How often have good Christians come to this passage and been stumped about what Paul is saying? In the KJV he talks of "tongues" and "prophecy" and we shriek and run for cover. We think, “Is there something that I'm missing? I have never spoken in tongues.”
I speak Portuguese,though many Brazilians might debate that. However, Paul didn't necessarily have Portuguese in mind but he wasn't talking about gibberish or "Holy Spirit" language either. He was talking about what the verse above mentions, "speaking what God has revealed. Speaking what God has revealed is called “prophecy”. That didn't help me.
In the Old Testament a prophet was one who spoke what God had told him to speak. The true prophet of God had no choice but to speak what God had commanded. If he didn't he would be reprimanded, aka Jonah, or removed from his prophetic office, aka the “man of God” mentioned various times in 1 Kings 13.
Telling what God has revealed today is easier than it was in the Old Testament times. Back then the prophet spoke for God. No one else had that privilege. The people waited for a message from God's man or woman.
Today, God has spoken through the prophets and that message is recorded in His Word the Bible. I have the privilege of opening that living and powerful Word and learning directly from God's Holy Spirit daily. I can understand what He wants to reveal. When I am in His Word daily I learn daily. As I share what God is teaching me I become a prophet or one who “...shares what God has revealed.”
We get hung-up on words like revealed, tongues and prophesy. They sound special, private and
mystical. In reality they are! Not everyone can open God's book and understand what He is or has revealed. It has been hidden from what the KJV calls, “the natural man” (1 Corinthians 2.14).
If you know another language that puts you are in a different category than the average oe or Jane. Many Americans are monolingual and don't have a problem with that. You might be one of them. You don't have problem because you have never left the States or visited Miami, Florida. When you step off the plane or boat into a foreign language setting you begin to understand what Paul was communicating in 1 Corinthians 14. A person who speaks in another language edifies himself unless there is someone to interpret what he is saying or has said.
Since Paul's goal for the Corinthian believers was that they love each other he wanted them to communicate properly what God had revealed to them. Sharing principles of love, learning and understand of the Scriptures to help each other grow in the Faith.
The first thing that many people think when they hear someone speaking another language in their presence, no matter the culture, is, “He/ she is talking about me!” Have you experienced that?
A few years ago I came back for my first furlough and wanted to wow my American friends with my Portuguese prowess. Mind you my prowess was not that great but that didn't matter to me. In one of my first meetings I began to speak in Portuguese. A suspect look crept across the faces in the audience and I quickly realized that no one was impressed. I wasn't edifying. I was talking without an interpreter and no one was the least bit interested.
Don't be that way spiritually. Talk about what God has revealed. Do it in a way that can be understood and applied. That way you won't need to run from passages like 1 Corinthians 14.
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