Dear friends,
The second half of 1 Corinthians 14 gives us great insight into the nature of church life. Having addressed the subject of prophecy and tongues in the light of love, Paul now discusses their use specifically in the church. We know from the first half of the chapter that prophecy is greater than tongue-speaking, because of its edifying effect. But what is the effect of speaking in tongues in church? And how should we conduct it, if we have tongue-speaking at all?
Three times in this passage, Paul tells people to be silent. What does that mean and why does he want silence in church? As our ministries in church are to be conducted in love, so also we see here they are to be conducted in accordance with the character of God—not chaotically, but decently and in order. What does it mean and how are we to do it? I hope you enjoy this episode of Two Ways News and remember to subscribe and share it with your friends.
Yours,
Phillip
Phillip Jensen: Today, we will look again at 1 Corinthians 14, this time dealing with the second half of the chapter, verses 20–40. Last week, we saw that prophecy is greater than tongues because of its loving characteristic, its intelligibility, and its fellowship, which all come together to build the church. But in the second half of the chapter, Paul turns his attention much more directly to church itself, particularly towards how we operate. He still touches on the issue of prophecy and tongues, but he’s now focusing on the effect inside the church. Before we read the passage, what are your thoughts?
Peter Jensen: The pivotal issues of this passage are that we’re to love, to build up the church, to think like adults, to show love for unbelievers, and to have order in church; for God is a God of peace, and a God of order.
Phillip: That last point touches me in some ways. Because of my revolutionary character, the concept of order as being a fundamental part of church is not given to my personality, yet it’s there in the scriptures and we need to understand it properly.
Peter: 1 Corinthians 14:20–40
Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God. Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.
As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.
Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached? If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. If anyone does not recognise this, he is not recognised. So, my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. But all things should be done decently and in order.
Phillip: This is a great chapter that has caused considerable heartache within the last generation or so, as people have tried to wrestle with the issues raised here. I was reminded of the fact that the word ‘Spirit’, as in ‘Holy Spirit’, does not occur in chapter 14. That’s extraordinary, because when you ask people where in the New Testament you’re going to find out about the Holy Spirit, people say, “Chapters 12–14.” But the Holy Spirit is only referred to in the first half of chapter 12. ‘Spiritual’ is there, as are ‘spirits’, but not the ‘Holy Spirit.’
I also have a problem, though this is my problem and not that of the translators. That is, 14:20, “Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.” It’s a perfectly good translation. But it used to say, “In understanding, be men.” I like that because that was the title of a great book by T.C. Hammond,1 of which you and I, in our first year at Moore College, studied carefully. In fact, the doctrine lecturing of Broughton Knox was based on that book.
Peter: It was. I have about 3 different editions at home, with comments in the margins. We read it before we came to college, but then Dr. Knox led us through it. T.C. Hammond, for those who don’t know, was the principal of Moore College from about 1936–1953, when his place was taken by Marcus Loane. He was a great teacher, a very knowledgeable man, and a great lecturer. He wrote this book, in a way addressed to university students, on Christian doctrine. It’s not like a novel; you can consult it and read bits and pieces from it. If you’ve never seen it, it may be worth picking it up sometime and having a look. Mind you, part of his method as a teacher was to have some other great textbook there on the 39 Articles, for example, and to go through and to criticise it. I’m saying that because his book In Understanding be Men was used by Dr. Knox for over 20 years. While Dr. Knox mainly agreed with the book, he would pause sometimes and say things like, “I think the Archdeacon is wrong there.” Additionally, because T.C. wrote this book on his way to Australia from Ireland, Dr. Knox would sometimes pause and say, “The Archdeacon must have been seasick when he wrote that.” These are unforgettable and useless things that you hear in lectures sometimes.
Phillip: Indeed; us talking about our history at Moore College is important, because it’s the history of evangelicalism here in Sydney. But it doesn’t help us to understand what 1 Corinthians 14 is saying.
