Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Signs for believers and unbelievers

²⁰ Brothers and sisters, don’t be children in your thinking. Be babies when it comes to evil, but in your thinking be grown-ups. ²¹ This is what it says in the law: “I will speak to this people in foreign languages and with the lips of strangers, and even so they won’t listen to me, says the Lord.” ²² So tongues are not meant for believers, but are a warning for unbelievers; while prophecy is not designed for unbelievers, but for those who come to faith. ²³ What I mean is this: if the whole assembly comes together and everybody speaks in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers come in, they’ll say you’re crazy, won’t they? ²⁴ But if everyone prophesies, and outsiders or unbelievers come in, they will be called to account by everyone, judged by everyone, ²⁵ the secrets of their hearts will be laid bare, and so they will fall down on their faces and worship God, declaring that “God is truly among you.”