1 Corinthians 14.13-19 provides for us an application of verse 12 to the public assembly and edification of the church. In addition to this application, Paul also emphasizes the gift of tongues by establishing its characteristics. Finally, we become aware of what Paul would have the Corinthian Church do in their corporate gatherings.
1 Corinthians 14.13
Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret.
In verse 13, the adverb “dio” (“therefore,” “on the account of”) not only links the present passage to the previous one, it also functions as a conclusion and application to the principle of “building up the church” (Gordon Fee, pg. 668).
Since one is to seek the gifts of the Spirit that edify the church (1 Cor. 14.12), then the person who speaks in tongues is to pray for the ability to interpret, so that others may understand and be edified. Therefore, this exhortation is not for one’s personal edification, but rather for the churches.
This observation flies in the face of some contemporary understandings of the gift of tongues. For example, Oral Roberts, in his book titled Still Doing the Impossible, related he and his wife’s personal experience in praying for the interpretation of tongue:
From that time, we prayed in tongues together, and she too learned she could interpret back to her mind God’s response. In First Corinthians 14.13-15 Paul says we can use our will to pray in tongues and to interpret back to our understanding. We receive God’s revelation knowledge (pg. 209).
Oral Robert’s application of this text is working from a misinformed meaning of Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 14.1-19. As I said before (cite), Paul was not overtly concerned with the gift of tongues per se, but rather with the edification of the church and not the individual.
Besides, why would one need to pray for individual interpretation and edification since they are already personally edified by praying in tongues (1 Cor. 14.5)? Moreover, one who speaks in tongues is to seek for their interpretation so that the church may be edified, not themselves (1 Cor. 14.5).
Therefore, for one to take this text as personal revelation and edification is misinformed as to the meaning communicated by Paul.
1 Corinthians 14.14
For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful.
With verse 14, Paul explains why one is asked to pray for the interpretation of their tongue-speaking.
“For,” Paul writes, “if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays.” Since one’s “spirit” prays while praying in tongues, then their “nous” (“mind”) is unfruitful. Since one’s mind is unfruitful while praying in tongues, then someone else’s mind would be unfruitful as well.
Therefore, Paul explains what one is to do within the public assembly of the church in verses 15-17.
1 Corinthians 14.15
What am I do do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.
Since one’s mind is unfruitful while praying in tongues, Paul explains what one is to do within the public assembly with verse 15.
In verse 15, we learn from Paul’s experience that one is to pray and sing in the spirit as well as with their mind. For one to pray or sing in the spirit is for one to pray or sing in tongues, and not with their “innermost deepest depths” (David Garland, pg. 639).
Although people are to pray and sing with their spirit, the emphasis does not lie here, but rather with praying and singing with their mind. In teasing this meaning out, Gordon Fee says that “the combination ‘but also’ (‘de kai’) indicates that the emphasis lies here.”
With verse 15 we discovered that all are to pray and sing with their spirit as well as their mind.
1 Corinthians 14.16-17
Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up.
“Thus, as in vv. 1-5 and 6-12,” notes Gordon Fee, “intelligibility and edification are tied together. In the assembly the latter cannot happen without the former” (pg. 674).
Consequently, one who speaks in a tongue is to do so orderly and with it being interpreted, so that their message will be intelligible and that the church will be edified (1 Cor. 14.27-28; cf. 14.5, 13).
What is more, it can be reasoned that Paul’s contrast of praying and singing with his spirit and mind are an allusion to what he would expect for the church to do in the public assembly, as well as their private devotion. Verse 16 provides for us what one is to do within the public assembly when it comes to intelligibility and the edification of the church.
I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.
The final throng of this passage, verses 18 through 19, provides a glimpse of Paul’s personal devotional life as well as his desires for the church. On one hand, in verse 18, Paul expresses his thankfulness to God that he speaks in tongues more than all of them.
Even though Paul’s expression may be hyperbolic, D.A. Carson affirms that this passage provides “no stronger defense of the private use of tongues” (pg. 105). On the other hand, in verse 19, Paul contrasts the quantity of his tongue speaking with his desire to speak intelligibly within the church. He explains his desire to speak intelligibly by expressing his wish for others to be instructed by what he says, rather than him speaking ten thousand words in a tongue that no one else can comprehend without interpretation. “Thus, the section has come full circle,” begins Gordon Fee.
If Paul came to them as they wished, speaking in tongues, it would not benefit them. He must speak in intelligible ways. Now he affirms that he does speak in tongues – more than all of them; but in church, so that others might be instructed, he would rather speak just five words that could be understood than countless words in a tongue. The obvious implication is that they should wish to do the same (pg. 676).
What we have observed within these final two verses is Paul’s quantity of tongue-speaking as well as his desire for intelligible communication within the church so that others may be instructed, and ultimately edified.
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