Here, the passage says that Christian maturity is important. As sinners, our knowledge of sin should be that of the naive baby; but as thinking people, we need Christian maturity. We need it particularly in this passage, because many people misunderstand it terribly regarding talking “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners.” But it’s relatively simple to understand as he alludes to Isaiah 28. If you walked through the streets of Sydney today, and the 2 languages you heard were Japanese and German, you’d have to wonder who won the Second World War.
Peter: You wouldn’t have to wonder who won the Second World War.
Phillip: That is correct. You see, the language of the conquering culture is imposed upon the oppressed people, and so in this passage, speaking in foreign languages is for unbelievers—not for their conversion, but for their condemnation: for declaring to them that they are not in touch with God. Prophecy, on the other hand, is for believers and for people coming to belief. People often think that speaking in tongues is for unbelievers that they may get converted, whereas prophecy is for believers. But the paragraph is actually saying something very different. That is, speaking in tongues is the condemnation of the unbeliever; whereas speaking in prophecy is for believers, that if an unbeliever hears, they will come to faith as well.
Peter: Paul wants prophecy under those circumstances.
Phillip, we’ve been talking about these things now for several weeks, but you must now explain yourself. What do you mean by ‘speaking in tongues’ and ‘prophecy’? In a sense, these are not the most important things of this chapter; it’s Paul’s answer to these things that really matters. Some people think of these passages as simply describing church, but he goes to the essence of the matter by talking about building up the church in love.
Phillip: Paul knew what he was talking about, as did the Corinthians, so he doesn’t spend any time explaining what he’s talking about regarding prophecy and tongues.
As for the definition of ‘tongues’, the short answer is that it means speaking in foreign languages. Appendix 11 in the book The Coming of the Holy Spirit2 will take you through the details of why I come to that conclusion, of which I am quite convinced. It’s not ecstatic utterances. The word ‘tongues’ is sometimes translated as ‘languages’, and certainly the one place in which it is described, namely Acts 2, means foreign languages.
A few months ago at the King’s Birthday Conference, I spoke on the subject of prophecy. I’m also writing an article on it at the moment, which will come out in a few weeks’ time. But in simple terms, ‘prophecy’ is claiming to speak for God. False prophets are still prophets. Paul calls Epimenides a prophet as he quotes him in Titus 1, because even though he’s a false prophet, he fits in the category of prophet. The Bible is not really interested in defining what a prophet is; it focuses on discerning between the true prophets and the false prophets. The essence of true prophecy is found in Revelation 19:10, where the angel declares, “For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” That particular verse can be translated and understood in 2 ways: either the essence of prophecy is testimony of Jesus, or the Holy Spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. But either way, prophecy is about Jesus. All of the Old Testament prophets pointed to Jesus, and New Testament prophecy is about him as well. So why don’t we turn to its implications for what should happen in church?
Peter: Paul doesn’t set down a liturgy, but he tells us the essence of what should happen. It will occur in different ways depending on where you are, of course. But 14:23–25 tells us that church is a gathering of God’s people around the Word of God, in the presence of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Phillip: But it’s not a secret cult that only believers are allowed to enter.
Peter: Certainly not. Indeed, one of the important points about church, generally speaking, is that it should be a public occasion, and anyone who wishes to should be able to come in and see what’s going on. But the saints—the ones who truly believe in the Lord Jesus—are gathered in order to meet the Lord Jesus in his Word by the power of his Spirit, and to love one another.
When he talks about all people speaking in tongues, it doesn’t mean that everybody is doing it spontaneously; it’s an activity of the church. ‘All’ is an ambiguous word, but here it means that the congregation hears the tongue-speaking, and they listen attentively and so forth. And if they do, their conclusion will be that you’re quite mad. It’s in a sense a judgement on them. At the coming of the Assyrians into Samaria in the 8th century, speaking the language of the Assyrians was a sign of judgement. So is speaking in tongues also a sign of judgement? It doesn’t help them. If they hear prophecy, however, Paul says they may well be convicted of their sin, fall on their faces and worship God. So there’s no question as to whether prophecy or tongues matters there.
