This last half of Chapter 14 gives some good foundational rules about prophecy and tongues “since God is a God, not of confusion, but of peace” (v32). It is easy to become self-important. When God gives good gifts, pride can swell up, even with the intentions of humility. It can creep up on us without us being aware of it. The gifts we have should always be received with humility, reverence and holy disinterest.

If you notice the attitude Paul has toward the gifts, he acknowledges them as good and holy. But when God gives, there is a purpose to them and care should be taken to make sure they have the fruitfulness He intended for them (26b). These gifts do exist and should be desired, but not inordinately, causing a person to sin. Paul appreciates these gifts, but does not put a person’s total worth on them. He does not hold on to these gifts. Peace should be one of its fruits. It should bring clarity to the mind.

To facilitate this clarity and peace, Paul is making the rule that only three should bring about the revelations they receive and one at a time (27, 29 &31). A person should be there to interpret. If there is nobody there to interpret the tongues, then that person should remain silent and pray quietly (28). One time a person was speaking in Russian and nobody was there to interpret at that time. The person kept on talking because they thought they were praising God. Then another person came in and understood the language. Come to find out the person was cursing God, not praising God. There are spiritual realities that we must all be careful of.

Going back to some of the basics, we need to be able to discern when it is the Holy Spirit acting and when we can be sure it is the enemy. The Holy Spirit will always have His fruits, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5:22-23). When it is the enemy, you will notice what is listed in Galatians 5:19-21, which is any kind of sin or sinful disposition in the heart and mind.

There are some different reasons why God chooses these gifts. They are a form of communication. Prophecy can be in the form of tongues. It can be to instruct a person on what to do in big life situations or in small occurrences. They can be words of consolation and/or healing. They are meant to build up faith, and at times a warning about sin and death. The message may make a person feel guilty so as to encourage them to go to confession, but does not shame them of their sins so as to fall into despair. How a person reacts to these messages is up to them. God does not take away free will.

The person speaking does not necessarily understand what the message is all about. Abraham didn’t even know he was prophesying when he told Isaac, “God will supply the Sacrifice” (Gen 22:8). The messenger does not have to be a person who is holy. In John 11:50-15, the high priest that had condemned Jesus prophesied about the death of Jesus. A fun reading would be in Numbers, Chapter 22-24. In Chapter 22, verses 28-30, a donkey spoke to the prophet Balaam. So God can speak through anything He wishes.

So many times, the message gets lost in the hype that God would speak to us through such strange means. The most important thing is the message, so that it does not go in vain. Gifts are good to ask for. The one who asks for them must be willing to be God’s servant and keep that disposition in their soul. 

True love always seeks what is holy. We see this in chapter 13. This is how we can recognize love. Recognizing love is of the utmost importance. Everybody intuitively knows that we are all called to love. But what is it, that we may know how to have a sense of fulfillment? Love can never sin as defined by God. Unfortunately, love has been twisted into many different things that are not love. Love in marriage ends by being nothing more than a contract of mutual use. As long as the couple get a feeling from each other, then it is worth it, but when that feeling is no longer there, or if the person does not make me feel good, then they are beyond their usefulness. In this pagan society that we live in, love is about “what I get out of it”. It is actually greed, lust and turned into everything evil, rather than all that is good. I could easily see in the future that the experience of the pagan “love” would be distained as the reason a person suffers and even worse yet, without any fruitfulness. Love itself will be hated by all, because of our abuse of love. Yet we would be so blind to know the goodness of the real love Jesus is offering us.

Yet Paul exhorts us to “Seek eagerly after love” (14:1). Love should be the proper disposition to the gifts that God gives us. In this case, Paul is talking about the gift of prophecy. Whenever any gift is given, it is done not in self-interest, but in self-giving. Paul makes one distinction between a specific kind of tongues and prophecy. Prophecy is a message for others from God. Prophecy can come in the form of tongues. It is meant to build up the person and give them what they need. In that way, he builds up the people of God, the Church. Paul seems to prefer that a person ask to the gift of prophecy, so that a person may not build themselves up too much and not their neighbor.

But the tongues that Paul is talking about is a prayer that a person makes directly to God. It is a prayer that is inspired by the Holy Spirit “because he utters mysteries in the Spirit” (2). “No one understands him” but the one who it is intended for knows; for “we do not know how to pray as we ought” (Rom 8:26). Yet a person with this gift needs to be careful that they are not praying something bad. Paul goes on to write about a person who can interpret what is said and then can be shared and build up the community. Paul does not have much use for speaking in tongues that are unintelligible, “if you do not utter intelligible speech because you are speaking in a tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will be talking into the air” (9). The intelligible meaning may not be understood by all. In fact, it may be just one person who understands.

This is where Paul encourages the person who speaks to have the ability to understand that the words do not go in vain (13-14). Paul wants the intellect involved and engaged (15). When the mind is engaged, they can be instructed, appreciate the prayers and affirm them with an “Amen” (16-17).

So there is private prayer in tongues that builds up the individual who is praying. But there is also public prayer in tongues that can help unbelievers believe. They can be challenged with this gift and come to know that there really is a God by witnessing to the miracle of tongues (24-25). It seems that people with tongues have spoken languages they did not know and instructed non-believers in faith. Tongues and prophecy can be intermingled according to God’s plan.

So Paul is instructing the people in tongues and prophecy in its proper use and context. Many people have questions about these things. This is a good start in knowing that such things do exist. They should be respected and treated in a mature manner (20). It is not something we decide happens; it is a gift from God. The giver is always greater than the gift. The gift of self, the one who is Love itself.