Commentary - 1 Corinthians 14:6-12

Bird's-eye view

In this passage, the Apostle Paul continues his master class on the proper function of the church, and particularly the corporate worship service. Having established the supremacy of love in chapter 13, he now applies that standard to the spiritual gifts that were being misused in Corinth. The central issue is one of intelligibility. The Corinthians were infatuated with the more spectacular gifts, particularly speaking in tongues, and were exercising them in a disorderly and self-aggrandizing way. Paul's argument is devastatingly simple: a gift that no one can understand is a gift that does no one any good. He is not against spiritual gifts; he is against useless spiritual gifts. The overriding purpose of any utterance in the assembly of the saints is edification, the building up of the church. If the saints are not being built up, then whatever is happening is not worship, but rather a pious form of selfish noise. Paul uses a series of common-sense analogies from music and warfare to drive his point home. An instrument without distinct notes is just a racket, and a trumpet with an uncertain sound summons no one to battle. In the same way, a tongue without an interpretation is just speaking into the air. The goal is not mystical experience for the individual, but the clear communication of God's truth for the benefit of all.

This entire section is a robust defense of what we might call the rationality of worship. Christian worship is not a descent into mindless ecstasy; it is an engagement of the whole person, mind included, with the living God. The principle is clear: God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. Therefore, His worship should reflect that character. The ultimate aim is for the church to be built up, strengthened, and equipped. Any practice that hinders this, no matter how "spiritual" it may seem, is to be set aside for the greater good of the body.

Outline

Context In 1 Corinthians

This passage sits in the heart of a three-chapter section (12-14) addressing the proper use of spiritual gifts in the church at Corinth. This was a church gifted in every way (1 Cor 1:7), but also a church rife with division, pride, and carnality (1 Cor 3:1). Their giftedness had become a source of spiritual arrogance. Chapter 12 lays the groundwork, teaching that all gifts come from one Spirit and are for the common good of the one body. Chapter 13 is the great pivot, showing that love is the "more excellent way" and the necessary context for the use of any gift. Without love, the most spectacular gifts are nothing more than noise. Chapter 14, where our text lies, is the practical application of these principles to the chaos of their worship services. Paul's primary concern is to rein in the abuse of tongues and to elevate the gift of prophecy, precisely because prophecy is intelligible and therefore edifying. This entire argument is a course correction, moving the Corinthians away from individualistic spiritual experiences and toward a corporate understanding of worship where the building up of the church is the highest priority.

Key Issues

The Construction Zone

Paul is constantly after edification. He uses the word group for building up (oikodomeo) repeatedly throughout this section. The worship service is a construction zone. When the saints gather, there should be spiritual sawdust all over the place. We are not gathering for a religious sentiment, an emotional pick-me-up, or a private mystical experience. We are gathering to be built. Walls are supposed to be knocked out, foundations shored up, and the roof put on the house. This is work. And for this work to happen, the blueprints have to be readable and the foreman has to be understandable.

The Corinthians had turned their assembly into a place of spiritual grandstanding. Each man wanted to show off his particular gift, with tongues being the most prized because of its showy nature. But Paul brings it all back to the foundational question: does it build? Does it profit your brother? If you speak in a tongue without an interpretation, Paul says you give thanks well enough, but the other man is not edified (1 Cor 14:17). It is like a carpenter showing up with a powerful and impressive nail gun, but he spends the whole day shooting nails into the air. The tool might be fantastic, but if it is not building the house, it is worse than useless; it is a dangerous distraction.

Verse by Verse Commentary

6 But now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching?

Paul begins with a personal and hypothetical example. He says, "Imagine I, the apostle, came to visit you. And all I did was speak in tongues." What good would that do them? The answer is, none at all. There is no profit in it. The word "profit" is a commercial term; Paul is asking what the return on investment is. Unintelligible speech has zero return. He then lists four categories of intelligible speech that actually are profitable: revelation, knowledge, prophecy, and teaching. These are all forms of understandable communication. A revelation must be explained. Knowledge must be imparted. Prophecy must be declared. Teaching must be understood. The common denominator is meaning. Unless the content of the Spirit's work is communicated in a way that the mind can grasp, it is of no benefit to the church.

7 Yet even lifeless things, either flute or harp, in producing a sound, if they do not produce a distinction in the tones, how will it be known what is played on the flute or on the harp?

Paul's first analogy is from the world of music. He takes inanimate objects, a flute or a harp, to make his point. Even these lifeless things are intended to produce a recognizable melody. If a musician just blows randomly into a flute or strums haphazardly on a harp, without making a distinction in the notes, you do not have music. You have noise. No one can know what is being played. The entire purpose of the instrument is to communicate something, a melody, a tune. If it fails to do that, it has failed its purpose. So it is with tongues in the church. If there is no distinction, no clear meaning brought out through interpretation, it is just spiritual noise, not the music of the gospel.