Phillip: Following this up with the point made in 14:26, we come together as a church, and each one has a contribution to bring. Of course, you’ve got to be careful about how hard you push this. Does this mean that every person in church, out of the thousands who turn up, all must make a contribution? No. We should not become legalistic in the reading of this sentence. It’s saying that anyone can bring important things: hymns, lessons, a revelation, a tongue, an interpretation. There are 2 principles that he’s laying out.
All that is to be done is for building the church.
As 14:33 says, “God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.” Therefore, as he says in 14:40, “All things must be done decently and in order.” In other words, the church must be appropriate and orderly.
So the idea of a wild, frenetic meeting is the opposite of the character of God, and therefore of God’s church. In 1994, there was an event known as the Toronto Blessing, where it was said that people had this “influx of the Spirit”, whereby they started to roll around the floor laughing, barking, screaming, and yelling, all at the same time. But God is a God of order and peace, not a God of giggling and laughter across the church front.
Peter: By the way, Tony Payne has just written a book on church, Let the Word Dwell Richly3 which I recommend.
You rightly point out that everyone brings something to church. Does that mean that everyone must use their gifts in some way? Well, the first gift in coming to church is to be there.
Phillip: Yes, especially regarding mothers of young babies.
Peter: I can’t believe how people make such an effort to be there—bless them! That’s a great victory. But your absence from church, while it may only be noticed by some people, matters. Your presence in church matters. Seeing you stand up and sing matters. The conversations you have afterwards matter. The way you go about getting morning tea matters. There’s a whole host of things where your giftedness is expressed in loving service. So it’s not a matter of everybody having to prophesy in order to be wanted in church. The loving use of gifts is about building each other up, speaking the truth in love to each other, caring for one another, and noticing the absence of some people.
Phillip: Indeed. It’s now difficult in our particular society—or at least the section of society I live in—to have people coming every Sunday, because there are always people travelling for work or for pleasure. There are so many alternatives, such as sport or other activities, which we shouldn’t be doing. It is really important that people have a default position that they’re going to church, and only have extraordinary reasons to break from it.
Peter: Do you remember what the late Archbishop Donald Robinson used to do when he was the principal of Moore College? If he wasn’t going to be at his local church on Sunday, he would apologise for his absence. I was blown away by that.
Phillip: In our church, we’ve had 2 recent converts, and that’s what they do. It’s very interesting that they apologise to the rector when they’re going to be away, but the old-timers don’t necessarily apologise. But I think there’s a truth in that we should.
Peter: Interesting. Now please talk about the implications for tongue-speaking and prophecy.
Phillip: Having said what church is about in verse 26, Paul then addresses the issue of tongues. He says that it shouldn’t be done unless there’s a guaranteed interpreter. That means you’re not going to just get carried away by speaking in tongues; you’ve got to know before you start speaking that there is going to be an interpreter who can translate and interpret what you’re saying. Furthermore, even if there is an interpreter ready to go, only 2-3 people should be speaking in tongues. As I suggested last week when I talked about being in an Arabic church, sitting through a sermon which is being translated is very difficult. When I was preaching in South America, I had my words translated into Spanish, and again, it’s difficult not just in terms of the length of time, but the communication. That’s why Paul makes it clear that just 3 people at the most should be speaking in tongues, and certainly not all at the same time. There is a place for speaking in a foreign language in a church: 2–3 people, and only when you’re assured that there will be a translation, and only one at a time so that everybody can be heard.
Peter: There are different ways of doing that these days. In our church, for example, we now have about 26 different ethnicities or nationalities in our congregation, which is absolutely wonderful. In order to help people who speak Mandarin far better than they speak English, we are able to have the translation done before church and hand it out. I have also seen churches in which a group of foreign speakers at the back would translate the service. That is tongue-speaking done for a good reason and in a way which actually works.
