1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians 14
Be Zealous to Prophesy
1 Pursue love, and be zealous for the spiritual things, but rather that you may prophesy. 2 For the one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God, for no one hears; but in spirit he speaks secrets. 3 But the one who prophesies speaks to people building up and encouragement and consolation. 4 The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself; but the one who prophesies builds up a gathering. 5 And I want you all to speak in tongues, but rather that you may prophesy; and greater is the one who prophesies than the one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the gathering may receive building up.
Sounds With No Distinction
6 But now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what will I benefit you, unless I speak to you either in a revelation or in knowledge or in prophecy or in teaching? 7 It is the same with lifeless things that give a sound, whether flute or lyre: if they give no distinction in the notes, how will what is played on the flute or on the lyre be known? 8 For indeed, if a trumpet gives an unclear sound, who will get ready for war? 9 So also you: if through the tongue you do not give a word easy to recognize, how will what is spoken be known? For you will be speaking into the air.
10 There are, it may be, so many kinds of sounds in the world, and none is without sound; 11 so if I do not know the power of the sound, I will be foreign-speaking to the one who is speaking, and the one who is speaking foreign-speaking to me. 12 So also you: since you are zealous for spirits, seek to abound toward the building up of the gathering.
13 Therefore let the one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. 14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. 15 What then is it? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray also with the mind; I will make music with the spirit, but I will make music also with the mind. 16 Otherwise, if you bless in spirit, how will the one who fills the place of the ordinary person say the Amen at your thanksgiving, since he does not know what you are saying? 17 For you indeed give thanks well, but the other is not built up.
18 I thank God, I speak in tongues more than all of you; 19 but in a gathering I want to speak five words with my mind, so that I may instruct others also, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue.
A Sign for the Faithless
20 Brothers, do not become children in your thinking; but in evil be infants, and in your thinking become complete. 21 In the law it is written:
22 So then the tongues are for a sign, not to those who trust but to the faithless; but prophecy is not for the faithless but for those who trust.
23 So if the whole gathering comes together in the same place and all speak in tongues, and ordinary people or faithless people come in, will they not say that you are mad? 24 But if all prophesy, and some faithless or ordinary person comes in, he is convicted by all, he is examined by all; 25 the hidden things of his heart become visible, and so, falling on his face, he will bow down to God, reporting that “God is really among you.”
Let Everything Be Done Decently and in Order
26 What then is it, brothers? When you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let everything be for building up. 27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, let it be by two or at the most three, and in turn, and let one interpret; 28 but if there is no interpreter, let him be silent in a gathering, and let him speak to himself and to God.
29 And let two or three prophets speak, and let the others distinguish. 30 But if something is revealed to another sitting there, let the first be silent. 31 For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged 32 (and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets, 33 for God is not of disorder but of peace) — as in all the gatherings of the holy ones.
34 Let the women be silent in the gatherings, for it is not permitted for them to speak; but let them be subject, as the law also says. 35 And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home, for it is shameful for a woman to speak in a gathering. 36 Or did the word of God go out from you? Or did it reach you alone?
37 If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s; 38 but if anyone does not know, he is not known. 39 So then, my brothers, be zealous for prophesying, and do not forbid speaking in tongues; 40 but let everything be done decently and in order.