1 Corinthians 14:6-12

"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."

In what wonderful condition our churches would be if everyone in them was “eager for manifestations of the Spirit.” Too often other less important pursuits occupy our affections. How different our churches would be if every member would daily seek the mind of God through prayer and daily would allow the Holy Spirit to teach and discipline him as He manifests Himself to us through God's Word. We would do well to copy the Corinthian’s desire for evidences of the Spirit’s work and power in our lives.

And we would do well to use what the Holy Spirit teaches us to actively strive to build up the church! These verse emphasize the need for whatever spiritual ministry we are given to be for the “building up [of] the church.” If something does not build up the church it cannot be called ministry and quite often it should be abandoned. Unintelligible, untranslated speech doesn’t communicate anything to others; it’s like “speaking into the air.” That kind of so-called ministry does not build up the church and is not really ministry at all.

1 Corinthians 14:3-5

"On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their up-building 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."

God attributes greater value to selfless ministry than to self-absorbed indulgence. We do need to take time for personal refreshment and enrichment, but personal development should lead to the ability to glorify God better through ministry in His church. For this reason, the gift of tongues, if not interpreted, was inferior to the ministry of prophesy --the proclamation of truth.

When sharing God's truth with someone you can see God mature them, help them remain faithful, or comfort them when they are hurting. But if you talk to someone in a language they don't understand, the words are worthless. You are no help to them at all. How then shall we love? How then shall we minister? We must minister through words people can understand.

This is not to say that tongues were worthless. They had a purpose, but the gift had to be used the right way for it to fulfill its purpose.

1 Corinthians 14:1-2

"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."

Remembering that the desire for and the use of spiritual gifts should be motivated by selfless love, Paul draws the attention of the Corinthian believers to consider the use of the most coveted gift and most abused gift in that congregation.

Everyone wanted to speak in tongues. Admittedly, it's a pretty cool gift. I'd like to just head over to Romania and start proclaiming God's love in Romanian right away without any study, and when I meet a Hungarian, immediately be able to give him the gospel in Hungarian (the language my wife believes sounds like alien—as in little green men from Mars --alien). That would be a wonderful gift. But verse two indicates that the gift of tongues wasn't always used in a way that God intended the gift to be used.

Verse two is where most cessationists (those who believe that the gift of tongues was a temporary gift for specific miraculous time) believe that Paul is talking about something other than the true gift of tongues. Here tongues seems to be not a human language but a mystical-heavenly language.

This differs from the way the gift of tongues seems to be defined in Acts. In that book, tongues was the ability to speak an unlearned language to communicate God's message to people of a language other than one's native tongue. Whether verse 2 is speaking of a different type of the gift of tongues or of a perversion of the true gift, at the very least, the gift was being misused.

Later in this chapter we will see that the presence of at least an interpreter is still required by scripture even if the gift of tongues is a heavenly language at times. Either way, the gift of tongues was not for a speaker's own benefit but for the benefit of the church. So if the Corinthian tongues speakers were speaking to God alone and no one understood them, they were not exercising the gift as it was intended.

1 Corinthians 14

Finally, I have reached the most controversial of these three chapters dealing with spiritual gifts—the tongues chapter. I have heard several different attempts to explain this fourteenth chapter. None of them have fully satisfied me.

1. Those who believe tongues have ceased, argue that the word tongue or tongues is used three different ways in this chapter (spoken languages, heavenly languages, and nonsense babble that is falsely believed to be a spiritual gift), but this explanation offers no textual indication of which way was used when, and this interpretation seems to force fore-drawn conclusions on the text.

2. Another cessationist view claims that there is a textual distinction between the way Paul uses "tongue" and "tongues," the first being a mystical language—that is really a perversion of the true gift, and the second being the true New Testament gift, the supernatural ability to speak in a foreign language without study. This interpretation makes a bit more sense, but it fails to work consistently throughout this chapter and much less through the entirety of the New Testament.

3. A common non-cessationist's view to consider holds that all of the occurrences of the terms tongue and tongues speak mostly of the mystical language, but occasionally speak of a foreign language. This view also suffers from a lack of consistency, and unfortunately those who take this view most commonly, although not exclusively, abandon the guidelines in this chapter for use of the gift.

The best understanding of the chapter comes from a consideration of its meaning within the context of chapters twelve and thirteen. In chapter twelve, God reveals that He gifts people in many different ways and that we should be content with the gift that God gives us, using it to selflessly serve the church. Chapter thirteen explains why we should use our gifts to selflessly serve—the spiritually meaningful motivation of love. Now in chapter fourteen, the Bible addresses a specific application of this truth, indicating that the exercise of our spiritual gift in the church should benefit others. If we focus on this truth and always strive to edify the believers with our gifts, then wrangling about what tongues is becomes much less of an issue. If it can be used in obedience to Scripture and for the edification of the saints, then we must not forbid it, but if it is not used in obedience to the scriptures and it does not build of the Saints then it must be abandoned.

1 Corinthians 13:9-13

"For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

Our knowledge and understanding are not complete. But God has given us all we need to know to be rightly related to Him at this time. Though His word, we know quite a lot about God, but we do not know everything. We have many questions because God's Word contains many paradoxes. For now, these mysteries remain, but there will be a time when our understanding of God will go far beyond its current level.

Then we will have full knowledge. When we look at a child's limited understanding of the world, it often results in chuckles and smiles for us. Someday when we are face to face with our Savior, we will look back on our limited understanding and think "I knew nothing at all." And if we, in heaven, were to look upon our desire for gifts that would increase our influence, we would realize that we were pursuing the wrong thing. We should have been pursuing things that last. Faith lasts; hope lasts; love lasts. Let's pursue what is best—love.