What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray also with the understanding; I will sing with the spirit, but I will sing also with the understanding.
Paul has just raised a problem: someone prays in a language nobody else in the room can follow. His answer refuses to choose between spiritual power and plain sense — he will have both, in prayer and in song. (Where older translations read "understanding," the ESV reads "mind.")
One writer insists the problem was never that the speaker failed to grasp his own words:
Verse 14 has often been wrongly interpreted through inattention to what the verse actually says. If Paul prayed in an actual tongue, his spirit prayed. If his spirit prayed, then he knew what he was praying... But his understanding was unfruitful. Some have said this means he did not understand; but this is transparently wrong. Unfruitful means not bearing fruit. So suppose I pray in the assembly in a language the assembly does not know. I understand myself, but my understanding bears no fruit in the understanding of others.
Paul does not throw away what he has; he adds to it. The setting decides what fits — alone with God, or with others:
He will have his private blessings, and shared ones too. All that God gave he would use thankfully, but in the spirit of a sound mind. What he said to God alone, others need not know. What he prayed and sang with others must make sense to himself and to them.
Prayer and singing are not stray examples. One writer treats both as marks of the assembly — the church gathered together — and answers those who doubt that singing is spiritual at all:
In the assembly the Spirit should control every motion... God's assembly is marked by prayer — the expression of dependence — and singing, which is the outlet of the heart's joy. Some people think it is not spiritual to sing — I do not think they have the Spirit's mind... What a lovely picture of the assembly in action — ministry that profits, and prayer, singing, and worship. That is what God's assembly is put together for: to turn to Him in prayer, song, and worship.
The verse names two requirements. One makes praise possible at all. The other makes it shared:
The apostle brings singing forward along with praying and blessing. He does this to show what marks the true working of the Spirit of God in the assembly: the saints joining in together with understanding. Singing in this corporate way is the expression of the hearts of all to God as one. Without a spiritual nature the saints cannot sing to God at all. Without spiritual understanding they cannot sing in communion with one another. So when we are gathered together, let us sing with both the spirit and the understanding also.
In public the two do not count equally. What reaches the mind carries the greater weight with Paul, and the person who understands least sets the standard:
But we see also that prayer, singing, blessing, thanksgiving, as well as prophesying, had their full place in the assembly. They are all to edification... Power on its own is not enough, however clearly divine it is. What comes with the understanding, and so speaks to the understanding, carries the greatest weight with the apostle. He counts it as speaking with the Lord's authority. That is as true of prayers and hymns as it is of teaching. The least in the assembly is presumed to go intelligently with the praise or thanksgiving that rises up to God.
If a hymn is meant to voice everyone, then personal enjoyment of it is not enough reason to announce it:
Suppose someone has found great joy in a certain hymn. It is a completely false principle for him to think he must at once take it to the assembly and ask everyone there to sing it with him. It is no doubt very natural to assume that what I find to be good, I should ask others to share. But it goes against the truth of 1 Corinthians 14... the hymn should be the expression of the minds and hearts of the saints at that particular time, and this shuts us up to the Spirit of God.
The same rule reaches the person who is only singing along:
We may sing a hymn of praise tunefully with our lips, but if our spirit is not with it, it is not acceptable worship to God. I must sing with the spirit and with the understanding. My heart must be right before my lips.
- Unfruitful — the word does not describe a confused speaker. It means his understanding bore no fruit in anyone else.
- Both — Paul keeps the spirit and adds the mind. What he says to God alone can stay private. What he brings to others must make sense to them all.
- Shared — a spiritual nature makes praise to God possible. Spiritual understanding makes it praise offered together.
- Measured — even the quietest person there should be able to follow the thanksgiving rising to God. So what reaches the mind carries the greatest weight.
- Costly — choosing a hymn is serious work, and singing one is honest work. The heart must be right before the lips.
Since otherwise, if thou blessest with [the] spirit, how shall he who fills the place of the simple [Christian] say Amen, at thy giving of thanks, since he does not know what thou sayest?
In Corinth spiritual power was never in doubt; the trouble was that gifted speakers left everyone else behind. Paul's test is simple: if a listener cannot follow you, he cannot say "Amen" to your thanksgiving.
The ESV reads "if you give thanks with your spirit." Older translations read "if you bless with the spirit." This verse settles whether the two are the same.
1 Cor. 14:16 gives clear proof of what other passages already make plain — that "blessing" means giving thanks. Elsewhere Scripture uses the two words for the same act. (Compare Matthew 14, Matthew 15, Luke 9, John 6) Here it identifies them as one.
The ESV speaks of "anyone in the position of an outsider." Older translations call him the "unlearned." The Greek word is idiotes.
idiotes (from idios, 'one's own')... is used of private persons, as distinct from officials or professionals, and so of simple or untaught people. The apostle asks how such a person could say Amen to the giving of thanks by someone speaking in a tongue, when he does not understand what was said (1 Cor. 14:16). In 1 Cor. 14:23-24 Paul classes him with unbelievers.
He is not a bystander. What he can follow sets the limit for what is said aloud.
The striking thing here is the clear recognition of the "unlearned," and his place as a true worshipper in the assembly of God. The apostle's thoughts rest mainly on him. God's assemblies are not set up for the empty display of gift. They are a means of building up His saints together... In a gathering of worshippers, anything the weakest member of Christ's body cannot understand builds nobody up, though it may interest a few.
