1 Corinthians 14
McGeeCHAPTER 14THEME: Exercise of giftsWe are in the section of the epistle concerning spiritual gifts. In chapter 12 we saw the endowment of gifts. Gifts were given to maintain the unity of the church in a diversity. Each member has a separate gift; yet all are to function together as the body functions with its many members. The eye cannot do what the ear does, and the ear cannot do what the eye does. Each must function in its own way. We are put into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit, and we are placed there to exercise a gift. Paul tells us at the end of chapter 12 that we should covet earnestly the best gifts, and yet he will show us a more excellent way. That way is by love. The entire chapter 13 is on the subject of love. He concludes by saying that the greatest of these is love, and he continues by saying that we are to follow after love.
1 Corinthians 14:1
GIFT OF PROPHECY IS SUPERIOR TO GIFT OF TONGUESPaul now follows right on and says that we should follow after love, but we should desire spiritualities. We should desire spiritual giftsI think it would be unusual if a Christian didn’t want that"but rather that ye may prophesy." To prophesy is to give out the Word of God, to speak it simply and to speak it intelligently. He makes a distinction between the gifts which the Spirit gives and the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, etc., which are more important than the gifts of the Spirit. Some very sincere people say to me, “Dr. McGee, I am going to pray that you receive the gift of the Spirit.” I tell them I appreciate their interest, but I would rather they would pray that I may have the fruit of the Spirit. I wish I could see more fruit of the Spirit in the lives of the believers and in myself. I would like to see more love. That is the essential thing, and that is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Only the Spirit of God can produce fruit in our lives. “But rather that ye may prophesy.” Actually, Paul was trying to get the Corinthians off this preoccupation with tongues. In effect he is saying to them in this whole section, “Cool it, brethren, don’t go off into fanaticism or an emotional binge. Hold all things in their right proportion.” In the previous chapter he said that tongues will cease. They will stop. That is the same word that we see posted on the highway. A traffic officer once told me that s-t-o-p means stop!
I am afraid a great many folk do not understand what Paul is saying here: “Whether there be tongues, they shall stop.” It was Dr. A. T. Robertson who made this statement: “Tongues seem to have ceased first of all the gifts.” Chrysostom, one of the early church fathers, writing in the third or fourth century, stated: “This whole passage is very obscure; but the obscurity arises from our ignorance of the facts described, which, though familiar to those to whom the apostle wrote, have ceased to occur.” It is interesting to note that Jesus never spoke in tongues. There is no record of the apostles speaking in tongues after Pentecost. We do not have a historical record of Paul speaking in tongues or any sermon delivered in a tonguealthough we know from verse 1Co_14:18 that Paul did speak in tongues because he said, “I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all.” I did not realize the import of this statement until I was in Turkey. I visited the ruins of seven churches there, and obviously Paul had preached in all of them; then going way out into the interior, into Anatolia, I realized that Paul had walked across that sectionall the way from Tarsus, his hometown. It is a distance of hundreds of miles, and in that section there was tribe after tribe speaking different languages. I have often wondered how Paul was able to speak to them.
Well, he spoke as the apostles did on the Day of Pentecost. Every man heard him speak in his own tongue. He probably said to the Corinthians, “If you want tongues, go out on the mission field and start speaking in the languages of those people.” Today God has raised up certain organizations like the Wycliffe Bible Translators who are attempting to translate the Bible into all the known tongues of the world. That, my friend, is the greatest tongues movement that I know anything about! We know that at one time Paul was caught up to the third heaven. He tells us that he heard unspeakable words. I don’t think those were unknown words or unknown tongues; they were words that he was not permitted to speak. Tongues are not a rapturous, ecstatic, mysterious language. They are not a mixed-up medley of rhapsody. Tongues were foreign languages. On the Day of Pentecost the apostles spoke in foreign languages so that every man there heard the gospel in his own language. Now notice that chapter 14 is an extension of the love chapter. It begins: “Follow after charity [love], and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.”
1 Corinthians 14:2
Note that the word unknown is in italics in your Bible, and that means it is not in the original Greek. Nowhere in the Bible does it speak of unknown tongues. It should read: “For he that speaketh in a tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.” Because nobody will understand him, he is not to speak in a language that is unknown to the groupunless somebody there can interpret. We will see in this chapter that there are three gifts which Paul emphasizes: prophecy, tongues, and the interpretation of tongues. Have you ever noticed that there is very little reference to tongues in the Bible except in these three chapters? There are references to it in Mar_16:17 and Act_2:3-4, Act_2:11; Act_10:46; Act_19:6. Cornelius and his household spoke in tongues. The disciples of John in Ephesus spoke in tongues after Paul had preached the gospel to them. We find, therefore, that tongues were used at the institution of the dispensation of grace.
Every time tongues were used, they were used in that connection. There was speaking in tongues on the Day of Pentecost when the gospel went to the nation of Israel. There was speaking in tongues at the home of Cornelius when the gospel was opened to the Gentiles. There was speaking in tongues in Ephesus when the gospel moved out into the uttermost parts of the earth. Those are the three instances. “For he that speaketh in a tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.” That is, he doesn’t understand it.
1 Corinthians 14:3
Paul is emphasizing the gift of prophecy. He asks them not to go into the tongues which were delighting them, but to speak the Word of God which is for edification, for comfort, and for exhortation.
1 Corinthians 14:4
The tongue, when it is exercised by the individual, is a selfish sort of gift, but prophesying, or teaching, is for the edification of the church.
1 Corinthians 14:5
To prophesy is to give forth the Word of God. The important thing is not a tongues meeting but a Bible study. “He that prophesieth” is one that teaches. No one is to speak in tongues unless there is someone there to interpret so learning can take place.
