Keep sharing good news without ads.
Reading 1 Corinthians 14:16-20 where the Apostle Paul says he'd rather speak five words of sense than 10,000 words in a tongue. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
Paul says that in the church, I desire to speak five words with my mind so that I may instruct others also, rather than 10 ,000 words in a tongue. Speak words of sense when we understand the text.
Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it. Visit our website at www .wutt .com.
Here once again is Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of 1 Corinthians chapter 14, where Paul has been instructing the church about the proper practice of spiritual gifts to edify the body. I'm going to begin reading in verse 14, and we'll go through verse 20 in the Legacy Standard Bible the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth.
For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. 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.
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? For you are giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not edified.
I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all. 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.
Brothers do not be children in your thinking. Rather in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature. So we come back again to, well, you jump back to verse 14, which is where we finished up yesterday.
For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. Those that are pretending to speak in tongues, or they're speaking in foreign languages and the rest of the body just doesn't understand it.
They are not only failing to edify the body, but they don't edify themselves either, because they don't know what it is that they're saying. So if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays. There's a desire to want to communicate with God, but it's not even benefiting me, because I don't know what it is that I'm saying.
So my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. As I mentioned yesterday, I think the tone of this is really being sarcastic here, because Paul is not saying really that his spirit is truly praying. You might be able to say that.
You might be able to say, well, this is a spiritual language. It's a heavenly language. It's just a deep personal connection between me and God. But is it really? How can there be something that is happening there between you and the Lord, if even your mind is unfruitful?
You don't know what you're saying. So how are we built up? How are we edified in this faith that we have? Even just talking about personal edification here, how are you edified? Through the word of God.
It's not through spiritual experiences, because then all you're chasing is a feeling. I mean, you might think that you're growing spiritually because you felt goosebumps when the musicians hit that certain chord on Sunday.
You might think that you had a spiritual experience there. No, you just felt goosebumps. And if you're just chasing a feeling, then all you're chasing after is something physiological. You're not chasing after something spiritual.
You're not pursuing the spirit of God, whom we know through the word of God. Remember Peter saying in 2 Peter 1 that what we're reading here was not written by the will of man, but God spoke through men as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
So this is spirit-inspired. If you want to hear the Holy Spirit, it's not through speaking in tongues. It's not through random gibberish that doesn't make sense. You hear the Holy Spirit of God when you hear the word of God read.
And it's by this word we're being sanctified and built up. John 17, 17, which I've quoted to you many times, Father, sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth. You're sanctified when you hear the word of God, and you help to build up others as well when you share the word of God with others.
Thinking again back to verse 4 here in 1 Corinthians 14, it's in verse 4 where it says, one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but one who prophesies edifies the church. One who speaks words from God.
I'm not talking about revelation of new prophecy. When we speak the word of God in the Bible, there's prophesying that is going on there, even in the sense that a person is either coming to faith, like they hear the word of God proclaimed, they're convicted, they repent of their sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Even when that happens, prophecy is being fulfilled because Jesus said that his word would go out to the world and he would draw them to himself. So as a person gets saved, prophecy is being fulfilled.
But even as the word is being proclaimed and there are people being sanctified, like preaching in the church on Sunday morning, and the saints are edified and are being built up, that's a fulfillment of prophecy also, because it was said, as Christ said, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
He is building the church through evangelism, adding numbers to the church, and he is building the church also in sanctification, that we are growing in maturity and being built up as spiritual houses unto the Lord.
So as we have this statement here in verse 14, for if I pray in a tongue, my mind prays, but I'm sorry, I did that backwards. If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. Previously in verse four, we said, one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but one who prophesies edifies the church.
And I want to state again, I think that Paul is really being sarcastic here, because one who speaks in a tongue doesn't even edify himself. The desire should be to prophesy, to speak words of sense to the church, that it may be to the benefit of everyone.
Verse 13, therefore let one who prays in a tongue, or who speaks in a tongue, pray that he may translate. If you're going to speak in a tongue, pray for the sense so that it may edify other people. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.
