Old/New Testament

14 Love is the thing you should want more than anything else. But you should also want other things the Spirit gives. You should want very much to be able to speak words from God.

² The person who talks in tongues of a different language does not talk to people, but to God. People do not understand what he says. But he is saying secret things by the Spirit.

³ But the person who is a prophet speaks words from God to people plainly. He helps them to believe and to be strong, and he comforts them.

⁴ The person who talks in a different tongue helps himself. But the one who tells forth God's word helps all the people in the church.

⁵ I wish that you could all talk in different tongues. But I want even more that you should speak words from God for all to hear and understand. The person who speaks words from God is greater than the person who talks in tongues - unless he is able to tell the meaning of his words, so that he helps all the people in the church.

⁶ My brothers, if I come to you and talk in tongues of a different language, how can I help you? I cannot help you if I do not tell you something God has shown to me, or something I know, or God's word, or some teaching.

⁷ Such things as horns or harps have no life, but they make sounds. Now if they don't make the right noise, no one will know what the sound means.

⁸ If the war drum gives a sound that has no meaning, then no one will get ready to fight.

⁹ If you say words that people cannot understand, they will not know what you say. You talk for nothing!

¹⁰ There are no doubt many different languages in the world. And every one of them has a meaning.

¹¹ But if a person talks in a language and I do not know the meaning of it, I will be like a stranger to him and he will be like a stranger to me.

¹² So it is with you. You want the gifts of the Spirit. Then you should want the gift which will make you better able to help the church people.

¹³ So then, the person who talks in a tongue of a different language, should ask God to help tell the meaning of the tongue.

¹⁴ If I pray to God in a tongue of a different language, then I am talking with my spirit, but I do not use my mind.

¹⁵ What then shall I do? I will talk to God with my spirit and I will talk to God with my mind. I will sing with my spirit and I will sing with my mind.

¹⁶ If you thank God with your spirit only, an ordinary person cannot say, `Amen, it is so!' He does not know what you say.

¹⁷ The way you thank God is good, but it does not help an ordinary person.

¹⁸ I thank God that I can talk in tongues more than any of you.

¹⁹ But in the church meeting it is better for me to say five words with my mind, so that I will teach other people also. This is better than to say ten thousand words in a tongue of a different language.

²⁰ My brothers, do not be like children in your thinking. When it comes to doing wrong things, be like small babies. But in your thinking be grown up people.