Dual Panel1Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it--because it does. Give yourselves to the gifts God gives you. Most of all, try to proclaim his truth.
2If you praise him in the private language of tongues, God understands you but no one else does, for you are sharing intimacies just between you and him.
3But when you proclaim his truth in everyday speech, you're letting [others] in on the truth so that they can grow and be strong and experience his presence with you.
4The one who prays using a private "prayer language" certainly gets a lot out of it, but proclaiming God's truth to the church in its common language brings the whole church into growth and strength.
5I want all of you to develop intimacies with God in prayer, but please don't stop with that. Go on and proclaim his clear truth to others. It's more important that everyone have access to the knowledge and love of God in language everyone understands than that you go off and cultivate God's presence in a mysterious prayer language--unless, of course, there is someone who can interpret what you are saying for the benefit of all.
6Think, friends: If I come to you and all I do is pray privately to God in a way only he can understand, what are you going to get out of that? If I don't address you plainly with some insight or truth or proclamation or teaching, what help am I to you?
7If musical instruments--flutes, say, or harps--aren't played so that each note is distinct and in tune, how will anyone be able to catch the melody and enjoy the music?
8If the trumpet call can't be distinguished, will anyone show up for the battle?
9So if you speak in a way no one can understand, what's the point of opening your mouth?
10There are many languages in the world and they all mean something to someone.
11But if [I] don't understand the language, it's not going to do me much good.
12It's no different with you. Since you're so eager to participate in what God is doing, why don't you concentrate on doing what helps everyone in the church?
13So, when you pray in your private prayer language, don't hoard the experience for yourself. Pray for the insight and ability to bring others into that intimacy.
14If I pray in tongues, my spirit prays but my mind lies fallow, and all that intelligence is wasted.
15So what's the solution? The answer is simple enough. Do both. I should be spiritually free and expressive as I pray, but I should also be thoughtful and mindful as I pray. I should sing with my spirit, and sing with my mind.
16If you give a blessing using your private prayer language, which no one else understands, how can some outsider who has just shown up and has no idea what's going on know when to say "Amen"?
17Your blessing might be beautiful, but you have very effectively cut that person out of it.
18I'm grateful to God for the gift of praying in tongues that he gives us for praising him, which leads to wonderful intimacies we enjoy with him. I enter into this as much or more than any of you.
19But when I'm in a church assembled for worship, I'd rather say five words that everyone can understand and learn from than say ten thousand that sound to others like gibberish.
20To be perfectly frank, I'm getting exasperated with your infantile thinking. How long before you grow up and use your head--your [adult] head? It's all right to have a childlike unfamiliarity with evil; a simple [no] is all that's needed there. But there's far more to saying [yes] to something. Only mature and well-exercised intelligence can save you from falling into gullibility.
21It's written in Scripture that God said, In strange tongues and from the mouths of strangers I will preach to this people, but they'll neither listen nor believe.
22So where does it get you, all this speaking in tongues no one understands? It doesn't help believers, and it only gives unbelievers something to gawk at. Plain truth-speaking, on the other hand, goes straight to the heart of believers and doesn't get in the way of unbelievers.
23If you come together as a congregation and some unbelieving outsiders walk in on you as you're all praying in tongues, unintelligible to each other and to them, won't they assume you've taken leave of your senses and get out of there as fast as they can?
24But if some unbelieving outsiders walk in on a service where people are speaking out God's truth, the plain words will bring them up against the truth
25and probe their hearts. Before you know it, they're going to be on their faces before God, recognizing that God is among you.
26So here's what I want you to do. When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight.
27If prayers are offered in tongues, two or three's the limit, and then only if someone is present who can interpret what you're saying.
28Otherwise, keep it between God and yourself.
29And no more than two or three speakers at a meeting, with the rest of you listening and taking it to heart.
30Take your turn, no one person taking over.
31Then each speaker gets a chance to say something special from God, and you all learn from each other.
32If you choose to speak, you're also responsible for how and when you speak.
33When we worship the right way, God doesn't stir us up into confusion; he brings us into harmony. This goes for all the churches--no exceptions.
34Wives must not disrupt worship, talking when they should be listening,
35asking questions that could more appropriately be asked of their husbands at home. God's Book of the law guides our manners and customs here. Wives have no license to use the time of worship for unwarranted speaking.
36Do you--both women [and] men--imagine that you're a sacred oracle determining what's right and wrong? Do you think everything revolves around you?
37If any one of you thinks God has something for you to say or has inspired you to do something, pay close attention to what I have written. This is the way the Master wants it.
38If you won't play by these rules, God can't use you. Sorry.
39Three things, then, to sum this up: When you speak forth God's truth, speak your heart out. Don't tell people how they should or shouldn't pray when they're praying in tongues that you don't understand.
40Be courteous and considerate in everything.