21 In the Law it is written, "(34) BY MEN OF STRANGE TONGUES AND BY THE LIPS OF STRANGERS I WILL SPEAK TO THIS PEOPLE, AND EVEN SO THEY WILL NOT LISTEN TO ME," says the Lord.
22 So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers; but prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers but to those who believe.
23 Therefore if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad?
24 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all;
25 the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.
26 What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.
27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two or at the most three, and each in turn, and one must interpret;
28 but if there is no interpreter, he must keep silent in the church; and let him speak to himself and to God.
29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment.
30 But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent.
31 For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted;
32 and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets;
33 for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.
(14:21) In a freely rendered quotation from Is. 28:11,12, Paul explains that centuries earlier the Lord had predicted that one day HE would use men of other tongues, that is, foreigners speaking unknown languages, as a sign to unbelieving Israel, who "will not hear Me." These "other tongues" are what tehy knew as teh gift of languages, given solely as a sign to unbelieving Israel. That sign was 3-fold: cursing, blessing, and authority. To emphasize the cursing,. Paul quoted Isaiah's words of warning to Judah of the judgement from Assyria. The leaders thought his words were too simple and rejected him. The tiem would come, the prophet said, when they would hear Assyrian, a language they could not understand, indicating judgment. Jeremiah spoke similarly of the Babylonians who were also to come and destroy Judah. When the apostles spoke at Pentecost in all thsoe foreign languages, the Jews should have known that the judgment prophesied and historically fulfilled first by the Assyrians then by the Babylonian captivity was about to fall on them again for their rejectino of Christ, including the destruction of Jerusalem (AD 70) as it had happened in 586 BC, under Babylonian power.
In the context of the passage though, we are not talking about the judgement of Israel. Paul has been talking about the
edification of the church and the point of quoting Is.28:11-12 was that tongues were a sign that it was the Lord that was at work here, but if no-one interprets those tongues then the unbeliever will not know that as one would in the case of a prophecy. The Corinthian church made the use of tongues into something that outsiders and ungifted people could not be edified by. And furthermore, if tongues were a sign for the Jews only then why was it in use in Corinth, a cosmoplitan city? And Paul only mentions the unbeliever, not the Jew as the one who is convinced and heart laid bare.
(14:22)
Explaining further, he says explicitly that all tongues are for the sake of unbelievers. In other words, that gift has no purpose in the church when everyone present is a believer. And once the sign served its purpose to pronounce judgment or cursing on Israel, and the judgment fell, the purpose ceased along with the sign gift.
This is an assertion by MacArthur only. Nowhere in the text does it say or even imply that the gift ever ceased. No, the gift was for the sake of unbelievers Paul contrasts the way it was being misused (everyone speaking in tongues without interpretation, ensuring unbelievers were being missed out) with the way it was supposed to be (prophecy which is understood by the unbeliever, meaning no-one misses out) But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all; the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.(vv24-25)
The blessing of that sign was that God would build a new nation of Jews and Gentiles to be his people (Gal. 3:28) to make Israle jealous and someday repent (See Rom. 11:11, 12, 25-27). The sign was thus repeated when Gentiles were included in teh church (Acts 16:44-46). The sign also gave authority to those who preached both the judgment and blessing (2nd Cor 12:12), including Paul (v.18). But prophesying is...for thsoe who beleive. In the complete opposite way, the gift of prophesying benefits only believers, who are able, by their new natures and the indwelling Holy Spirit, to understand spiritual truth (cf. 2:14; 1 John 2:20,27).
1 Corinthians 14:22-25 is not an easy passage to understand! First Paul says in v22 that tongues are a sign for unbelievers, NOT believers; prophecy is a sign for believers, NOT unbelievers. Then in vv23-25 it seems to suggest the very opposite! That an unbeliever will think tongues are madness, and that an unbeliever will benefit from prophecy whats going on here?
Pauls reference to Is.28:11-12 refers to the foreign tongue as a sign of impending judgement because God will speak to his people but its like gibberish to them so they wont listen and therefore they will face the consequences. THEREFORE tongues as the Coninthians have been using them become like that foreign tongue in Isaiah a sign from God that cannot be understood, i.e. what a sign means to unbelievers.
But the same sign to believers in Is 28 is something that IS understood and therefore is prophecy and not just a foreign tongue.
So THEREFORE (in vv23-25 Paul now switches to talking about the Corinthians church, whereas in vv21-22 he was talking abt Is.28) If everyone is speaking in tongues in the assembly and no-one is interpreting the unbeliever thinks its crazy he gets nothing, even though it is something. But if everyone prophesies then it is understood and the unbeliever will be converted.
Elsewhere Paul speaks of praying to oneself, and praying in tongues as a form of self-edification and of praise (14:4,14-15,17). So when he says tongues are a sign, he is not saying categorically that that is the only purpose but in the context of a church setting as his main point is the edification of the church.
(14:23)
As Paul explains in more detail later (vv.27,28), even for unbelievers, even when the gift of tongues was exercised in its proper time in history, when it was dominant and unconrtrolled in the church, bedlam ensued and the gospel was disgeraced and discredited. out of your mind The Gr. word means to be in an uncontrolled frenzy. When the real gift was used in Acts 2, tyher ewas no madness and everyone understood in his own language. In Corinth, there was charismatic chaos.
Once again, there is no indication in the text that tongues would ever cease, its a paradigm of MacArthurs. And there is nothing to suggest the gift in Corinth was counterfeit, merely misused. Paul wishes that everyone spoke in tongues (14:5) and says not to forbid it(14:39).
14:24, 25 But if all prophesy This means to publicaly proclaim the Word of God. "All" does not mean all at once (see v. 31) but rather means that hypothetically if the cacophony of all the Corinthians could be replaced by all of them preaching the Word, teh effect on unbelivers would be amazingly powerful, the gospel would be honored, and souls would be converted to worshiping God.
It says prophecy, not preaching the word. Yet another twist from MacArthurs own bias. How does the word lay bare the secrets of an unbelievers heart? No, this verse is saying something of the role of prophecy in the church in regard to unbelievers. The preaching of the Word is not the same thing.
