fulfil it as a sinful person. I haven’t stolen or committed adultery, but when you have the open-ended commandment to love, you never finally fulfil that. There is always room for improvement. Furthermore, love is not “I love you.” Love is about doing what is loving for you. There is a sense of superficial love we see in many places. I see it in politicians who say, “I love you all,” as they speak to a crowd of 10,000. If they really loved them, they’d sit down and shut up. The love we’re talking about is the love of the Lord Jesus Christ who died for us. And yes, I do see that in our churches with people making real sacrifices for those in our congregations. But I don’t see enough of it. But I think that’s true of me, not just the congregation.
Peter: This passage is not addressed to pastors. It’s addressed to the congregation, to everybody. We don’t build each other up as much as we should, but we do build each other up. And we are seeing mature adult Christians as a result of the preaching of the Word and the love we have with each other, particularly exhibited in speaking the truth in love.
Phillip: Yes, but the command of the passage is to “Pursue love and earnestly desire the spirituals, especially that you may prophesy.” It’s not about what has happened in the past; it is about what we must now do.
Phillip D. Jensen, The Coming of the Holy Spirit, 2022 (Matthias Media)
John Stott, Your Mind Matters: The Place of the Mind in the Christian Life, 2006 (Inter-Varsity Press).
Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Links & Recommendations
For more on this topic, check out this talk. It’s called Seek the Higher Gifts.
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