1 Cor 14:1 Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. 2 For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries. 3 But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation. 4 One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church.

Since love will endure when all else disappears (1 Cor 13:8-13), we are to pursue it. But we should also be zealous for the spiritual gifts [the actual Greek word is zēlos].

Corinthian Christians distorted this. They ignored love and pursued gifts. The rest of this chapter will expose that.

We shouldn’t just let gifts come as they may. We should desire them with zeal and passion. We shouldn’t consider what we’ve got to be all that we’ll get. We should ask God to gift us with gifts He can use to accomplish His goals through us, stretching us beyond where we currently are.

That is especially true with the gift of prophecy. Honestly, have you ever asked God to gift you with prophecy? Yet Paul says we should do exactly that.

Paul elevates this gift for the specific reason that it builds others up, exhorts them to grow, and consoles them when they fear or hurt. In short, prophecy supports love.

Conversely, speaking in tongues - which we’ll see in the next study that the Corinthians pursued with the sort of passion they should have applied to love – is only a conversation between you and God. On its own, it does nothing for other people, so it lacks love for others. It is self-focused rather than other-focused.

Someone speaking to me in sign language may as well just be waving their hands in the air. Someone speaking to me in Russian may as well speak Khoisan or Klingon. I don’t understand any of those, so the message is lost on me. A Hebrew and Greek Bible is the Word of God, but how useful is it to most of us? That’s his criticism of tongues with no interpreter.

Throughout this chapter, sometimes Paul refers to speaking in “a tongue” and other times to speaking in “tongues.” I won’t say this conclusively, but an examination of the context suggests that he uses “a tongue” to refer to doing it with no interpreter and “tongues” when there is one. After all, without an interpreter only one language is spoken. Since the interpreter translates it into another language, it would make sense for that to be plural.
Here’s the takeaway: “Speaking mysteries in your spirit” (v. 2) pales in significance to “speaking to men for their edification, exhortation, and comfort” (v.3).

A Christian who gathers with other believers to worship, but doesn’t concern himself or herself with building other people up, is self-centered and unloving.

If you ever have to choose between worshiping God and building people up in His name, choose the latter.

1 Cor 14:5 Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy; and greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may receive edifying. 6 But now, brethren, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching? 7 Yet even lifeless things, either flute or harp, in producing a sound, if they do not produce a distinction in the tones, how will it be known what is played on the flute or on the harp? 8 For if the bugle produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle? 9 So also you, unless you utter by the tongue speech that is clear, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air. 10 There are, perhaps, a great many kinds of languages in the world, and no kind is without meaning. 11 If then I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be to the one who speaks a barbarian, and the one who speaks will be a barbarian to me.

Paul clarifies that he is not demeaning the gift of tongues. Rather, he’s criticizing Christians who use that gift for private purposes. He says in v.6 that prophecy is no better than tongues IF the tongues-speaker interprets what is said (in which case it becomes prophecy). If interpretation is present, both gifts edify the church.

Honestly, I can’t imagine what was in the hearts of those who spoke in tongues privately. Can you imagine God giving you private spiritual insight and keeping it to yourself? Why would anyone do that?

He illustrates this with two analogies:

1. When Paul first went to Corinth as a missionary, he would have been useless to them if he spoke in a language they didn’t understand. Their church wouldn’t exist if they didn’t understand his words. Instead, he brought them “revelation, knowledge, prophecy, words of instruction” (v. 6).
2. A flautist or harpist playing a single note and can’t rightly call it a tune, nor can a bugler playing nonsense notes expect the troops to respond as to a battle cry.
   

Words are not language unless they have meaning to the hearer (v.10), and language without meaning divides people (v.11).