1 Corinthians 14:5

Chapter 14 opens straight out of the love chapter. In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul taught that every gift comes from the one Spirit for the good of the one body, and he ended by pointing the Corinthians to “a more excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31). 1 Corinthians 13 is that way. There he says that without love the most impressive gifts are empty noise and the one who has them is “nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1–3). So when chapter 14 begins “Follow after charity,” it carries all of chapter 13 into the instructions that follow. The three chapters belong together as one teaching on the gifts and the gathered church (1 Corinthians 12–14).

“Follow after” translates diṓkō, a verb for chasing or pursuing something with determined, persistent effort. Love is something we go after on purpose and practise. “Charity” is the KJV’s word for agápē, the love Paul has just described, which chooses to seek the good of others even at cost to itself. He sets it over every spiritual gift and over the whole of the Christian life.

With love settled first, Paul tells the Corinthians to “desire spiritual gifts,” and he means it. The word “gifts” is supplied by the translators, and the Greek speaks of pneumatika, “spiritual things,” the workings of the Spirit among his people. Believers are to want them earnestly. Paul writes elsewhere of the differing gifts God gives his people for service (Romans 12:6–8). The order of this verse still matters, because love comes before the gifts and rules how they are sought and used.

Then comes the preference. “But rather that ye may prophesy” uses mallon, “rather,” to point their desire toward one gift above the rest. The next four verses give the reason. Prophecy speaks God’s truth to the church in words the church can understand, and so it builds everyone up.

The one idea that runs through these verses is edification. The noun oikodomḗ means building or construction, and the verb oikodoméō means to build, and figuratively to build up or edify. Paul returns to this picture again and again in the chapter, because it is the purpose of every gift: “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal” (1 Corinthians 12:7). Later he sums up the rule for their meetings in seven words, “Let all things be done unto edifying” (1 Corinthians 14:26).

The same aim runs through Paul’s other letters. “Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another” (Romans 14:19). Christ “gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,” until the whole body grows up into the maturity and fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:11–16). Peter teaches the same, that each believer is to use the gift he has received to serve others (1 Peter 4:10–11).

The Corinthians needed this. Their church was lively and rich in spiritual gifts, set in a wealthy, crowded Roman port city full of pagan cults. They were eager for spectacular manifestations, especially tongues, and some may have taken them as a mark of spiritual maturity or standing, much as ecstatic speech was prized in some pagan worship. The result was disorder in their meetings, with people speaking in tongues that nobody else understood. Paul warns that an outsider who walked into such a meeting would say they were mad (1 Corinthians 14:23), and he closes the chapter by asking that all things be done “decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40). His answer to their self-centred use of the gifts is love, and love asks of every gift whether it builds up the others in the room.

The word for tongue, glōssa, is the ordinary word for the tongue in the mouth, and by extension a language, especially one the speaker never learned. The KJV prints “unknown” in italics because the translators supplied it, and it gives the right sense, since the language is one that nobody listening knows. At Pentecost the crowds heard the apostles speak in their own languages (Acts 2). In Corinth nobody in the room understands. The tongue may be an earthly language or a heavenly one, and what matters for Paul’s argument is that the hearers are left outside it.

Paul uses laléō, the general verb for talking and uttering words, for both gifts throughout this chapter. Speaking in a tongue and prophesying are both real speech, and the difference lies in who is addressed and who understands.

Speech in a tongue is addressed to God. It is prayer, praise and communion with him, and Paul’s reason is plain: “for no man understandeth him.” Since the people present cannot grasp the words, they gain no teaching, encouragement or correction from them, and the speaker himself may not grasp the content with his mind (1 Corinthians 14:14). Scripture speaks elsewhere of the Spirit helping us in prayer and interceding for us (Romans 8:26–27), and Paul tells believers to be “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18).

“Howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.” “Howbeit” translates dé, a small connective meaning “and,” “now” or “but,” which here marks the turn. The speech is closed to men and still full of meaning. “Spirit” is pneûma, breath or wind, and by extension a spirit. Here it is the speaker’s own spirit as the Holy Spirit empowers it. So speech in a tongue has real content, hidden from everyone in the room.

