Who’s This Really For—God or Me?
An exploration on how spiritual gifts—and life decisions—should aim to build up the church, not just ourselves. A challenge to pursue clarity and purpose.
From 1 Corinthians 14:6–12 (ESV)
6 Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? 7 If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? 8 And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? 9 So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. 10 There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, 11 but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me. 12 So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.
After describing the benefits of prophecy—that is, speech that comes from God, grounded in Scripture, which strengthens, encourages, and comforts the church—Paul moves to explain the difficulty and limitations of pursuing the gift of tongues in public worship. It’s not that tongues are bad; Paul himself says he speaks in tongues more than all of them (v. 18). But the problem is this: tongues, without interpretation, are unintelligible. And what cannot be understood cannot build up the church.
Paul makes this point forcefully. Revelation, knowledge, prophecy, and teaching are valuable because they guide, instruct, admonish, and correct. But what is anyone supposed to do when tongues are uttered and no one can understand? There’s no content to grasp, no truth to apply.
To drive this point home, Paul compares the situation to lifeless instruments—like flutes or harps—that don’t give distinct notes. If there’s no melody or pattern, the instrument is useless; no one knows what’s being played. Then he likens it to a bugle that gives an unclear sound. In the ancient world, the bugle was a battle signal. If the sound was indistinct, the soldiers wouldn’t know whether to fight, flee, or stand still. The result? Confusion and inaction.
Then Paul says plainly:
“If with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? You will be speaking into the air” (1 Cor. 14:9, ESV).
So what does he command instead?
Because they were so eager for spiritual manifestations, Paul urges them to be just as eager to excel in building up the church (v. 12). That’s the guiding principle. The goal of spiritual gifts—and really, the goal of Christian life—is not personal display, but communal edification. What you say, what you do, what you pursue—does it build up others?
I don’t think Paul would argue against anyone who tries to invest in study of the Bible, theology or apologetics so that they can help edify the church. I don’t think he would argue against anyone trying to gain skills so that they could help the church function or to function better. At our church, we have something called “LEVEL up” where we train college students to gain some skills so that they can perform the works of ministry. Ministry isn’t just teaching and preaching, but making videos, flyers, cooking and cleaning.
Also, I suppose Paul gives us a guiding principle. Is what I am doing building up the church? Or is what I’m doing not making sense to others? And I suppose we can apply this to daily activities but also to larger goals.
I can think of one example from my life. There was a time when I was in grad school in UC Berkeley. I was fully funded and it was a good opportunity for me to get a degree. But to be honest, I didn’t need the degree. It could have advanced my career, and I could have used these skills to even build up the church. However, in my heart, I knew that I was only in the program so that I could build up my resume. Before grad school, I already had a good job and my employment prospects were good. I was making enough money to support my family.
But to go to grad school, I had to quit my job and ask my wife to support me. At the time, we had our first child. And while I was in the library studying and advancing my own resume (I’m calling it as I saw it), all my closest friends were building up the church, spending time in ministry.
What I was doing became clear, and I found the strength to tell myself that what I’m doing is not right. It’s not intelligible. How am I building up the church? For me, this passage was a guiding principle. And so I quit grad school.
Now, I’m not saying that you should drop out of school (although, ironically the best students do drop out and go on to become billionaires, except for me, of course…but I went on to have relational riches that I wouldn’t trade for billions of dollars). I just shared how God worked in my life through this guiding principle. And perhaps this guiding principle could be helpful to you if you are faced with making a small or big decision in your life.