“¹³Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. ¹⁴For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. ¹⁵What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also.

“Therefore” signals that Paul now begins to make a logical inference, a conclusion to his correction on the misuse of the spiritual gift of tongues. Keeping in mind that he has more to say to round out this discussion, here he appeals to the importance of comprehension. Paul rarely appealed to mindless, or unexplainable, truth—although there is one notable exception. Referring to himself, he wrote:

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago … was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak. (2 Cor. 12:2–4)

However, he does not allow the Corinthians that explanation or experience to justify their abuses. The normal course of human experience in the church is to be cognitive and understandable. The spiritual gifts are not an ecstatic experience of “inexpressible words,” for indeed tongues was expressed. The gift of tongues is not “the Spirit Himself interced[ing] for uswith groanings too deep for words” (Rom. 8:26), for that would not involve any sounds or utterances at all. The gift of tongues is verbal utterances that have the meaning of a human language.

The correct use of tongues involves both the spirit and the mind—note there is nothing about an emotional release or ecstatic trance. Paul circles back to the musical and includes singing along with speaking—all should be intelligible as well as spiritual. Otherwise, the use of tongues is “unfruitful.”

The overriding theme of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is the truth that can be expressed in words with cogent meaning: “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). If we put that squarely in the center of our affection and our zeal, we will not be absorbed in the desire to seek our own benefit in the use of spiritual gifts. Rather, like Christ and Him crucified, we will seek to lay down our lives, our desires, ourselves for the edification, the benefit of others. Such an attitude when Christians gather is an exercise in what Jesus spoke of when He said, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

Father, I want to live the crucified life in my service for fellow believers. Let me not, Lord, seek my own benefit, but that of others.