1 Corinthians 14:28Meaning & 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).

If he has no interpreter, let him not speak in church, lest he seem like a foreigner uttering what is incomprehensible and unintelligible to many. But if he is so vainglorious that he does not wish to be silent, let him speak to himself and to God. That is, let him speak quietly and secretly, within himself, so that his words are heard by God alone and not by men. See how he seems to permit, yet in fact forbids.

And if there is no one able to interpret, let him keep silent among the people. But let him speak to himself through prayers poured out to God.

The one who speaks by the Holy Spirit speaks and is silent when he wishes, just as the prophets do. He is not like those possessed by an unclean spirit. They speak when they do not wish, and they speak what they do not know.

“Let him speak to himself and to God.” The Apostle advises one who has received a revelation, in the absence of an interpreter, to speak to himself alone. That is, let him speak within himself, in such a way that only God knows and hears.

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.

One may speak in tongues in the assembly only when there is an interpreter, expositor, or translator. When there is none, one must be silent, speaking to oneself and to God.

That is, "speak to yourself, in the mind, secretly and without noise" (Saint Chrysostom). In your mind before God, go over what you would wish to utter with the tongue, and go deeply into it.

"One who speaks in tongues is insufficient by himself. Therefore, if someone also has the gift of interpretation, let him speak.

If he does not have it, but wishes to speak, let him do this with an interpreter. If there is no expositor, let him keep silent, for nothing should be done in vain or from ambition.

You do not assemble, he says, in order to show that you have a gift, but in order to edify the hearers" (Saint Chrysostom).