Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Corinthians · About this commentary
Words with the Mind Also
1 Corinthians 14:6-19
6 But now, brothers, if I come to you speaking with other languages, what would I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation, or of knowledge, or of prophesying, or of teaching? · WEB
Three analogies from sound and one admission about himself: Paul had this gift more than any of them, and would rather say five words people understood.
If I come to you speaking with other languages, what would I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation, or of knowledge, or of prophesying, or of teaching? 1 Corinthians 14:6.
The question is about profit to the hearers, and the four alternatives are all forms of intelligible speech.
Even lifeless things that make a sound, whether pipe or harp, if they didn't give a distinction in the sounds, how would it be known what is piped or harped? For if the trumpet gave an uncertain sound, who would prepare himself for war? 1 Corinthians 14:7–8.
Three illustrations from sound, and each turns on distinction rather than volume. A flute or harp producing undifferentiated noise is not music; a trumpet call that cannot be recognized leaves an army in its tents. The third case raises the stakes — an unclear signal is not merely unhelpful but dangerous.
So also you, unless you uttered by the tongue words easy to understand, how would it be known what is spoken? For you would be speaking into the air 1 Corinthians 14:9.
Speaking into the air is the verdict, and then a further observation: the world's languages are none of them without meaning 1 Corinthians 14:10 — the problem is never that a language lacks sense, only that a hearer lacks access to it. And when that happens, both parties become a foreigner to each other 1 Corinthians 14:11. That is the cost being weighed: not a wasted opportunity but an estrangement inside the assembly.
So also you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, seek that you may abound to the building up of the assembly 1 Corinthians 14:12.
The zeal is affirmed and redirected. Not want less but want it for them.
For if I pray in another language, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. What should I do? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also 1 Corinthians 14:14–15.
The answer is both, not a choice between them — and the same is said of singing. This is worth registering in a letter this concerned with the mind: worship engaging the spirit while bypassing the understanding is described as unfruitful, and the remedy is to add the understanding rather than to suppress the spirit.
Otherwise, if you bless with the spirit, how will he who fills the place of the unlearned say the "Amen" at your giving of thanks, seeing he doesn't know what you say? For you most certainly give thanks well, but the other person is not built up 1 Corinthians 14:16–17.
A small, telling detail: the congregation answered Amen to prayers, and could not do it if it had not followed them. The thanksgiving is granted as genuine — you most certainly give thanks well — and still judged inadequate, because somebody else was left outside it.
I thank my God, I speak with other languages more than you all. However, in the assembly I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I might instruct others also, than ten thousand words in another language 1 Corinthians 14:18–19.
The argument closes with the strongest possible credential. He is not restraining a gift he lacks; he has it more than all of them, and says so. And then the trade he would make: five intelligible words against ten thousand unintelligible ones. The disproportion is the point, and the reason given is that I might instruct others also — the same criterion, one last time.
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