Commentary - 1 Corinthians 14:13-19

Bird's-eye view

In this crucial passage, the Apostle Paul continues his master class on the proper function of spiritual gifts within the corporate worship of the church. Having established in the previous chapter that love is the indispensable context for everything, he now applies that principle of love directly to the thorny issue of speaking in tongues. The Corinthians were infatuated with this gift, likely because it was spectacular and appeared highly spiritual. But Paul, with relentless logic, subordinates the spectacular to the intelligible. The central, non-negotiable criterion for any utterance in the assembly is edification, the building up of the saints. And edification cannot happen apart from understanding. Therefore, any speech that the mind cannot process, whether the speaker's or the hearer's, is functionally useless in a church service. Paul's argument is a robust defense of rational, orderly, and comprehensible worship against all forms of mindless enthusiasm and spiritual exhibitionism.

He is not denigrating the work of the Holy Spirit; rather, he is explaining how the Holy Spirit actually works when the church gathers. The Spirit is not the author of confusion or spiritual chaos. He is the Spirit of truth, who engages the whole person, spirit and mind together. Paul's conclusion is devastating in its simplicity: five words that everyone understands are infinitely more valuable to the church than ten thousand words that no one does. This is a permanent apostolic rule for the church: worship must make sense.

Outline

Context In 1 Corinthians

This passage is situated in the heart of Paul's extended treatment of spiritual gifts, which runs from chapter 12 through chapter 14. In chapter 12, he established that the gifts are diverse but are given by one Spirit for the common good of the one body. In chapter 13, the famous "love chapter," he demonstrated that without love, the most spectacular gifts are nothing more than noisy gongs and clanging cymbals. Now, in chapter 14, he brings these principles to bear on the actual conduct of the Corinthian worship services, which had evidently become disorderly and chaotic, driven by a competitive and prideful desire to display the gift of tongues. This section, therefore, is not abstract theology. It is a practical, pastoral correction aimed at restoring intelligibility, order, and mutual edification to the central gathering of God's people. The goal is to move them from spiritual childishness to maturity.

Key Issues

Spirit and Mind

One of the great errors that plagues the church perennially is the attempt to drive a wedge between the spirit and the mind, between devotion and doctrine, between passion and proposition. The Corinthian church was an early and clear example of this. They were chasing a form of spiritual experience that bypassed the understanding. They wanted the buzz of a spiritual encounter without the hard work of thinking God's thoughts after Him. But Paul will have none of it. He insists on a holistic, integrated spirituality where the affections are kindled by truth and the mind is engaged in worship.

When Paul says he will pray "with the spirit" and "with the mind," he is not describing two separate, independent activities. He is describing two facets of one unified act of worship. True Christian worship is not a mindless trance, nor is it a dry, academic exercise. It is the heart, stirred by the Holy Spirit, responding to the truth of God's Word, which is grasped by the mind. The Spirit and the Word work together. The Spirit illuminates the mind to understand the Word, and the Word provides the substance to which the spirit responds. To separate them is to create a monstrous distortion of true Christian piety. The Corinthians had prized the spirit without the mind, and the result was chaos. The liberal church prizes the mind (or what they think is the mind) without the Spirit, and the result is a corpse. Biblical worship insists on both.

Verse by Verse Commentary

13 Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may translate.

Paul begins with a direct and practical command. The logic flows directly from the preceding argument that prophecy is superior because it edifies. If someone has the gift of tongues, he is not to be a passive recipient of a spiritual experience. He has a responsibility. He is to pray for the companion gift of interpretation. Why? Because without interpretation, the gift of tongues is a private affair between the speaker and God, and therefore has no place in the public assembly, whose purpose is the building up of the whole body. God is not in the business of giving useless gifts for public worship. If a gift is to be used publicly, it must be publicly intelligible. The burden is placed squarely on the speaker to seek the means for his gift to become profitable to others.

14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.

Here Paul explains the internal dynamics of speaking in a tongue, and why it is insufficient for corporate worship. He uses himself as the example. When he prays in a tongue, his spirit, the deepest part of his person, prompted by the Holy Spirit, is engaged in communion with God. The experience is real. But, he says, his mind is unfruitful. The Greek word is akarpos, literally "without fruit." This means his rational faculties are not engaged in the process; he does not understand what he is saying. Consequently, the utterance produces no fruit of understanding, either for himself or for anyone else who might be listening. It is a spiritual dead end in a corporate setting. This is not a commendation of a higher form of prayer; it is a diagnosis of its public deficiency.

