Speaking in Tongues Edifies Yourself — Prophecy Edifies the Church
· Jerwin Arnado · 7 min read ·
Speaking in an uninterpreted tongue edifies yourself; prophecy edifies the church. Both are real. Both are grace. But they build different things — one strengthens your own inner spiritual life, the other strengthens the whole gathered family of God. Paul’s point to the Corinthians was never to shame the first, but to aim public worship at the second.
The Scripture
“He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church.” — 1 Corinthians 14:4 (NKJV)
To edify means to build up — to strengthen, to help grow, the way a builder raises a house one course of stones at a time. The question Paul presses on the Corinthians is not “Is this gift real?” but “Who does this gift build?”
The Devotional Reflection
1. Tongues Are a Private Line to God
“For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 14:2). An uninterpreted tongue is a direct, personal prayer link between the believer and God. Because the words are not in a known language, they teach no crowd — but they refresh and strengthen the one praying. That is not a small thing. Paul himself said, “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you” (14:18). A gift that builds your own inner life is still a gift worth exercising — in its proper place.
2. These Are Not the Tongues of Pentecost
It helps to see that Scripture describes two different situations. At Pentecost, the disciples spoke in known human languages that the hearers understood immediately — “each of us hears them in our own native language” (Acts 2:8). No interpreter was needed; the tongue itself was the sermon, a sign that drew the crowd. In Corinth it is the opposite: the hearers do not understand — “no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit” (14:2). The speech is directed to God, not to people. Whether these Corinthian tongues were a heavenly language (Paul mentions “tongues of angels” in 13:1) or human languages simply unknown to that congregation, the text does not settle. But Paul’s instruction is the same either way: a tongue no one present understands belongs to private prayer unless it is interpreted.
3. Is “Edifies Himself” a Compliment or a Criticism?
Some read Paul’s words with a raised eyebrow, as if self-edification were a polite way of saying “selfish.” But Paul will not let us read it that way. He says plainly, “I would like every one of you to speak in tongues” (14:5), and “do not forbid speaking in tongues” (14:39). You do not thank God for a defect.
The benefit is real; the venue is the issue. The key is the contrast inside 14:18–19: “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.” Paul’s own tongues life was rich — and private. Corinth’s error was not having the gift; it was performing a private gift publicly, uninterpreted, and wearing it as a badge of spirituality. This is where the love chapter does its work: love “is not self-seeking” (13:5), so in the gathering, love reaches for the gift that seeks the good of others.
4. Public Worship Aims at Everyone’s Good
Paul wrote this chapter to bring order to worship services in Corinth, where the gathering had become a room full of voices no one could understand. His correction: in the assembly, the higher value belongs to what everyone can grasp — prophecy, clear teaching — because “the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort” (14:3). The measure of a public gift is not how spiritual it feels to the speaker, but how much it builds the listeners. And this test reaches further than tongues: it touches the words we preach with, the songs we choose, the language our hearers actually think in. Five understood words outweigh ten thousand that soar over the congregation’s heads.
5. Praying with the Spirit and with the Understanding
Paul adds a window into his own prayer life: “If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding” (14:14–15). Notice he refuses both extremes. Not all mind — a faith of pure intellect that never lets the spirit soar. Not all spirit — an ecstasy that leaves the mind parked outside. The whole person prays: spirit and understanding together, each feeding the other.
6. Interpretation and Order — for Prophecy Too
Paul does not forbid tongues in the gathering; he sets conditions. “Anyone who speaks in a tongue should pray that they may interpret what they say” (14:13). Two, or at most three, should speak — in turn — and someone must interpret; if there is no interpreter, “the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God” (14:28). Interpretation is the bridge: it carries what was spoken to God in mystery back to the church in words that build everyone.
But here is what is often missed: the same discipline applies to prophecy. Prophets also speak two or three, and “the others should weigh carefully what is said” (14:29) — even prophecy is tested, not swallowed whole. “The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets” (14:32); no one may excuse disorder by saying the Spirit compelled it. The ground for all of it: “God is not a God of disorder but of peace” (14:33). Order in worship is not quenching the Spirit — it reflects the very character of the God we worship. “Everything must be done so that the church may be built up” (14:26), and “in a fitting and orderly way” (14:40).
Daily Application
- Guard your private prayer life: What strengthens you in secret — whether a prayer language or simply unhurried prayer — feeds what you can give in public. Do not neglect it, and do not perform it.
- Pray with both spirit and understanding: Do not settle for one half of prayer. Let your spirit pour out to God, and let your mind grasp and agree with what you pray.
- Aim at edification in the gathering: Before you speak, sing, or share in worship, ask the Corinthian question — will this build only me, or will it build the church?
- Desire the greater gifts rightly: Paul’s charge covers both sides — “be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues” (14:39). Ask God for gifts that serve others, without despising the gift that serves your own soul.
A Closing Prayer
Dear Lord, thank You for every gift Your Spirit gives — the ones that strengthen me in secret and the ones that strengthen Your church in public. Teach me the difference, and teach me the order. Let me pray with my spirit and with my understanding, so the whole of me belongs to You. Build up my inner life in prayer, so that when I stand among Your people I have something to give that everyone can understand. Let everything I bring into Your house be done for building up, in a fitting and orderly way — for You are not a God of disorder, but of peace. Amen.