The Gifts of the Holy Spirit- 4
Pastor Marty Monday, June 29, 2026 at 5:19PM 1 Corinthians 14:20-33. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, June 28, 2026.
Today, we come to the end of our look at how the Holy Spirit empowers believers with spiritual gifts.
Paul has been correcting the Corinthians over their over-fascination with speaking in tongues in their worship assemblies. They had carried pagan understandings of spirituality into Christianity which caused them to be at odds with the work of the Holy Spirit.
Let’s look at the rest of chapter 14.
Application for the sake of unbelievers (v. 20-25)
Up to this point, Paul has been explaining how to apply his teaching for the sake of other believers. He challenged them that tongues were good because through them a person edifies themselves (builds themselves up to be more like Jesus). However, in the assembly of believers, the desire should be for gifts that are understandable. If a person speaks in tongues, and it is not interpreted, then no one else will be edified. This is good in your private devotions, but not within an assembly.
A person may ask why it wouldn’t be fine for everyone to gather and edify themselves. However, edifying yourself through the Holy Spirit is best on your own. In Christian gatherings, it is the will of the Holy Spirit to work through us to minister to others and to work through others to minister to us. This is God’s way, but we can also see how it keeps us from becoming myopic and insular.
Now, Paul deals with the situation from the standpoint that unbelievers may also be in the meeting. What is the effect on unbelievers of everyone speaking in tongues without interpretation?
Paul first brings up the issue of spiritual immaturity. He mentioned this back in chapter 13. “When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.” Verse 20 challenges them to stop being children spiritually and start being spiritually mature in this matter. He continues the maturity language, “in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.”
This is similar to Paul’s statement in Romans 16:19, “Be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil.” Their wisdom was driving them to practices that were not good and were even evil. Their actions were evil because they were at odds with the Holy Spirit’s good purpose, and it was causing harm to the gospel and people.
This is a thread throughout this first letter to the Corinthians. Their wisdom led them to lift up one leader above others. It led some of them to try and have “spiritual marriages” by refraining from sexual intercourse with one another. This may sound spiritual, but Paul saw that the devil would use it to destroy them. The Holy Spirit was not given to cause us to cease from having sex. That will be our condition following the resurrection, but not now. Their wisdom led them to these problems with the spiritual gifts as well. All of this is childish thinking in regard to the legitimate spiritual gifts.
Paul then traces this issue of unknown languages back into the Scriptures (Old Testament). He quotes from Isaiah 28:11-12. Several things will become clear if we go back to that chapter and read it.
First of all, right before this section, God rebukes Israel for not listening to His instructions through the prophets (in a language they understand even). Can God teach the children when the adults won’t listen (verse 9)? Because they were not listening to His words through the prophets in their own language, He would now speak to them in a language they don’t understand by foreigners (especially Assyria and Babylon).
God is not presenting the foreign tongues as a solution to their lack of listening to His prophets. As they hear the foreign tongues, they might “that they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared and taken captive (verse 13).”
The foreign tongues are connected to being cast out of the land due to sin. It is connected to being far from God and His place of dwelling. Yet, this connection goes back further than Isaiah.
Strange tongues originated at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. Nimrod had led the people into a rebellion against God’s command to fill the earth and be fruitful. They build a tower at Babel in order to connect to the fallen Elohim from before the flood. God’s judgment upon the tower project was to confuse the language of the people. This became the origin of nations. They could not understand one another. We are told that God then handed them over to the powers of the heavens and determined the boundaries of their dwelling places (Deut 4:19; Deut 32:8-9; Romans 1:23-24). Genesis 10 pictured around seventy different nations. Again, the strange tongues surrounding you, i.e., not understanding the language of those speaking around you, is a sign of God’s judgment upon the nations. They are being cast out as the humans who will dwell in His presence with a special relationship. Instead, God then turns to call Abraham in order to make a new nation (Israel) who can serve Him.
The ministry of Jesus set off a cascade of events. God was calling Israel to embrace Messiah and become a light to the nations. However, as a nation, they refused. Yet, a remnant believed. Thus, we have an event where some who are unbelieving are under the judgment of God, but others who are believing are not under the judgment of God. All of this is within Israel. Outside of Israel, the nations who have been under the judgment of God for millennia are entering a new era of grace. God’s intention is now to speak to them in a language they understand in order to call them to faith in Messiah Jesus. Of course, they too have a choice to make in which some will not believe and a remnant will believe.
All of this is the backdrop to what Paul is trying to cause the Corinthians to understand.
All of this is important for Paul because he is building a case, or argument, for why we would want unbelievers to understand what the Spirit is saying.