15 What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also.

This is Paul's resolution, and it is the great principle for all true worship. He asks a rhetorical question: "What is the conclusion of the matter?" His answer is not to choose one over the other, but to demand both. "I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the mind also." The "also" is crucial. He refuses to sanction a worship that is merely spiritual enthusiasm, just as he would refuse to sanction a worship that was merely intellectual formalism. The whole man must be engaged. The same principle applies to singing. We are to sing with our spirits engaged, full of passion and zeal, and we are to sing with our minds engaged, understanding the theological truths we are proclaiming. This is the death knell for any worship practice, ancient or modern, that encourages people to switch their brains off in order to have a "spiritual" experience.

16 Otherwise if you bless in the spirit only, how will the one who fills the place of the uninformed say the “Amen” at your giving of thanks, since he does not know what you are saying?

Paul now provides a concrete, liturgical example. Imagine a public prayer of thanksgiving, a blessing offered "in the spirit only," that is, in an uninterpreted tongue. Paul asks a devastatingly practical question. What about the other guy? What about the layman, the ordinary Christian, the idiotes or "uninformed" person in the congregation? How can he give his hearty assent, his "Amen," to your prayer? The "Amen" is not just a liturgical punctuation mark; it is a declaration of agreement and participation. It means "so be it, I agree with that prayer, and I make it my own." But a man cannot agree with what he does not understand. To speak in a way that prevents the congregation from saying a genuine "Amen" is to disenfranchise them from the work of worship. It is fundamentally unloving and individualistic.

17 For you are giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not edified.

Paul grants a concession that is actually a sharp rebuke. From God's perspective, the prayer of thanksgiving might be perfectly acceptable. "You are giving thanks well enough." God, who gave the utterance, certainly understands it. But in the context of the gathered church, that is completely beside the point. The standard for public speech is not whether God understands it, but whether the church does. The verdict is blunt: "the other person is not edified." And since edification is the entire purpose of the gathering, the action, however well-intentioned or spiritually authentic for the individual, has failed the primary test of love.

18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all;

Before delivering his final, crushing conclusion, Paul skillfully heads off any charge of envy or ignorance. He is not arguing against tongues because he lacks the gift. On the contrary, he possesses it in greater measure than any of the Corinthians who were so proud of it. This is a masterful rhetorical stroke. He is not a have-not criticizing the haves. He is an expert practitioner telling them that they are using the gift improperly. His authority on this subject is therefore unassailable. He knows what he is talking about, both from apostolic authority and from personal experience.

19 however, in the church I desire to speak five words with my mind so that I may instruct others also, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue.

And here is the conclusion of the whole matter, stated with memorable force. The word "however" sets up the stark contrast. Despite his proficiency in tongues, when he is "in the church," in the formal assembly of the saints, his priorities are entirely different. He sets up a quantitative comparison that reveals a qualitative judgment. Five words spoken with his mind, that is, five intelligible words that can instruct others, are of more value than a torrent of ten thousand words in a tongue. The hyperbole is intentional and powerful. The ratio is 5 to 10,000. Why? Because the five words accomplish the goal of the gathering, which is instruction and edification, while the ten thousand words, apart from interpretation, accomplish nothing for the hearers. This verse remains the apostolic standard for all speech in the house of God.

Application

The principles laid down by Paul in this passage are timeless and urgently needed in the modern church, which is often pulled in two equally unbiblical directions. On one side, we have a dry, intellectual formalism that engages the mind but leaves the heart cold. It is orthodox but lifeless. On the other side, we have a rampant emotionalism that prizes experience, feeling, and spectacle above all else, often at the expense of biblical truth and intelligibility. It seeks the spirit but despises the mind.

Paul teaches us to reject both errors. True worship is thoughtful. It is rooted in the proclamation and understanding of God's Word. Our sermons, our prayers, and our songs must be packed with theological substance. They must make sense. We have a responsibility to ensure that the ordinary person in the pew can understand what is being said and sung, so that he can give a hearty and informed "Amen." We must not be lazy in our thinking or our communication.

At the same time, true worship is passionate. It is not enough to simply agree with the truth; our spirits must be stirred by the Spirit to love that truth, to rejoice in that truth, and to offer our whole selves to the God of that truth. The ultimate goal of all our church gatherings is not to put on a show, and it is not to have a private spiritual buzz. The goal is to build one another up in the most holy faith. And that happens when the truth of God, clearly understood by the mind, sets the heart on fire.