1 Corinthians 14:27Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

What are you saying? After saying so much about the gift of tongues, that it is unprofitable and superfluous if there is no interpreter, do you again command speaking in tongues?

I do not command it, he says, but neither do I forbid it. When he says, "If one of the unbelievers invites you, and you desire to go" (1 Cor 10:27), he does not command them to go, but neither does he restrain them.

So also here. "Let him speak to himself and to God." If you cannot be silent, he says, and if you are so ambitious and vainglorious, then speak to yourself.

By this permission he forbids all the more, because he puts him to shame. He does the same elsewhere when he speaks about relations with one's wife: "This is said because of your lack of self-control" (1 Cor 7:5-6).

I do not forbid speaking in tongues, but it must not be without interpretation. Let few speak in tongues, lest confusion and disorder arise. And let them do this separately, that is, in succession. But in every case there must be an interpreter.

Let them not occupy all the time by speaking in unknown tongues. And let the prophets not take time away from the Scriptures, which are the enlighteners of the whole Church.

“If anyone speaks in a tongue, let it be by two, or at most by three, and in turn.” Do not carry on a common conversation, from which disorder and confusion arise. And let not many converse. Two are sufficient for this. Still, let the number of speakers be limited to three. “And let one interpret.” For those present must understand what is being said.

Here the order is depicted which was fitting in apostolic times, but not in our own.

The Church then abounded in miraculous gifts, but the number of believers was still not great. Liturgical hymns and prayers were only just being composed, and the order of worship had not yet become definite.

Therefore an individual believer, sensing within himself the presence of the Spirit of God, was allowed to come forward with his own song or psalm, with his own revelation or instruction.

But what would happen in church in our time, if, amid the immense multitude of believers, each were allowed to sing his own song and deliver his own instruction?

The rule for those speaking in foreign languages is this: few should speak, one after another, and only when there is an interpreter. Otherwise, they should keep silent.

Having shown the impropriety of disorder in church assemblies, the Apostle Paul gives rules for the use in church of the gift of tongues and the gift of prophecy.

As a general foundation for those who possess either gift, he sets forth the good goal of edifying one's neighbors. Apart from this, nothing should have a place in the Church.

In particular, he counsels those who possess the gift of tongues to use their gift in turn. They should do this only when it is possible to explain what is uttered in a foreign language.

Otherwise, one must only lift up to the Lord in one's mind what has been given by Him, as a gift for the prayer of mind and heart.

This does not mean that two or three may speak at once. Rather, in the whole assembly one may speak, then another, and at most a third. And this must not be all at once, but separately, one after another (Oecumenius).