Follow after love, and be emulous of spiritual [manifestations], but rather that ye may prophesy.
Paul has just shown that love gives up self. Now he turns to the question the Corinthians argued over: which gifts should a church want in its meetings? The verse gives an order — love first, gifts wanted, and prophecy above the rest.
The call to pursue love comes before the instructions about gifts. It comes first because it settles the motive.
If love had been at work in the assembly at Corinth, it would have escaped many serious disorders, even though it had not been taught God's order. Love, as the Apostle has shown, leads a person to give up self. So the call to follow love comes before the call to desire spiritual gifts and before the instructions about using them. Love keeps the motive pure, both in wanting a spiritual gift and in using it. Love thinks not of self but of the good of others. Because they lacked love, the believers at Corinth had been using the sign gifts of healing and tongues to exalt themselves.
Putting love first does not belittle the gifts. It sets them in their right place, where they are worth wanting.
Setting the gifts of the Spirit in this right relation to their purpose does not run them down; it proves their worth. So they are not to be despised, but wanted. Those who know God in His ways will always want what He gives. And if love is followed first, gifts will be sought with love as well as with eagerness. Then they will be in the Church not for show, but to serve the needs of love, each in its own way.
Another writer turns the second half of the verse into a question for the reader:
Who thinks of seeking spiritual gifts? If God has given them, their use may be allowed (within certain limits, sadly); but who thinks of asking God for gifts he does not have? If we seek them to glorify ourselves with them, then we are bound to seek in vain. So the two things are joined together — following after love, and desiring spiritual gifts.
Most translations add the word "gifts" after "spiritual" in this verse. One writer says that addition is too narrow.
The Authorized Version, like almost all others, adds "gifts" after "spiritual" in the first verse. But that is not broad enough. It leaves out the presence of the Spirit Himself, who matters far more than any gift and who is distinct from the gifts: they depend on Him, not He on them... The meaning is the whole range of what belongs to the Spirit.
Prophecy is not mainly the announcing of future events. One writer defines it by what it does to the hearer's conscience.
Prophecy is not necessarily predictive. Prophets do predict, but that is not what makes prophecy. It is also a great mistake to think that prophesying is just building people up in a general way. Prophesying does build people up in the most important way... A man builds others up when he strengthens souls by holding up Christ and making His love better known, and so does the man who exhorts or teaches well. But none of these things is prophesying. Prophesying is that kind of truth which puts a person's conscience in the presence of God. It gives the soul the certainty that God's mind is in what is spoken, and it strips and lays bare thoughts, motives, feelings, everything.
One writer sums up what such ministry does:
"Edification" builds up. "Exhortation" stirs up. "Comfort" binds up. If the ministry is truly prophetic, it will build up and strengthen the Assembly.
A tongue put God's power on open display. That display is not what makes a gift most useful in a meeting.
Even where God's power was working in a tongue in a way no one could mistake, that gift is far from the highest place for the assembly... Prophesying, on the other hand, has the highest value. The one who uses this gift speaks to build up, encourage and comfort people. He builds up the church, which the speaker in a tongue cannot do unless someone also interprets. So God gave the better place to what His Spirit used for the profit of others. Power, though it is plainly God's, ranks below spiritual blessing, order, and love.
- Pursue — love comes first, because love keeps the motive pure both in wanting a gift and in using it.
- Desire — the same verse also tells believers to want gifts. What God gives is worth asking for.
- Prophesy — not mainly foretelling. It is truth that sets a person's conscience in God's presence and lays motives bare.
- Profit — prophecy outranks tongues because power ranks below what helps others. It builds up, stirs up, binds up.
- Order — love, then gifts, then prophecy above the rest. That order would have spared Corinth its disorders, and it still spares a church today.
For he that speaks with a tongue does not speak to men but to God for no one hears; but in spirit he speaks mysteries.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
But he that prophesies speaks to men [in] edification, and encouragement, and consolation.