Ultimately, as this comes down to the individual who is demonstrating what they claim to be speaking in tongues, but they're just faking it, what they're doing is unfruitful even to themselves. They don't benefit, because they don't know what it is that they're saying.
If you can't translate it, it's not a benefit to you, and it's not a benefit to anybody else. You might be having a spiritual experience, saying that in the crude sense, not in the proper sense, crude sense in that it may be some spiritual elation that you are feeling, but is it of God?
Are we talking about the spirit of God that is upon your heart? Or are you just having some sort of religious moment that you're claiming is the Holy Spirit, but really is not? It's only when we are committed and devoted to the fruitfulness of the word that we are edified and we can edify one another.
So Paul goes on in verse 15, what is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit. I will pray with the spirit. So he's not saying don't say prayers in the spirit, or don't say prayers even from your soul.
Because remember, we're supposed to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. 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.
I'm not just going to be uttering tones that don't make sense. I am going to be singing even words that conform to the word of God. We don't sing nonsense unto the Lord and say that that is praise. We proclaim the Lord's praises, exactly how God said he is to be praised according to his word.
Do you know anywhere in the Bible where it says that you can utter nonsense unto the Lord, and that will be received by him as praise? Is there even an example of that anywhere? When the people of Israel praised God, going back to the Old Testament, when they praised God they sang songs from the Psalter, from the Psalms, what we have chronicled there in the Psalms, or collected there, these very lyrics that were part of the songs that Israel sang in worship.
They're in our Bible, so it's divinely inspired, right? This came from God. This came from the Holy Spirit of God. What we read when we read the Psalms, we're reading God's word. And so, singing those words unto the Lord, we are lifting praise unto his name that he has said is worthy of his name.
What better way to praise God except by the words that actually speak of God that we have right here in the Bible? Now, it doesn't mean that when we sing our songs in church that we have to sing exactly what it is that's written here, but all of our praise and worship on Sunday morning, and using that term crudely, the music that we sing on Sunday morning should be in conformity with what we have in the word of God, just as the preaching should be, so the singing should be as well.
So Paul says, I'm going to sing with the Spirit, and I'm also going to sing with my mind. I know what it is that I'm saying, and it edifies not just me, but is even a blessing to the church. Otherwise, Paul says, verse 16, and I mentioned this yesterday, I said we're going to come back to this verse today.
So 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 it is that you are saying? So let me kind of piece that together a little more carefully here.
Otherwise, if you bless in the Spirit only, so you're saying that you're having a spiritual experience, this is some religious thing that you are doing here, right? You're speaking something that you're claiming is speaking in tongues, but it's really not.
Either you're faking it, faking that you're speaking another language that you really don't know, or you're just speaking nonsense that no one can make sense of. So if you bless in the Spirit only, if you're just having this spiritual experience, how will the one who fills the place of the uninformed, they're uninformed, they don't know what you're saying.
Nobody's translated. So nobody can say what it is that you are saying exactly. So how will the one who fills the place of the uninformed say the amen at your giving of thanks? Like you're saying something, nobody knows what it is, and how are the people going to respond?
Are they going to say amen? They don't even know what they're saying amen to. Amen, amen. You say amen, I say amen. I actually go both ways. You'll hear me, you'll catch me saying amen and amen, and I probably will do that in this podcast as well.
So how will a person say amen at your giving of thanks? What does amen mean? When we conclude a prayer with amen, what does that mean? Well, literally the word means so be it. Properly applied, it means to agree with everything that is said.
So that's why we say amen at the end of a prayer, or we encourage the whole congregation to say amen by saying something like, and all God's people said, and then everybody says amen. All right? It's really what you want to have happen at the end of a prayer.
When somebody is praying in front of the church, whether they conclude it by saying, and all God's people said, or they just say amen, the point would be this prayer has been said in the presence of the congregation, and everybody is to be in agreement with it.
So when the person praying finishes with amen, the whole church should finish that way. That should be our regular practice. So in Jesus' name we pray, amen. The whole church says amen. Even without being prompted to say it, everybody says amen.
