Summary - 1 Corinthians 14:13-19

Praying: Since Paul keeps pounding a drum about the gift of speaking in tongues, readers have to assume it was a major problem. Evidently members did speak in tongues during the service. Evidently it sounded like a cacophony. Evidently nobody knew what anybody else was saying. Evidently it was off-putting to visitors, new-believers, and mature believers alike. Who knew what was going on?

Helpful to listeners and to speakers alike is the gift of interpreting tongues. Paul urges them all to pray for understanding. He himself would rather pray five meaningful words than ten thousand words in obscurity. At the center of building up a church is the maturity level and spiritual wholeness of every individual within the church. What Paul has to do is teach the members to be concerned about the whole church by and through the growth of each individual. A spiritually mature church and a spiritually mature individual has blended, not compartmentalized components (N. T. Wright). Corinthians needed to place their hearts, minds, bodies and souls under control of the Holy Spirit and grow to be like the one who is worshiped, Jesus Christ. Putting others first is Paul's continuing message and solution.