Paul is comparing two gifts: speaking in a tongue nobody understood, and prophesying. His test is not display but the good done to the hearer, which raises a question — what does "prophesying" mean?
The verse is often read as a dictionary entry for prophecy. One writer says it is doing something narrower. It describes how the gift works next to a tongue no one could understand.
Verse 3 is the way in which prophecy works, rather than a definition of prophecy. It is speaking to people for their building up, encouragement and comfort. It can be that way now, of course. Knowledge and doctrine remain. But no one gives out fresh revelation now, because God has already revealed everything (that is, in the word).
The distinction also guards against a common mistake.
Many people take this to mean that anyone who speaks encouragement and comfort is prophesying. That is to mistake him. You could not turn the sentence around and still have the truth. What the apostle means is this. The man who only speaks in a tongue does not build up, or encourage, or comfort. The man who prophesies does.
The popular picture of a prophet is someone predicting the future. One writer points out that prediction was only part of a prophet's work.
Much of an Old Testament prophet's work was bringing the mind of God to bear on the state of the people. He called them to repentance. It was not only foretelling but also forth-telling. So it was with the New Testament prophets. Special revelation has completely passed away with them. But we still have the prophetic character of their ministry.
So what is prophesying, if not prediction? One writer answers with a scene from the Gospels.
It is not a question of opening up the future, but of bringing God and the soul together. We may see an example of it in the case of the woman of Samaria. What Christ said to her clearly brought God Himself home to her conscience, and she woke up at once to the conviction that the One speaking was a prophet. Prophecy is therefore the most intimate and direct communication of God in dealing with the soul. It gives a person the certainty that God is expressing His mind.
The verse names three results. One writer gives each a picture.
"Edification" builds up. "Exhortation" stirs up. "Comfort" binds up. If the ministry is truly prophetic, it will build up and strengthen the church. And there is more than that — "exhortation," which stirs us up. I ask anyone who looks over the scene today, do you not think the people of God need stirring up? I know I do, and I am always thankful to the man who stirs me up.
No amount of effort or cleverness can produce this kind of service.
This is a challenge to each of us. Zeal in our own strength and human wisdom could never achieve it. So we ourselves need to be enjoying the "comfort of the Scriptures." We need to know, in reality and power, the presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit of God, the Comforter. Then any service we give will encourage those we serve.
Those who spoke in tongues had an argument for themselves. Paul answers it.
No doubt those who spoke in a tongue argued that they stood for the rights of Christ, who was glorified in the gift. Theirs, they said, was the divine side — they spoke to God. But the apostle boldly maintains that the failure to speak to men proves speaking in a tongue inferior to prophesying... He sets prophesying far above such a display, without reservation. It brings in not merely power but God — God at work building souls up, encouraging them and consoling them. This does not cast such a halo around man; but it really brings in God in grace, and gives the sense of His presence.
The same writer names what was missing underneath it all.
There is no love in it; and so, as he shows here, there is no comfort, nor anything that works on the soul to build it up. This is the effect of divine love. There can never be real edification without divine love in some way being what acts on the soul.
- Contrast, not definition. The verse shows how prophecy works next to a tongue no one understands. It does not make every comforting word prophecy.
- Toward men. The weight falls on speaking to people. A tongue no one understood gave the hearer nothing.
- Conscience reached. Prophesying is not about unveiling the future. It brings God and the soul together, as Christ did with the woman of Samaria.
- Three needs met. Building up, stirring up, binding up — one ministry strengthens the church, wakes the sleepy and binds up the hurting.
- Love at the root. Without divine love acting on the soul, no one is built up. That is why Paul ranked display of power below this.
He that speaks with a tongue edifies himself; but he that prophesies edifies [the] assembly.
Paul weighs two gifts by one test: what does the meeting gain? One speaker helps only himself; the other builds up everyone, and that decides which gift belongs when believers gather.
First, what was this gift?
