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?