I Corinthians 14:13-19: "The Gift of Tongues, part 3"

In this section of the discussion of tongues, Paul wants to show the Corinthians the emotional rather than rational aspect of tongues. He begins, "Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret". Paul's thought here is not that the Corinthians actually pray that they can interpret tongues, for Paul has already made it clear that God sovereignly gives various gifts to various believers. Therefore, Paul's tone, as through much of this section is sarcastic. His point is for the Corinthians to desire to edify the church. He wants them to desire and pursue gifts that will help encourage and edify the church. He hates that they are seeking after an ecstatic speech that was practiced by the pagans around them. He wants them to understand that the point of the gift is to communicate and edify, and the only way in which tongues can accomplish this is if they are interpreted.

Paul continues, "For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful". MacArthur helps us understand, "In the pagan rites with which the Corinthians were so familiar, speaking in ecstatic utterances was considered to be communing with the gods spirit-to-spirit. The experience was intended to bypass the mind and normal understanding. As noted above, its mysteries were meant to remain mysterious. Paul here may have used pnuema (which can be translated 'spirit', 'wind', 'breath') in the sense of breath. If so, he was saying, If I pray in a [self-manufactured] tongue, my [breath] prays, but my mind is unfruitful". Paul is basically saying that if he were to use the gift of tongues the way the Corinthians were, he would merely be blowing air out of his mouth, but there would be no thought to communicate, encourage, or edify the body. There is no fruit that will evidence itself through this gibberish, it is a waste of a breath.

"What is the outcome then?", Paul asks. What happens when what we are saying is done apart from rational thought and thinking? The answer has been shown to be that no one is edified and no one is encouraged and we are nothing but rambling fools. Paul's answer to what must occur is, "I shall pray with the spirit and I shall pray with the mind also; I shall sing with the spirit and I shall sing with the mind also". Paul's point is to say that all things must be done with your heart and your mind. You cannot be zealous for an irrational simply emotional gift that serves no purpose. That is like disengaging your mind from the process. Instead, as Paul says he will do, we must sing and pray and worship with our spirits and our minds. If our minds are engaged and we are thinking rationally about what we are doing, we will would not give ourselves over to foolish babbling. Matt. 22:37 says, "love the Lord your God with all your hearts, and with all your should, and with all your mind". You cannot take rational thought out of it. We are not to be carried away by our emotions only. Pointing out a simple illustration to prove his point, Paul writes, "Otherwise if you bless in the spirit only, how will the one who fills the place of the ungifted say the 'Amen' at your giving of thanks, since he does not know what you are saying?" MacArthur explains, "Ungifted (idiotes) is, I believe, better translated in its usual sense of ignorant, unlearned, or unskilled. A person who is ignorant of a language being spoken cannot possibly understand what he hears. In a worship service, for example, he could not know when to say the "Amen" at your giving of thanks. Prayers or songs of thanks could not include anyone else if they were given in unintelligible sounds". Paul is simply applying his mind to prove his very point. He is basically saying, "if no one can understand what you are saying when you pray or sing, what good is it?". How can anyone agree with you by saying "amen" if he has no clue what was said. Would God enable such a gift? Of course not. So the person doing the speaking may feel he is "giving thanks well enough, but the other man is not edified". Intentions are just that, intentions. Paul is calling the Corinthians to a higher standard. If no one else is edified or encouraged in the church by your speech, you are wasting your time and your "gift" has been exposed as counterfeit.

Now Paul has spent the last several verses bashing the counterfeit gift of tongues the Corinthians were using. However, he wanted to make sure they understood that he was in no way speaking against the true gift of tongues that God would give to those he chooses. Paul writes, "I thank God, I speak in tongues more than you all". He wanted it to be known that he was not criticizing the true gift and, in fact, had the gift for himself. MacArthur points out the difference in the word "tongues" used here, than in the other portions of this text, "Here he uses the plural tongues. He is no longer speaking hypothetically (cf. vv. 6, 11, 14-15), and he is no longer speaking of a counterfeited gift". Paul obviously used his gift the way God had intended it to be used. And as Paul so often does after balancing out his argument (ie after speaking against the tongues the Corinthians were speaking, he praises God for his gift of tongues) he returns one last time to the main point, "however, in the church I desire to speak five words with my mind, that I may instruct others also, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue". Paul was portraying the attitude he wanted the Corinthians to have. One in which the main goal was not to have a showy gift that brought them praise and recognition or an ecstatic emotional state, but rather one that brought edification to the church. He would rather speak five recognizable, understandable words that could somehow encourage someone, than a thousand words of gibberish in an unknown tongue. This was a challenge to the Corinthians to check their motive when they were supposedly exercising their gift, and make sure that there mind was engaged in what they were doing, rather than just talking foolish non-sense.