The phrase "unknown tongue" is unfortunate. It has led some people to think that the gift of tongues was a kind of meaningless gibberish. The King James translators added the word "unknown," where the text should read simply "tongue." Pentecost showed what the gift of "tongues" was: a person speaking a language he had never learnt, which those who knew it understood at once.
The trouble at Corinth was not meaningless sound. It was a foreign language in a room where everyone already shared one.
Someone who spoke in a tongue built himself up, because he understood; but he did not build up the assembly, because the assembly did not understand. The tongue here is a real language, as Acts 2:6 shows, but one the speaker did not normally understand. The wonder of the gift was that God gave him the ability to speak his own thoughts in this foreign language by the power of the Spirit, and he stayed in full control of his words. But in the assembly, where everyone understood Greek, other tongues were not needed.
Commentators differ. Some hold that the speaker did not always follow his own words.
In certain cases there was a kind of split. For example, people spoke in tongues, and the speaker did not always understand what he said. When that happened, the apostle says that this working of the Holy Spirit was of a lower order.
Others read it the other way round. They hold that the speaker understood his own words, and that Paul's test is what other people gain.
"The one who speaks in a tongue," the apostle goes on, "builds up himself." He does not, as people strangely imagine, have the idea that the speaker might not understand the tongue he was using... The apostle insists that there must be an intelligent grasp of what is heard, or there is no use and no building up... He has no wish at all to set aside speaking with tongues... The building up of others is what decides the greatness of the speaker.
Prophecy here is wider than predicting the future.
When we think of the prophets of the Old Testament, we may want to limit prophecy to foretelling future events. But even in Old Testament days that was only a small part of the prophet's work. His great mission was to apply the word of God to the conscience and heart, and so build people up. That is still the prophet's service in Christian times, and in this sense the gift remains. From the place the apostle gives this gift here, we may gather that it is the greatest of all the gifts left to the church, and the one to desire most.
The tongues-speakers had an argument ready: theirs was the Godward side.
No doubt those who spoke in a tongue argued that they stood for the rights of Christ, who was glorified in the gift, and that theirs was the divine side — they spoke to God. But the apostle holds firmly that speaking in a tongue is lower than prophesying, because it does not speak to people... He sets prophesying above any display of power without reserve, because it brings in not merely power but God — God building up souls, encouraging them and comforting them. This does not throw the same glow around the man; but it truly brings in God in grace, and gives the sense of His presence.
The Corinthian gifts were real. That is what makes the chapter so searching.
The gift of tongues seemed to people the most wonderful of all, and the Corinthians loved to show it off. Instead of love seeking to build up everyone, it was vanity seeking to display its gifts. They were real gifts — gifts of the Spirit. And here is the solemn thing for us to weigh: a person may have the power of the Spirit for service, and yet not have the living guidance of the Spirit in using it.
The same test still applies to anyone who speaks when believers gather.
Can anything be more solemn than for someone to take part in the assembly without any searching of heart, without judging himself again and again to see whether his motive comes from simple obedience to the will of God?
- Real gift. A "tongue" was a real language the speaker had never learnt, not gibberish. The added word "unknown" has misled readers.
- Real limit. The gift did build the speaker up. But words the room cannot follow build up no one else.
- Wider reach. Prophecy applies God's word to the conscience and heart, so it reaches the whole room — the greatest gift left to the church.
- Higher aim. Prophecy ranks higher because it brings in God Himself rather than a display of power, building up, encouraging and comforting souls.
- Sober test. A person can have real spiritual power and still miss the Spirit's guidance. Before speaking, ask one question: obedience, or display?
Now I desire that ye should all speak with tongues, but rather that ye should prophesy. But greater is he that prophesies than he that speaks with tongues, unless he interpret, that the assembly may receive edification.
Paul sets two gifts of the Spirit side by side and ranks them. The ranking is not about which one impresses more. It turns on what happens to the people listening: did anyone go home built up?