Because the people are saying, yes, we affirm this. What has been prayed unto the Lord, we agree with it, and we have prayed also with you. Our spirit was in prayer with yours as you were speaking words of sense.
But if everybody is uninformed as to what it is you're actually saying, or as to what you're saying, what it means, then how are they properly going to say amen? How can they say, so be it, or we are in agreement, since he does not know what it is that you are saying?
Verse 17, for you are giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not edified. Maybe in your spirit, still thinking of the spiritual concepts that Paul is talking about here, maybe in your spirit you have gratitude toward God.
Maybe you have some feeling of elation toward the Lord. You're just thankful that I have breath in my lungs, or whatever it might happen to be. You're giving thanks well enough in your spirit. You say you're having a spiritual experience, good for you, but what is the other person getting out of this?
They're not getting anything. The other person is not edified. Going back again to where Paul says, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, seek to abound for the edification of the church. That's verse 12.
If you want to have this spiritual gift, great, but there needs to be words of sense that the church may be edified. If you're not speaking words of sense, nobody's getting anything out of this. You're giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not edified.
They're not being fed. That's what edified means. They are not being fed with spiritual things. You claim you're offering spiritual things, but it doesn't really mean anything. How are we fed? We are fed by the word of God.
It is the word of God that is our food, and we are filled up in our spirits when we read this, when we meditate on it, and especially as we consider it, doing what it says. Verse 18, I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all.
Paul is not discouraging the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues. In fact, going back to verse 5, he says, I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy. If the Holy Spirit is going to come upon you and you guys are going to speak in tongues, I want that for you.
That would be wonderful because the Holy Spirit is doing a work in that. It is by the Spirit's will, not yours, that you would come into speaking in tongues in that genuine practice filled with the Holy Spirit to speak a language that you did not previously know for the purpose of edifying somebody else.
Paul says, but I wish even more that you would prophesy. Greater is the one who prophesies than the one who speaks in tongues unless he translates so that the church may receive edification. And then back to verse 13 again, or jumping ahead to verse 13 again, therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may translate.
So if the Holy Spirit comes upon you in that way, good. You're praying in tongues. That's what you say you're doing. Well, turn your prayer into praying for a translation because otherwise it's not going to benefit anybody.
So again, Paul is not discouraging speaking in tongues, not the right practice of speaking in tongues. He is discouraging the exercise of speaking in tongues in such a way as to boast in oneself or to have a spiritual experience or to make people think that you are anointed with the Spirit in a certain way that you're really not.
If you pray for a translator and nothing is translated, then it wasn't really the Holy Spirit of God. Because if this is by the Spirit's will that we are given this gift, as it says in Hebrews chapter two, the Spirit appoints these gifts according to his will.
And Paul has said so here, even in first Corinthians 12. So if it is truly the Spirit that is appointed this gift, then the Spirit is appointing it for the purpose of edifying the church. He will not only give you a gift of tongues, speaking in a foreign language, but he will also give you the translation of that tongues.
If he does not give you the translation, then it wasn't for edifying the body and it wasn't really the Holy Spirit. This is really what Paul is arguing here, but what he's laying out is the proper discipline of the exercise of this gift because if that discipline is exercised in a proper way, then it's going to weed out the fakers.
The ones who are faking speaking in tongues won't be able to go along with the guidelines, the qualifications that Paul is giving here. They're going to be either silenced or exposed one way or the other.
Either they will be convicted by this and realize, I don't have a translator, therefore I should not get up and speak, I'm going to sit down and be quiet. Or when a person gets up and speaks in tongues and they cannot translate or nobody can translate for them, then it's going to be revealed you don't really have the Holy Spirit.
You're having some sort of spiritual experience there. You're giving thanks well enough, but the rest of us are not being edified. So going on in verse 18, I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all.
However, in the church, I desire to speak five words with my mind so that I may instruct others also, rather than 10 ,000 words in a tongue. So you could be going on and on and on and on, preaching an entire sermon.
