Paul illustrated his point that hearers do not benefit at all from what they do not understand. He used musical instruments as examples and clarified more about foreign languages.
14:6 This verse sets the scene for what follows in this pericope. "Revelation,""knowledge,""prophecy,"and "teaching"are all intelligible utterances. These words probably refer to a new revelation (cf. 12:8), an insight into truth, a word of edification, exhortation, or consolation from the Lord (v. 3), or instruction in the faith.
14:7-8 Even the sounds people make using inanimate musical instruments need to be intelligible to profit anyone. This is especially obvious in the case of a call to battle. If the bugler blows a confused tune, the army will not know whether to attack or retreat. The harp and the flute, as well as the bugle, were commonplace in the Greco-Roman world.
14:9 Incomprehensible speech may be personally satisfying to the one talking, but it profits only a little those who are listening. The only profit would be entertainment. For example, when an international student sings a song in his or her native language in chapel, almost everyone enjoys the song but does not receive edification from it.
14:10-11 Clearly Paul was speaking about languages, not gibberish, even though the Greek word translated "languages"(phone) means "sounds"or "voices."The context shows he had languages in mind, either human or angelic. A non-Greek was a foreigner (Gr. barbaros, barbarian) to a Greek. The word barbarosis onomatopoetic, meaning the foreigner's language sounded like so much "bar bar bar"to the Greek. Paul's point was that for communicating, the tongues-speaker who did not have an interpreter was no better than an incomprehensible barbarian. Even though his speech has meaning to the speaker, it has none to the hearers.
I enjoy watching and listening to an opera occasionally. I like to listen to the music for its own beauty even if I cannot understand the words. However, when the foreign words being sung are translated into English with captions above the stage or on the screen, I enjoy it even more. I also profit from learning from the story, which I cannot do if all I take away from the performance is the memory of beautiful sounds.
14:12 In view of this the Corinthians who were zealous for spiritual gifts would be better off pursuing the gifts that would enable them to build up the church. They should value these rather than the gifts that gave them some personal satisfaction when they exercised them but did not edify others. The Corinthians were zealots when it came to spirits (Gr. pneumaton). The translators interpreted this word as synonymous with pneumatikon(spiritual gifts, v. 1), but it is different. Probably Paul meant that they were zealous over a particular manifestation of the Spirit, what they considered the mark of a "spiritual"Christian, namely the gift of tongues (cf. vv. 14-15, 32).
"Utterances that are not understood, even if they come from the Spirit, are of no benefit, that is, edification, to the hearer. Thus, since they have such zeal for the manifestation of the Spirit, they should direct that zeal in corporate worship away from being foreigners' to one another toward the edification of one another in Christ."328
