🇧🇷 🇺🇸 🇪🇸
🌐 🇧🇷 PT 🇪🇸 ES 🇺🇸 EN
365 Graça & Adoração Da Criação ao Apocalipse
Home › NT › 1 Corinthians › Chapter 14
1 Corinthians — Chapter 14

Speaking in Tongues and Prophecy in Worship

"Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy."

— 1Cor 14:12

1 Corinthians 14 regulates the use of speaking in tongues and prophecy in worship. The central principle: everything must be for the edification of the Church.

🗣️ Tongues vs. Prophecy (14:1-25)

1Cor 14:1-5
"Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy... The one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation."
Paul does not disparage the gift of tongues — he himself speaks in tongues (14:18). But in corporate worship, prophecy is preferable because it builds up the Church. The criterion is not the subjective experience of the speaker, but the objective benefit to the congregation.
1Cor 14:19
"But in the church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue."
The ratio 5:10,000 is hyperbolic but eloquent: five intelligible words are worth more than ten thousand unintelligible ones for the edification of the Church.

📋 Order in Worship (14:26-40)

1Cor 14:26
"What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a tongue, a revelation, a prophecy, an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up."
Early worship was participatory — each member contributed. The regulating criterion: pros oikodomen — for edification. Order (taxis) and decency (euschemonos) are characteristics of the God who is not a God of confusion (14:33).