And by the way, a sermon, an hour-long sermon is going to be something like 6 ,000 to 7 ,000 words, depending on how fast you talk. But that's about how long a sermon is going to be. So Paul is essentially saying I could speak an entire sermon and even a little bit longer, according to the average length of a sermon that we do today.
Typically, you want to keep your sermon under an hour. That's the average in most churches in America on a Sunday morning. Paul's sermons were probably longer than that. So he's saying I could speak an entire sermon in a foreign tongue, but it means nothing.
It's not going to benefit anybody. Speaking 10 ,000 words in a tongue, I would rather speak five words with my mind, five words of sense. Think about the statement that he makes at the end of chapter 12, I will show you a more excellent way.
That's a few more than five words, but only by a couple. Love is patient. Love is kind. There's six words. Chapter 14, here's two words of sense right here at the start of chapter 14. Pursue love, yet earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.
You may speak the word of God to his people that they may be edified and built up. Paul is saying any one of those phrases, any short phrase like this, Jesus is Lord. That's more edifying to the church than if I were to go through a whole sermon in a language that they do not understand.
It doesn't benefit anybody. Nobody is benefited by the gibberishness that we call speaking in tongues, nor would anybody be benefited if you were actually given the gift of speaking a foreign language that you did not previously know.
If it's not translated, it doesn't benefit anybody. And so Paul concludes with this in verse 20, at least where we're concluding today. We've got the last section of chapter 14 we'll cover tomorrow. Brothers, do not be children in your thinking.
Rather in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature. Now consider what Paul had said at the end of the previous chapter, the love chapter, the love chapter. First Corinthians 13, where he says in verse 11, when I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child.
When I became a man, I put away childish things. You want to speak gibberish? You're being like a baby. That's what babies do. Babies speak unintelligible things. And if that's the way you're going to behave, claiming that you have the gift of tongues, you're being children in your thinking and not adults, not mature.
Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Rather, here's where you should be infants. In evil, be infants. What does that mean? Be infants in evil? Well, how many infants do you know that do evil?
Like they're not getting up doing evil things. They're still selfish, right? A baby crying because the baby is wet or needs to nap or needs to eat or whatever. They're expecting you to tend to their every need.
I just want to play. I don't want you to set me down. We have a five-month-old, or he's not yet five months. He will be at the start of February. We have a five-month-old in our home, and yes, we have to be at his beck and call.
Just last night, he would not sleep. So Becky and I were up nearly all night because the baby just wouldn't sleep. So yes, of course, they're selfish, but they're not doing evil acts. They're not conniving.
They're not out there manipulating other people. They're not lying or thieving or doing anything like that. So in their experience, they're infants in evil. They do not know evil. They're not accustomed to the way of evil, very inexperienced in evil.
That's the way that we need to be spiritually. We need to be infants in evil. We don't even know what participating in that evil is like. There are some things that I have done I wish I had never done.
I wish I never knew what the experience of that evil was like. But then there are other things that a lot of my friends growing up did that I never did, and I'm able to say, I don't even know what that experience is like to do that kind of a sin or do that kind of evil.
That's by the grace of God, but that's what Paul is calling the church to, be infants in those things. Do not even be experienced in evil. You don't even know what that's like, but where should your thinking be?
You know what it means to be in Christ. You know what it means to be a mature son or daughter of God, growing up as men and women of God. As Paul puts it in Ephesians chapter four, growing into the head who is Christ.
That's where you need to grow up. That's where you need to mature. Be infants in evil in your thinking, be mature, and we'll pick up there tomorrow as we finish up this last section, verses 21 to 25. Heavenly Father, we thank you for taking us through this word and giving us an understanding according to your spirit, and may we exercise spiritual gifts by the spirit's will, not as we would want them and then look impressive to other people, but we desire to build one another up, to edify your church, to grow brothers and sisters in the Lord, into the head who is Christ Jesus.
May we be mature in these things, deliver us from evil, convict our hearts, may we not go in any of those ways that the Lord has said this is sin, but we desire righteousness and the pursuit of Christ.
It's in his precious name we pray, amen.
Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com.
Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's Word when we understand the text.