Paul had just said his understanding was "unfruitful" when he prayed in a tongue. The word does not describe confusion in the speaker. It describes a result that bears no fruit.
Some have said this means he did not understand, but that is plainly wrong. Unfruitful means not bearing fruit. Suppose I pray in the assembly in a tongue the assembly does not know. I understand myself, but my understanding bears no fruit in the understanding of others.
Thanksgiving spoken aloud is not private business between one believer and God while the rest listen in.
So the same principle applies even in prayer and praise. In the assembly all is done for the assembly. The speaker must be either the voice of the assembly to God or the voice of God to the assembly. The assembly as such is always in mind. The gathering is not to be turned into a field for the private exercises of the saints, whatever their character might be. It is solemn to see that even giving thanks well in this way would not justify the thanksgiving. That the gift is from God does not by itself justify using it. Its use at any moment must be governed by the principle running through all this: building others up.
That is why the humblest listener is the measure of what is fitting.
Power is not enough, however clearly divine. What comes with understanding, and so speaks to the understanding, carries the greatest weight with the apostle... Even the least in the assembly is meant to follow, with understanding, the praise or thanksgiving that rises up to God.
"Amen" means "so be it." By saying it, listeners take another person's words on their own lips before God. That is only honest if they followed the words.
So the speaker must carry the assembly with him. They understand and follow what he says. They confirm his words before God and make them their own by saying "Amen" (meaning "So be it") at the end. They cannot say "Amen" with sense or honesty if they have no idea what it was all about.
The Amen is also meant to be heard, not just felt. One writer presses this on prayer meetings today.
Note that verse 16 assumes that everyone in the assembly, even the unlearned and the insignificant, does say "Amen." They say it; they do not just think it... If someone praying truly puts our own desires into words, let us confirm what he has said with a good, clear "Amen." If he has not, honesty makes us hold it back.
- Blessing. In this verse "bless" and "give thanks" describe one and the same act — praise addressed to God.
- Hearer. The "unlearned" is the plain, untrained person. He is a real worshipper, and the one Paul keeps in view.
- Fruit. A speaker can understand himself and still be unfruitful. Fruit here means understanding in the people listening.
- Voice. Whoever speaks aloud is either the assembly's voice to God or God's voice to the assembly. The meeting is not a place for private exercises.
- Amen. The listener's spoken "Amen" makes another's words his own. So it must be honest, audible, and based on what he understood.
For *thou* indeed givest thanks well, but the other is not edified.
Paul does not dismiss the man speaking in a tongue. He grants that the thanksgiving is good, then adds one word that undoes its usefulness: but. Can something truly offered to God still have no place in the gathering?
God accepts the thanks. The hearer still gains nothing.
One may give thanks well, with both he and God understanding what he says, but "the other person is not being built up."
Nothing is wrong with the thanks. The problem is the distance between the man's mouth and his neighbour's mind.
So one test decides what belongs in the assembly. Even a display of power must meet it.
Building others up, then, is the absolute rule for what is said in the assembly. However astonishing the display of divine power in answer to the name of Jesus, if it does not build up, it has no rightful place there. For love builds up, as knowledge puffs up, and power startles or stuns. God is love, so the assembly is the fitting place to exercise love, the energy of His own nature.
So what carries weight when the assembly meets? Not the power behind the words.
Power is not enough, however clearly divine. What is done with the understanding, and so speaks to the understanding, carries the most weight with the apostle, since it speaks with authority for the Lord. This is as true of prayers and hymns as of teaching. Even the least person in the assembly should be able to follow the praise or thanksgiving that rises up to God. To be understood, and so to build others up, is required in the assembly.
after_note: DELETE
The weakest person present is the one the rule protects.
One person prays aloud, but he is not praying only for himself.
You may give thanks ever so well, but there is no edification for the other. So even in prayer and praise the same principle holds. In the assembly everything is done for the assembly. The speaker must be either the voice of the assembly to God, or the voice of God to the assembly. The assembly itself is always in mind. The gathering must not be turned into a mere field for the private exercises of believers, whatever their character may be. Even giving thanks well in this way would not justify the thanksgiving. The fact that the gift is from God does not automatically justify the use of it.
The hearers have one word to say, and it is how they take the prayer as their own.
If anyone speaks to God in the assembly, in prayer or in thanksgiving, he must remember one thing. He is voicing the desires or the praises of the assembly. He is not speaking merely on his own behalf. So he must carry the assembly with him. They understand and follow what he says. Then they confirm it before God and make it their own by saying "Amen" (meaning "So be it") at the end. They cannot intelligibly and honestly say "Amen" at the end if they have no idea what it was all about.
A strange language is not the only way to lose the room. Plain words help nobody if nobody can hear them.
If I sing, if I pray, if I speak, what is the good of doing so unless the rest are edified? I once said to a friend of mine, "I never say 'Amen' to your prayers." He looked surprised and asked, "Why?" "Because," I replied, "I never hear what you say. You mumble so much in your prayers that I cannot hear you. And I am not going to say 'Amen' to a random string of words that I do not hear."
- Well. The thanks are real, and God understands them. Paul never questions the man's sincerity.
- But. The verse turns on one person: "the other." What reached God has still not reached him.
- Rule. Edification decides what belongs in the assembly. If it does not build up, no amount of power earns it a place.
- Voice. The one who prays aloud speaks for everyone present, not just for himself.
- Amen. The hearer's "Amen" is the proof the words arrived. A prayer nobody can follow is a prayer nobody can own.