1 Corinthians 14:6
Paul is saying, “If I don’t make any sense when I come to talk to you, what is the use of my coming?”
1 Corinthians 14:7
I have often thought that I could be a musician if I could do with a musical instrument what the “unknown tongues” folk do with sounds. Although I cannot read music and have no ear for it, I could just toot away on a horn. But of course it would just be a meaningless noise. Even a lifeless instrument like that is to have meaning in this world. “If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” The trumpet was used to alert the troops for battle. And, my friend, today we need a clear-cut presentation of the gospel.
1 Corinthians 14:9
Paul says in effect, “Let’s get off this kick. Let’s start making sense, if you don’t mind.”
1 Corinthians 14:10
There are many languages in the world. However, there cannot be communication between people who do not speak the same language. If you speak in a language that no one in the church can understand, how can this edify the people in the church? That is the important issue. Does it edify the church? Does it build up the believers?
1 Corinthians 14:13
Anything that is said in a tongue should be interpreted. Otherwise it does not make any sense to anyone. If the speaker cannot interpret, then there must be someone else there who has the gift of interpretation.
1 Corinthians 14:14
That, my friend, is the answer to those who say that they speak in tongues for their private devotions. If the “understanding is unfruitful,” you don’t get a spiritual lift out of it; that is, the Holy Spirit is not ministering to you. If you get a lift, it is merely psychological. Paul says your understanding is unfruitful.
1 Corinthians 14:15
In other words, say something profitable so a brother can say “amen” to it.
1 Corinthians 14:17
Now I think Paul means that, as a missionary, he had spoken in at least a dozen different tonguesand probably that could be multiplied by four or five. When he was out on the mission field with a foreign tribe, they couldn’t understand his language and he couldn’t understand theirs. Then he spoke to them in their tongue. He made sense to them, but it didn’t make sense to Paul himself. But when he is in the church where there are believers who speak the same language as he does, he will speak in a tongue that everyone can understand.
1 Corinthians 14:20
He is chiding the Corinthians again. He has called them carnalbabes in Christ. Now he tells them not to act like children.
1 Corinthians 14:21
You see he does mean a language that is understood. He says, “I am going to speak to another people in their tongue.”
1 Corinthians 14:22
This is what he is saying: “When I went out to the mission field [let’s say Antioch in Pisidia], they were speaking a different language, so I spoke to them in their own tongue. And when I presented the gospel to them in their own language, they believed. Now when I meet with these folk in the land of Israel, I speak in the language they know and I know. Therefore I am prophesying. That is, I am teaching the Word of God to them.”
1 Corinthians 14:23
ORDER IN LOCAL CHURCH FOR EXERCISE OF ANY GIFTWe do not want a stranger to step into the church and think he has entered into a group of people who have gone mad. If there is one thing we need today, it is the logical, meaningful presentation of the Word of God. People in this world are intelligent; they are scientific; they are sophisticated. They want a logical message which can be understood. The Word of God needs to be presented so it can be understood.
1 Corinthians 14:24
In other words, if you are preaching the Word of God and an unbeliever comes in, he will come under conviction and be converted.
1 Corinthians 14:26
If there is going to be any speaking in a tongue, there must be an interpreter there, and the message must be edifying. A former student of mine, who had been a Roman Catholic, went into a tongues meeting and recited part of a mass in Latin. When he sat down, another man rose to interpret. He went on to say this, that, and the other thing. Then this friend of mine got up and said, “I just want you to know that that is not what I said. I gave you the Latin mass.” And as he started to tell them what he had really said, the ushers hustled him out of the meeting and told him not to come back. I don’t blame them for that, and I do not think it was proper for my friend to do that. I simply tell this to emphasize the fact that speaking in a tongue may be the least edifying and may even be a hoax.
1 Corinthians 14:27
Not only must there be edification, but there must be order. If someone is going to speak in a tongue, there must be an interpreter, and the message must make sense in conformity with the Word of God. If it is otherwise, the Spirit of God is not in ityou may be sure of that. If no interpreter is there, or if two or three have already spoken, the one wanting to speak in a tongue is to be silent. He can go off somewhere and speak by himself.
1 Corinthians 14:29
There were prophets in the church of that day, and they could speak prophetically. We know that the daughters of Philip prophesied (see Act_21:9). In the same chapter we are told that Agabus also prophesied. We don’t have that gift of foretelling the future anymore. Even the weatherman doesn’t do very well in the area of prediction!
1 Corinthians 14:31
They may all prophesy one by one. Everyone can have something to say about the Word of God. I have been greatly blessed by statements that some folk have made in testimony meetings.
1 Corinthians 14:32
A church service is to be orderly.
1 Corinthians 14:34
Now what is he talking about here? Tongues. He is not saying that a woman is not to speak in church; he is saying that she is not to speak in tongues in the church. My friend, if you take the women out of the tongues movement, it would die overnight. You may say, “That’s not a nice thing to say.” I know it’s not nice, but it is true.
1 Corinthians 14:35
The Word of God came to them, of course.
1 Corinthians 14:37
This is the real test. If a man today says that he is a prophet or that he is spiritualbecause he can speak in tongueslet him acknowledge that what Paul is saying here is a commandment of the Lord.
1 Corinthians 14:39
Here again we are encouraged to covet the best gift. Evidently teaching the Word of God is the best one, and I thank God for that. “Let all things be done decently and in order.” This is a great principle. When I attended a tongues meeting in the South, I must confess that I could see neither rhyme nor reason in the entire service. It was all in confusionnot even an organized confusion, but hopeless confusion. Paul says that this is not the way things of God should be carried on. This brings us to the conclusion of this section. If you have disagreed with me, I trust you will not fall out with me, but that you will search this Scripture. If I am wrong, pray for me.