“So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church. . . in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.” (1 Corinthians 14:12,19)
The Word of God is powerful. It can change the hearts of the most heinous sinners and bring them to repentance and faith in Jesus. Yet, as Paul declares as he continues his teaching on spiritual gifts, it must be intelligible to those who hear it in order to be effective.
This exhortation follows immediately after Paul’s moving exposition on Christian love. His intention was to exhort the Corinthians to put love into action in their church worship and fellowship. They were overly zealous regarding their spiritual gifts, so much so that their worship services were chaotic with several people all speaking at once, some with words of prophecy and some with unknown tongues. They so dominated the service that the Word of God was not being preached. Paul maintained that those who dominated the services were selfish, behaving in an ungodly manner.
Paul counseled believers to use the gifts properly, in an orderly fashion with the purpose of building up the entire community in love. Congregational worship is a matter of mutual edification. The worship service should not exalt individuals, promote their agendas, or showcase their talents. Such things were apparently common in Corinth just as they are in many modern churches. The building up of the Kingdom of God is accomplished by focusing on the Word of God in worship. The Word is central to our services and our lives as it centers on Jesus and what He has done and continues to do.
So what glorifies the Lord is accomplished most effectively through the use of intelligible utterances of which prophecy is crucial. This is not primarily the prediction of future events. Instead prophecy is the preaching of the gospel of faith as in our sermons. It directs people to focus on their present way of living. It warns of the future consequences of sinful behavior and idolatry. Prophecy expresses the Word of God to correct, warn and discipline those in sin and error, forgive the repentant, comfort those in suffering, exhort all to holy living, and preach the gospel to the unsaved.