8 For if the trumpet produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle?

His second analogy is even more potent. He moves from the concert hall to the battlefield. In the ancient world, the trumpet was a vital instrument of communication in warfare. Different trumpet calls signaled different commands: advance, retreat, assemble, charge. The life and death of the army depended on the clarity of that sound. If the trumpeter blew an "indistinct sound," a garbled, uncertain note, the soldiers would be thrown into confusion. Who would prepare for battle? No one. They would stand around looking at each other, wondering what the command was. An uncertain sound leads to an uncertain army. In the same way, an unintelligible word in the church leaves the soldiers of Christ unprepared for their spiritual warfare. The church is an army, and it needs clear commands from the Word of God, not confusing sounds.

9 So also you, unless you utter by the tongue a word that is clear, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air.

Here Paul makes the direct application. "So also you." Just like the flute and the trumpet, your tongues must produce a clear, understandable word. The Greek is logos eusemos, a well-marked, easily recognizable word. If you fail to do this, no one can know what is being said. Your speech is utterly wasted. You are not communicating with the saints; you are just "speaking into the air." Your words dissipate with no effect, no impact, no edification. It is the very definition of futility. The air does not need to be edified. Your brothers and sisters do.

10 There are, perhaps, a great many kinds of sounds in the world, and none is without meaning.

Paul acknowledges the great diversity of languages in the world. He calls them "kinds of sounds" or "voices" (phone). His point is that God created language to have meaning. Whether it is Greek, Hebrew, Latin, or the dialect of some remote tribe, every language has a vocabulary and a grammar. It signifies something. There is no such thing as a meaningless language. This is a crucial point. The gift of tongues at Pentecost was not ecstatic gibberish; it was the miraculous ability to speak in real, human languages that the speakers had not learned (Acts 2:6-8). The miracle was a reversal of the curse of Babel, gathering the nations by making the gospel understandable to them in their own tongue. Paul is affirming that the gift of tongues, properly understood, deals in meaningful languages.

11 If then I do not know the meaning of the sound, I will be to the one who speaks a barbarian, and the one who speaks will be a barbarian to me.

This verse gets to the heart of the relational breakdown caused by unintelligible speech. If a man speaks a real language, but I do not understand that language, we are foreigners to one another. The word "barbarian" was an onomatopoeic term used by the Greeks for anyone who did not speak Greek. To their ears, foreign languages just sounded like "bar bar bar." So Paul says that if you speak in a tongue I cannot understand, you are a barbarian to me, and I am a barbarian to you. You have erected a wall of division right in the middle of the church, which is supposed to be the one place where all such walls are torn down in Christ (Eph 2:14). Uninterpreted tongues do not unite; they alienate. They recreate the confusion of Babel, rather than celebrating the unity of Pentecost.

12 So also you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, seek to abound for the edification of the church.

Paul concludes this section with a direct and pastoral exhortation. He acknowledges their zeal. "You are zealous for spiritual gifts." He does not quench their zeal, but rather redirects it. Zeal is a good thing if it is aimed at the right target. So he tells them, "Since you are so eager, here is what you should be eager for. Here is where you should channel all that energy." What is the goal? "Seek to abound for the edification of the church." The driving ambition of every believer in the corporate gathering should be the building up of the whole body. Not personal experience, not showing off, not emotional release, but the solid, brick-and-mortar construction of the household of God. This is the standard by which every gift, every sermon, every song, and every prayer in the church must be judged. Does it build?

Application

The principles Paul lays down here are just as relevant for the church today as they were for Corinth, even for those of us who believe the sign gifts like tongues have ceased with the apostolic age. The foundational issue is the character of our worship. Is our worship God-centered and other-directed? Or is it man-centered and self-directed?

The temptation to speak into the air is a perennial one. A preacher can speak into the air by using theological jargon without explanation, leaving the congregation bewildered. A worship leader can speak into the air by choosing songs that are so stylistically inaccessible or lyrically vague that they fail to communicate any solid truth. A person offering a public prayer can speak into the air by praying in a voice so quiet no one can hear, or with flowery language designed to impress rather than to lead the congregation to the throne of grace. In all these cases, the trumpet is giving an uncertain sound.

We must recover the Pauline passion for edification. Every element of our worship services should be rigorously evaluated by this standard: does this build up the saints? Does this communicate the truth of the gospel with clarity and power? Is the Word of God being taught in a way that renews the mind? Are we singing songs that are packed with theological truth and that allow the word of Christ to dwell in us richly? Are our prayers clear, corporate, and grounded in Scripture? The church is not a theater for our personal religious expression. It is a family that needs to be fed, an army that needs to be equipped, and a building that needs to be built. Let us therefore be zealous, as the Corinthians were, but let us be zealous for the right thing: to abound in building one another up in the most holy faith.