“But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men.” The “But” is dé again, turning from tongues to prophecy. To prophesy, prophēteúō, comes from prophḗtēs, prophet, and means to speak under God’s inspiration and to exercise a prophet’s office. It can include foretelling, and in this chapter its weight falls on forth-telling, which is declaring God’s message, truth and will to his people in words they understand, for the needs of the present. The one who prophesies is a believer gifted by the Spirit, and his words are aimed at the people in front of him.

Paul names three things such speech does. Edification, oikodomḗ, is building up, strengthening believers and the church in faith and maturity. Exhortation, paráklēsis, is a rich word that covers earnest pleading, strong encouragement and consolation. It describes coming alongside someone to urge them forward, calling them to persevere, to live rightly and to give themselves more fully to God. Comfort, paramythía, is consolation for those in sorrow, distress or uncertainty, bringing them peace, reassurance and hope from God. So prophecy reaches the whole person, informing believers, stirring them up and consoling them.

These three are God’s own care for his people, for he is the one who builds, encourages and comforts them. Paul calls him “the God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3–4), and he says that the Scriptures were written for our learning, so that through patience and their comfort we might have hope (Romans 15:4). When God’s word is spoken plainly in the church, it does what he does.

Verse 4 sets the two gifts side by side in two matching clauses: “He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church.” Both clauses use the same verb, oikodoméō, and the difference is in who is built up. Paul grants that a tongue strengthens the one who uses it, through a private communion with God that the others in the room cannot share. He leaves that benefit standing and sets beside it the greater good of a whole congregation built up together. Building up oneself means one believer is strengthened. Building up the church means the whole congregation is strengthened, taught and encouraged, and prophecy does this because its message is understood by all who hear it.

“I would that ye all spake with tongues.” Paul’s wish is sincere. He values the gift, both for the personal benefit it brings and as a sign, and he is open to the Spirit working in more than one way. “But rather that ye prophesied” uses mâllon, the same “rather” as verse 1, and it gives his stronger wish.

“For greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues.” The word meízōn, “greater,” measures what each gift does for the gathered church. The one who prophesies is greater in what he gives to everyone present, because his words are understood and they build up the whole congregation.

“Except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.” Interpretation turns an utterance nobody could follow into a message everyone understands, and then the tongue builds up the church just as prophecy does. The word hína, “that,” gives the purpose, and the purpose is oikodomḗ, the building up of the church. Paul returns to the point later in the chapter, preferring five words spoken with understanding in the church (1 Corinthians 14:19).

Jesus is the one who followed after love perfectly. He humbled himself to take on our nature (Philippians 2:5–8) and laid down his life for us, the greatest love there is (John 15:13). We are called to walk in love as he loved us (Ephesians 5:2).

He is also the Prophet through whom God has spoken his final and fullest word (Hebrews 1:1–2). He declared the words of the Father (John 7:16), and he is himself the Word made flesh (John 1:14), speaking God’s truth “unto men” in a way they could understand. His ministry did all three things of verse 3. He built up his disciples and promised to build his church (Matthew 16:18), he exhorted the people to repent (Matthew 4:17), and he comforted the troubled and promised the Holy Spirit as the Comforter (John 14:26). He is the cornerstone on whom the whole spiritual house is built (Ephesians 2:20–22).

The gifts themselves come from him. The risen and exalted Christ poured out the Spirit (Acts 2:33), as he had promised before he went away (John 16:7), and through the Spirit he gives the gifts that build up his body. The mysteries spoken in the spirit find their unveiling in him, for in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:2–3), and the mystery of Christ, hidden in other ages, has now been revealed (Ephesians 3:3–5). Through him we have access by one Spirit to the Father (Ephesians 2:18). He prayed for his followers to be one and to be made holy (John 17), and every gift used in love to build up his church serves that prayer.

These verses show a God who gives his people gifts and means them to be used for one another. The Spirit gives speech to God in mysteries and speech to people in words they understand, and both are his gifts. Love decides what the gathered church needs, and love chooses the word that builds up, encourages and comforts the brother and sister nearby. Paul’s wish that they all prophesied is a wish that every believer could strengthen the others. A gathering where God’s truth is spoken plainly, where even a visitor can understand what is said and be fed by it, is the church being built up as God intends, on Christ its cornerstone.