Phillip: I used to have a Korean man who was so clever that he would type up my sermon in Korean on the screen while I was speaking, so that the Korean speakers could read what I was saying.
Peter: That is brilliant. These are wonderful gifts of our day. I also think it’s absolutely terrific that our Archbishop is of Sri Lankan heritage.
Phillip: As are 2 of our bishops, and some of the lecturers at Moore College, also of non-Anglo heritage.
Peter: Yes, we are seeing the nations coming into our churches. Long may it continue.
Phillip: Back to the subject of prophecy. Again, he says 2–3 people should prophesy, but he doesn’t say ‘only’ this time. I think he’s saying that it’s not as if everybody brings their prophecy to the church; rather, 2–3 people prophesy, and the others (though it’s hard to know whether he means ‘other prophets’ or ‘other members of the congregation’) weigh what is being said. That is, they listen with discerning hearts and minds to what is being said; but more importantly, you’re not to have 2 prophets speaking at the same time. The rest are not to talk, so that all may hear, all may learn, and all may be encouraged. This teaching has been so profound in Christian circles, and in our circles in particular, that it is almost unimaginable that we would have 2–3 preachers at the same time in our churches. It’s just considered bad manners amongst everything else, but I have been in the context where people do not stop and listen to each other, where they all talk over each other simultaneously and don’t listen. That is not the way to run church.
Peter: Here’s a question for another time, though we won’t pursue it now. I am presuming that teaching and prophecy are not exactly the same things, though there is overlap, and our practice of having a teacher teaching us in a sermon is fundamental. The preaching of the word of God is, after all, essential to church. Prophecy is something else. How do we exercise that in church? I think it’s a question which we’ll have to ask some other time.
Phillip: When I went to a church in America, the sermon only went for 10 minutes. I felt short-changed, but then the whole congregation proceeded to go to the hall where they had one hour-long lecture. We spend too much time trying to define ‘prophecy’ and ‘teaching’ when the exercise of church life can be quite different. That was an edifying way of running church, but different to the way in which I’ve ever seen it run here in Sydney.
Peter: How do we see prophets and prophecy in our churches?
Phillip: I see prophets as those who speak of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Peter: Does this include when we talk to each other after church?
Phillip: Yes, that’s prophesying.
Peter: Would you have it from the platform in addition to the sermon?
Phillip: Yes, or it could be part of the sermon. Definitional problems arise in part because we’re being overly precise, as you said. But there’s huge overlap between these activities.
Peter: The last subject is on silence in the church, because Paul appeals to the idea of silence, but the word is not as absolute as it sounds. It just means to stop talking.
Phillip: When the second person gets up to talk, the first one’s got to stop talking.
Peter: Yes, because we’re always in danger of trying to work out exactly what it means and being rather pharisaic. We’ve established what speaking in tongues means. But in terms of 14:30, what do you mean when you say that the word ‘is’ is wrong?
Phillip: 14:30, “If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent.” I think ‘another’ refers to a prophet who is sitting there because he’s a preacher too. In ancient synagogues and churches, you stood to listen, and the preacher sat down to preach. That’s why the cathedral is seen as ‘the seat of the bishop’, because that’s where the bishop literally sat to teach. In Luke 4, Jesus, having read from Isaiah, sits down and starts speaking. The preacher sitting is so foreign to our way of thinking that we misread what the verse is talking about here, and so it’s made worse by the fact that it’s translated in the present tense rather than the past tense. So it should say, “If a revelation was made to another sitting there.” It’s not that he’s just suddenly got a revelation; he’s already come to church with a revelation, as is mentioned back in 14:26. Now that he has his revelation, the first one sits down, and the second one gives the revelation that he already had when he came to church. But the key point is that one person speaks at a time, so all can listen and learn. Prophecy is a desirable thing, so we want everyone to prophesy. But prophets are the ones who are good at prophesying.
Peter: Yes, that’s a good distinction because we’ve all got to speak the truth in love to each other.
