“¹⁰There are, perhaps, a great many kinds of languages in the world, and no kind is without meaning. ¹¹If 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. ¹²So also you, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek to abound for the edification of the church.”

Two different words are used for languages. One is “glossa,” usually translated in English as “tongues,” which refers to languages, and in this context the supernatural gift of speaking in an otherwise foreign human language. The word used here is the Greek word “phone,” which more generally refers to sounds, picking up on the reference to musical sounds. Combining the analogy of music with the use of human languages, these things have meaning, and so too should the spiritual gift of tongues. It should not be gibberish in the ears of others, used only for some sort of personal benefit.

The Corinthians’ use of tongues produced a worship experience that would have made them appear to others like unlearned barbarians. There would be an atmosphere of complete confusion, with no meaningful communication or edification taking place. In other words, the use of tongues is not some sort of mystical euphoria or so-called manifestation of the Spirit. That would be nonsense.

So when Paul exhorts the Corinthians (and us) to “desire earnestly spiritual gifts” (1 Cor. 14:1), he does not mean to encourage a zeal for personal experience, but a zeal for edifying others. In order for tongues to be edifying, the people present must understand what is being said! Paul writes to the Romans, “So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another” (Rom. 14:19). Spiritual gifts should always be desired for the benefit of others, not for our own benefit.

The Corinthians failed in that their gatherings had become not a place for worship and mutual edification, but a gathering of selfish, self-centered, carnal Christians looking for their own individual self-benefiting spiritual experiences. In other words, they gathered because of what they could each get out of the gathering, rather than what each could give to the gathering.

This affirms the earlier interpretation of Paul’s critical statement: “For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God” (1 Cor. 14:2), which is followed by, “one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church” (1 Cor. 14:2–4). The gift of tongues was not to be for speaking to God or for one’s own edification. Those are statements of fact, meant to point out their error. Those uses don’t edify others!

Lord, help me do everything for the building up of others and not myself.