The comparison starts with a wish, not a rebuke. Paul would have been glad for every one of them to have the gift. So the comparison is between two good things.
The Apostle at once contrasts the gift of prophecy with the gift of tongues. Tongues clearly attracted the Corinthian believers, because the gift was so plainly supernatural in origin. He does not cast any doubt on it. The "tongues" he referred to were a genuine sign of the power of the Holy Spirit, and under the control of the speaker. The Apostle spoke with tongues himself in larger measure than any of the Corinthians, but he did so in a controlled and restrained way. The point is that even when the gift of tongues is at its best, it is of less profit than the gift of prophecy.
Many people assume prophecy means predicting the future.
We must remember that the earlier verse is not a definition of prophesying, but its contrast with speaking in a tongue. Prophesying has no necessary connection with the future, as some suppose. Nor is it preaching or teaching in general. It is forth-telling rather than fore-telling. It is speaking to a person so as to put him in the light of God — of God's dealing with his heart and conscience. It gives His mind.
Paul gives his own reason in the verse: "so that the church may be built up." That makes building up a working rule anyone taking part can apply to themselves.
Edification is to be the ruling principle. The keynote of God's Assembly is what will profit, what will help. If ministry is profitable, all right; if not, it is not to be allowed, it is condemned by the Spirit of God. The Assembly will soon know what profits it. If my ministry is not profitable, the kindest thing my brothers can do is to tell me so. It is a waste of time for any of us to go on with what does not profit. You might not be able to say much. But if God's Spirit gives you something to say to His Assembly, say it. You have that liberty in God's free Church, and the "five words" might help greatly.
Paul's exception is not a footnote. Understanding is what lifts the tongue up to the level of prophecy — and its absence decides where the gift may be used at all.
He would be glad for each one to be built up on his own. But he would rather they rejoiced together in the Lord. A matching power of interpretation would place the "tongue" on a moral par with prophecy. Otherwise the gift was good and precious, but its place of use was not the assembly of the saints. The profit of many is better than the benefit of one. By that measure the speaker with tongues stood below the prophet in the honour that belongs to true service in the Church.
Where no interpreter was present, the instruction was not to press on regardless.
He begins with what the vain Greek mind was most taken with, speaking with a tongue, because it was so open and surprising a witness of divine power. It electrified people. But in an assembly, on its own, it did not build up. So if the man who had "a tongue" could not interpret, or no interpreter was there, he had to be silent and content with speaking to himself and to God: an excellent lesson, where there was a desire to display that gift.
Behind the ranking lies a difference in what each gift leaves behind in the room.
The apostle was not dazzled, as the Corinthians were then and many have been since, by the display of power. He puts prophesying above such a display without any reserve. It brings in not power only but God — God building up souls, encouraging them and comforting them. This does not surround man with such a halo. But it truly brings in God in grace, and gives the sense of His presence.
Prophecy works by its effect on heart and conscience, not by predictions. So does the gift still have a place?
When we think of Old Testament prophets, we may limit prophecy to foretelling future events. This, however, was a limited part of the prophet's work, even in Old Testament days. His great mission was to apply the word of God to the conscience and heart for edification. This still applies as the service of the prophet in Christian times; and in this sense the gift remains. See the place the Apostle gives it in this passage. From that we may gather it is the greatest of all the gifts that remain to the church, and the one to desire most.
- Building up decides. The whole comparison rests on one measure — what profits the gathering. If it edifies, it has a place; if not, it does not.
- Building up defines prophecy. It is forth-telling, not fore-telling. It puts a person in the light of God and reaches heart and conscience.
- Building up needs understanding. Interpretation raises a tongue to the level of prophecy. Without it the gift was still good, but its place was not the gathering.
- Building up outranks display. The apostle was not dazzled by power on show. Prophecy brings in God Himself, present and at work in grace.
- Building up still applies. Paul wanted them all to speak in tongues. He wanted prophecy for them even more, and commentators call it the greatest gift the church still has.