Phillip: We all can prophesy and we all can teach one another, and we do so in songs. Yet there are teachers who are particularly gifted in doing it.
Peter: Indeed. We now come to the most controversial bit of all, and that is what he then says about women. 1 Corinthians 14:33–35
As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.
What on earth does this mean, and why say it now?
Phillip: To be silent is the posture of learning. We see silence as being prohibitive, when in fact we are to learn in quietness and silence. That’s why we are all to be silent while the speaker speaks, so that we can learn, and the women also are being encouraged to be learning. Others have got commentaries which give all kinds of explanations as to what it means here. But I think they’re all desperately trying to make this acceptable within our cultural milieu of today. So they will say, for instance, that the women were gossiping in the back rows, and so he’s telling the women who gossip to stop gossiping.
Peter: That’s not what the text is saying; it’s a bit implausible.
Phillip: Others say that the word ‘saying’ has a special meaning here. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. It’s the same meaning as the others. Or some have said that the women shouldn’t be involved in weighing the judgement. But they should. We should all actually be discerning what is being said. So what is he saying?
The first thing you notice is that he says, “As in all the churches of the saints.” That is, this is a universal practice, at least among the Jewish churches. In fact, 14:37 says that if you’re not going to go along with this, you’re not going to be recognised as spiritual. That’s a big claim here that he is making about the importance of this silence of the women. But why? It’s got to do with the order of creation.
Speaking out at this point is in opposition to submission. Because when we learn, we are to learn in quietness and submission, and she is to be, at this point in church, in submission, for the Law itself teaches this. If she has questions, she goes home and asks her husband about what should be done. Because the Law teaches shame before God came in the Fall in Genesis 3, so to exercise church in a way that reinforces the shameful rebellion of Genesis 3 is not following God in his order and decency. In fact, this passage argues similarly to the other passages about men and women in learning, like 1 Timothy 2 on the subject of teaching, and 1 Corinthians 11 about the created order. In each of these, God has created men and women in particular orderliness for his purposes which we find back in Genesis 2. And when men and women are together in church, you do not suspend the order of creation; you reinforce it. So for men to be speaking is one thing, but for women to be speaking is another thing. The role is learning at this point, not teaching with authority, as in 1 Timothy 2.
Peter: I think that speaks to this passage. To make other suggestions without recognising the appeal to Law, for example, is to undermine the passage itself. But then there is the question which you and I will differ on, at the moment at least, that arises in chapter 11 about prophecy. This one appeals to the Law in the sense that men are to have one appearance and women another. In other words, the 2 sexes cannot be confused. But there is a disagreement that we have on the task of prophecy. I’ve listened to the King’s Birthday Conference speech that you’ve made on this, and if you want to follow that up, you’ll see why we differ. But bearing that in mind, I’m going to suggest you may have the last word.
Phillip: I do not believe 1 Corinthians 11:2–16 is about church. I think it is about life, where men and women pray and prophesy. I do not limit prophesying and prayer to church, and there is no reference to church in that passage, or to activities within church. 11:17–18 shifts the direction of the discussion to church. So I do not think it is about church. But what is important to me is that when people see it in terms of church, they then read chapter 14 as a contradiction between chapter 11 and chapter 14, and spend their time trying to resolve the contradiction. Having been liberated from thinking chapter 11 is about church, my mind is free to see what chapter 14 itself is saying, and come across the thing that I didn’t want it to say. That is, “Everything must be done decently and in order.”
Peter: No doubt, we’ll pick up that discussion some other time. What challenges would you offer to church as a result of 1 Corinthians 14?
Phillip: I would say it is time for me to reconsider the meaning of decency and order.
T.C. Hammond, In Understanding Be Men, 1936 (InterVarsity Press).
Phillip D. Jensen, The Coming of the Holy Spirit, 2022 (Matthias Media).
Tony Payne, Let the Word Dwell Richly, 2026 (Matthias Media).
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 to Prophesy.
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