1 Corinthians 14:18–19

He takes great care to show that he did not feel this way out of jealousy. It was not because he had fewer gifts than they had. He had no reason of his own to run down the gifts he was speaking about. In verse 18 he says, "I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you." But what he wanted was edification, that is, the building up of the saints.

The Corinthians had certainly overrated tongues. They lacked spiritual discernment and had prized the gift too highly. So, to avoid seeming to undervalue it, he solemnly thanks God for the fuller display of that same power in his own case. God had chosen him as a messenger to the nations. So besides the mysterious gift of speech no one could understand, he could speak without limit, as his calling required. But in the Church (at Corinth, or anywhere else), he would be heard only in the spoken language of the place.

The tongue here is a real language, as we see in Acts 2:6, 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, while he stayed in full control of his words. This had clear value when speaking to a foreigner whose own language it was. In this respect Paul spoke with tongues more than others. But in the assembly, where everyone understood Greek, other tongues were unnecessary.

How beautiful is this self-renunciation in Paul! He had every gift. Yet with a single heart he sought not to display his gifts, but to exalt his Lord and build up the saints... Coming from such a man, these words of the Holy Spirit carry great force: "Let all things be done for building up."

He spoke more foreign languages, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, than they all. But his soul loved the things of God. He loved to receive truth from Him with his mind engaged. He loved fellowship with others where minds truly met. So he would rather say five words with his understanding than ten thousand without it in a language no one knew.

There was the fullest proof in that city that it is no question of power. The Spirit of God worked among those saints openly and powerfully. They spoke with tongues, we are told; but they were worldly. In their ways they were a spectacle of shame, instead of being a practical witness to the grace of the Lord Jesus. Is not this a solemn lesson to us?

All these rules and statements teach us one thing. The churches were allowed to use this gift rather than encouraged to use it (see verse 39). It got in the way of what was really needed, which is building up in love, instead of helping it. Furthermore, tongues were for a sign to unbelievers. Prophesying is for believers.

The great aim of speaking in the assembly is to build people up. That aim is only reached when people understand what is said. It is impossible for a man to build me up if I cannot understand what he says. He must speak in a language I understand, and loudly enough to hear, or I receive nothing that builds me up. This is plain, and worth the serious attention of all who speak in public.

The apostle is careful to show that he had no reason at all to be jealous of others speaking in a tongue. He himself had this gift more than all of them. But in the assembly he would rather speak five words with the understanding than any number in a tongue. He said this because his heart was set on instructing others as well. It is love that should move us, not self-pleasing; and love works with a view to edification.

He wants the mind to be at work. This remark is of the highest importance when we judge men's claims to the Spirit. He does not deny that they might speak with tongues without the mind being in it at all — and that had clear power and use when people were present who understood no other language, or whose own language it was. But in general it was a lower thing when the Spirit did not act on the mind of the speaker, and so work through it. When the speaker did not understand his own words, there was no communion between souls in a common subject through the unity of the Spirit. The one speaking did not himself enjoy, as from God, what he communicated to others.

He desired to speak of things that he intelligently grasped, in such a way that they were thoroughly intelligible to his listeners.

The apostle plainly grieves over the Corinthians because they failed with the gifts of God. They loved to make a display before the world, instead of enjoying God Himself in His word and building up His saints, and that grieved him. So he tries to convince them of their mistake, showing them that tongues are one of the lowest forms of the Spirit's working, and prophesying one of the highest... Refreshment, comfort, the lifting up of the heart — the building up of the saints — should be the one great aim of the Christian teacher. The man who ministers Christ and His work to the soul, out of the fullness of his own heart, is the minister who always builds up and never disappoints.

The use of tongues was tolerated rather than commended, because it was a hindrance rather than a help to the thing that was needed, which is building up in love.

Our only warrant for standing up to speak in the assembly is that the Lord Himself has given us something to say. If it is only "five words," let us say the five and sit down. Nothing is more foolish than for a man to try to speak "ten thousand words" when God has only given him "five."... An earnest heart is better than a clever head. A fervent spirit is better than an eloquent tongue.

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.