He states in verse 22 that tongues are a sign to unbelievers (not to believers). He does not mean they would be a sign that they could read and understand. He means it in the sense we have described in Isaiah and Genesis. God speaking in a language you do not understand has always been a sign of judgment. You are not God’s target audience. This has changed since Jesus. God is now targeting all humanity with His message concerning Messiah Jesus.
Before you jump to the conclusion that tongues should never happen, let Paul’s argument sink in. God’s purpose is for unbelievers to hear the Gospel. If they come into a church service and only hear foreign tongues, then they will continue in unbelief because they haven’t heard the good news. At least, they haven’t truly received an opportunity to believe.
All of this is in the context of a gathering of people. Paul earlier made it clear that he spoke in tongues more than any of the Corinthians (vs. 18). Yet, in a gathering, he would rather speak 5 words in an intelligible language than 10,000 words in a language people don’t understand. Thus, it is clearly implied that he mainly spoke in tongues during private devotional times. Paul’s argument against uninterpreted messages in tongues in Church gatherings cannot be used to disqualify uninterpreted tongues in private prayers. There is no hint of a problem in the private devotional life of the Corinthians.
If you are perplexed as to what good praying in tongues would have for a believer, i.e., how does it edify me (vs. 4), I have spoken to this before now. So, I will give a few points. First, speaking in tongues is instigated by the Holy Spirit within us. To recognize that and yield yourself to trust the Holy Spirit builds our faith in Him. It isn’t important for you to understand all that the Spirit is praying through you because the fact that you are working with the Holy Spirit to speak to God in ways He can understand strengthens our confidence in His work in us. Second, if I am used to speaking things that I don’t understand in languages I don’t understand, then it will be easier for me to speak the things I do understand in a language others will understand. This strengthens our obedience to the Holy Spirit in real time. In fact, when the Holy Spirit compels us to speak certain things in particular situations, we don’t always understand the wisdom and purpose behind them, even though we perfectly understand the words. Trust in God is something we need to become better at doing.
If you are wondering about the speaking in languages at Pentecost, we can say that the messages were interpreted by the people outside of the group who understood what was being said. However, Pentecost is a unique event (no other event like it). The way that tongues happened on that day should not be turned into a pattern anymore than we should expect tongues of fire on our head or the sound of a mighty wind in our meetings.
In short, God is reversing the judgment of Babel through the work of Jesus Christ and His Church. We need to seek for unbelievers to hear the message of the Spirit in a language they understand.
On the other hand, Paul tells us that prophecy is a sign to believers that God is still working with us and through us (vs. 22). It is meant to spur us on in becoming like Jesus.
Verse 23 introduces a hypothetical situation of a gathered church all speaking in tongues only. There are two categories of people mentioned: “ungifted or unbelievers.” There is no question what “unbelievers” means. It is referring to those who have not put their faith in Jesus. They may be open or hostile. Regardless, they are not a part of the church yet. The “ungifted” as the NASB translates is not as straightforward. There are a variety of translations which all involve trying to interpret what Paul means. The word essentially has the meaning of an unlearned or untaught person. But, in what way is this meant? “Ungifted” is interpreting it to mean those who don’t have a spiritual gift in order to interpret the tongue. However, they may only be unlearned about what spiritual gifts are. It is also possible that they are a category between believer and unbeliever. They are not opposed to believing. They are simply uninformed regarding the gospel. Regardless of how we translate this term, we are still dealing with the same dynamics. People who are not believers and not learned in the things of the Gospel will hear everyone speaking in tongues only. They will then conclude that everyone is crazy. The Corinthians will essentially put them in a “judged of God” position in which they don’t understand what is happening and continue down a path of being lost.
The problem with all of this is that God is no longer excluding the nations, unbelievers, the uninformed. He is calling all men everywhere to hear the truth, repent of sin, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Their actions were actually contradicting God’s purpose.
Speaking in tongues alone will not save the lost. It will only push them away further. However, Paul states that prophecy (speaking in a language they understand) can convict them and lead them to repentance. Of course, they can reject it and remain unbelievers. However, they will no longer be uninformed regarding the message of Christ to them.
Ordering spiritual gifts in the assembly of believers (v. 26-33)
Starting in verse 26, Paul lays down some rules that will bring proper, godly order to their worship gatherings. The first point is that the assembly of believers is for the purpose of ministering to one another with the spiritual gifts that the Holy Spirit distributes. Paul then states that all things in the service should be done for edification. We could insert after edification, “for everyone.”
This is a point that many churches should take to heart. Church is not about everyone gathering to get something from a couple of leaders. Rather, Paul pictures everyone gathering with something to share with all the rest. This doesn’t mean that everyone has vocal gifts. However, every gift will be exercised in order to edify the rest of the group. The average Christian in the West does not come to church with some way to minister to everyone else.
