1 Corinthians 14:12-20

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹² So with yourselves: since you are striving after spiritual gifts, seek to excel in them for building up the church.

¹³ Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret. ¹⁴ For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unproductive. ¹⁵ What should I do then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also; I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will sing praise with the mind also.^{(A) 16} Otherwise, if you say a blessing with the spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say the “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since the outsider does not know what you are saying?^{(B) 17} For you may give thanks well enough, but the other person is not built up.^{(C) 18} I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you; ¹⁹ nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.

²⁰ Brothers and sisters, do not be children in your thinking; rather, be infants in evil, but in thinking be adults.^(D)