After pointing out 1 Corinthians 14:2 as his opening verse to support the practice of “praying in tongues,” Robert Morris then uses verses 14-18 as further support for this position. Let’s see if these verses support praying in tongues.
14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. 15 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. 16 Otherwise when you are praising God in the Spirit, how can someone else, who is now put in the position of an inquirer, say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since they do not know what you are saying? 17 You are giving thanks well enough, but no one else is edified.
18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.
In these verses, Paul is speaking sarcastically (cf. v. 16; 4:8-10 as other examples of Paul speaking with sarcasm). He uses the singular “tongue”which refers to the counterfeit gift (see Part 5 for a more detailed explanation). By speaking sarcastically, Paul is also speaking hypothetically to illustrate the foolishness and pointlessness of speaking in ecstatic gibberish. The person praying in a tongue, could not understand what he or she is praying or praising God for. No one listening, not even the speaker understands what is being spoken. So, what good it is to say, “I am praying and praising God in a tongue that is void of understanding?” Anyone can arbitrarily add the label, “Praying to God,” or “Praising God” to anything they do or say that does not make sense or help others in biblical understanding.
Now Paul, being careful not to overdue his hypothetical speech says this: “For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. 15 So what shall I do?”
Now notice carefully, after saying, “If I am praying in a tongue, although my spirit prays, my mind is unfruitful.” Then Paul adds this: “So what shall I do?” Don’t miss this. Paul is leaving us with a choice. My first choice is that I can continue to pray in a tongue in my spirit, making no sense at all, and leaving my mind unfruitful, or I can choose to “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.”
Do you see what Paul is ascribing here? Two options:
Option 1: Pray in my spirit and not with my mind resulting in an unfruitful mind that has no understanding.
Option 2: Pray in my spirit and with my mind resulting in both my spirit and mind being fruitful.
Paul says, “What shall I do?” The second option was his preferred choice.
By choosing the second option, Paul says that two people will be greatly benefited: The one speaking and the one listening. “Otherwise when you are praising God in the Spirit, how can someone else, who is now put in the position of an inquirer, say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since they do not know what you are saying? 17 You are giving thanks well enough, but no one else is edified.” So praying in a tongue is seen as a bad practice since doing so does not help either the one praying or the one listening.
So then, what is Paul saying in verse 18 - “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.”
Now keep in mind the context of what Paul just said. He spoke hypothetically in verses 14-17, using the singular form “tongue” to denote the counterfeit praying and speaking the Corinthians were doing. Now he changes to the plural form, “tongues” in verse 18 to denote the genuine gift of language.
Here is what Paul is saying, now don’t miss this: “You Corinthians, while you are so busy speaking and praying in a counterfeit tongue, I’ve been busy speaking with the true gift of tongues. In other words, I have used the genuine gift of tongues more than you all!”
You see, Paul is not advocating more and more of the abuse and misuse of praying in a ecstatic form of gibberish (“tongue”). He corrects them, trying to get them to see the genuine gift of “tongues” (known languages) over their counterfeit practice of “tongue” (gibberish). So he says to them, “I use the genuine gift of tongues more than you all.”
Note: Based on Paul’s own personal testimony, Paul actually did exercise the true gift of speaking in tongues. But we also should point out that the New Testament makes no mention of Paul actually exercising that gift. Nor does Paul in his own writings make mention of a specific use of it by any Christian or apostle.
All we have concerning the doctrine of tongues is found only in Acts 2, 10 and 19, and 1 Corinthians 12-14. Two books out of 27, with a total of six chapters out of 7,959 chapters. Yet, for some, they make praying or speaking in tongues a condition for membership (and partnership) because it is the fruit of having been baptized by the Holy Spirit.
End of Part 7
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