In fact, we must be careful that the way we do church doesn’t squelch God’s work and opportunities to do so through His people. We can have an attitude that the leadership has the Holy Spirit, so nothing is needed from the lowly “receiving class.” A tightly controlled service can quench the Spirit. However, the Corinthians had the opposite problem. Their lack of control was quenching the work that the Spirit was endeavoring to do. We must find a balance between strong leadership that protects us from abuse and a leadership that is so lax that anything goes, i.e., the only thing that matters is that we look spiritual.
Paul gives us a good example of a leader who is calling the church back to cooperation with the Holy Spirit.
We should note that Paul’s conclusion is not that there should be no messages in tongues in the assembly, but that there should be a limit, two or three at the most. Each of these messages in tongues should be done one at a time, and they should be interpreted. He is not getting rid of tongues in the assembly. His concern is not that an unbeliever would hear a message in tongues, only that it should be interpreted.
In all of this, let’s keep in mind that Paul is correcting a particular error in Corinth. He did not teach them these things from the beginning because He believed they would exercise the spiritual gifts properly. Is Paul saying that all churches in all generations should follow these same rules? No, he is not. However, all churches need to process the truths that Paul lays out. We all need to work for the overall vision that Paul has for the use of spiritual gifts in our assemblies. It is possible for a church to have more than three messages, if they are not making the error that the Corinthians did.
We should also notice that Paul does not refer to times within the worship service where people are praying, worshipping, in a private way. It is often the case that people pray and even speak in tongues but to themselves. They are not lifting their voices above the group so as to call attention to what they are saying. Yes, their neighbor could stop praying and listen in on their prayer. Is it possible that praying in tongues, with your spirit, in such a way does not breach the issues Paul raises? I think so.
Paul makes it clear that if you believe you have a message in tongues for the group, but you also know that there is no one there with the gift of interpretation, then you should not give the message. You should keep it to yourself. You should keep silent in the assembly (silent in relation to giving the message in tongues). Instead, you should speak to himself and God. I do not believe Paul is setting up an environment where we are all keeping an eye (an ear) on one another so that no one speaks in tongues in church at all. Rather, we are ensuring that everything that is publicly addressed to the whole body conforms to Paul’s rule of intelligibility. When tongues are interpreted, they fit this bill.
He then gives similar rules to prophecy, two or three at the most. They should be done one at a time, and others should judge the prophecies whether they are from God or not. He even challenges the prophets to work together. If one prophet has been speaking for a while and God moves upon another prophet, the first prophet should stop and allow the second to speak. In other words, jumping up first does not give you the public floor for the rest of the day. Work together.
It is easy with such rules to protest. “When the Spirit moves upon me, I have to move. I must speak what the Spirit is stirring in me!” Yet, Paul reminds them in verse 32 that the spirits of the prophets are “subject to the prophets.” His point is that the Spirit does not take control of our body. Rather, all spiritual gifts are a cooperation between the Spirit of God and the spirit of a person. God moves upon us, but then we wisely and righteously minister that to others (unless He is only speaking to you). Paul is not denying the source of their urge to prophesy and speak in tongues. Rather, he challenges them to work with the overall purpose of the Holy Spirit when feeling the urge to use the vocal, spiritual gifts in the assembly.
The Holy Spirit can be strong and powerful, but you are still in control of yourself and expected to remember all that the Spirit has revealed in Scripture. God doesn’t want to control you. He wants you to speak out in faith as He works by His Spirit within you. Yet, He wants you to respond wisely and in the knowledge of His ways.
You are not squelching the Holy Spirit to refrain from giving a message in tongues when no interpreters are present. You simply understand that there is a proper timing. You are waiting on the Lord for the proper timing and place.
The Corinthian problem is not our problem. We are often afraid of things getting out of control. We are tempted to make our services “safe” from the work of the Holy Spirit, even though we would never say that. In truth, we are more likely to offend the Holy Spirit in order to avoid offending people.
Paul ends this instruction in verse 33 with a statement that God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. Chaotic environments are not His doing. They are the work of our enemy, and people who wittingly or unwittingly do his bidding. People following their flesh can think that they are quite spiritual, whether they are in the error of a Corinthian style or they are in error by shutting down all spiritual gifts.
The Holy Spirit is here working to use us within the church. We need to listen to Him in order to bring peace to such chaotic environments. This starts first in each one’s own heart. When peace rules in my heart, I can then minister the peace of God into my family, and then my church, and then my Republic or nation.
The spiritual gifts are a work of the Holy Spirit for today. However, we must exercise them in keeping with His overall purpose of people being drawn to put their faith in Jesus. May we be filled with the Holy Spirit and His mighty power in all that we do.