1 Corinthians 14:6 Commentary and Bible Study

He tries another way to reasoning this through. If they were visited by an apostle, they would expect a great spiritual benefit to come to them, but supposing Paul came and all he did was to speak in tongues without any interpretation. What would be the use of that? There would be great disappointment in the church because the visit had achieved nothing. They too would measure the success of his visit by how much their knowledge had increased, or how much they had been encouraged and corrected, or by what new doctrine they had learnt. Paul always laboured to make his teaching as clear as possible. The idea that he would be so carried away by the spectacular nature of the gift of tongues that he would indulge it to no profit is ludicrous. All the time, the message is, stop thinking like children who are carried away but some novelty that sparkles and are unable to look beyond this to what has real value.Verse 7 is an illustration. He is going to talk about lifeless instruments that give sound, ‘whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds’ – unless they are capable of being made to produce individual notes – ‘how shall it be known what is piped or harped?’ – how shall anybody understand the tune, or make it out? It will just be a noise; there won’t be a melody. Understanding is everything, says the apostle. Tongues, without understanding are not valid, not even in the days when the tongues were real, miraculous languages. They had to convey a message.Then another illustration in verse 8: ‘For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?’ They didn't have radio sets in those days. How did they tell the flanks to attack, the troops to go forward, charge or advance, or consolidate and remain in one position? How did they do that? With trumpet, of course. When the troops were arrayed ready for battle, the only way to communicate with masses of men, arranged in long lines or around hills, was to communicate by bugle or trumpet. Even to this day, the military use a set sequence – largely ceremonial now – of bugle calls. And if you are in the military, you know the calls; you know what each little call means. But if the trumpet is incapable of sounding clear notes which constitute a message in five or six notes, who shall prepare himself to the battle? The troops will never charge; they will never move forward. The trumpet can't give a distinctive call. That is the illustration. So tongues, even when they are real languages are useless, if there is no message.