Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 14:20

Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.

20. howbeit in malice be ye children ] This is subjoined lest the Apostle should be charged with contradicting his Master. There is a sense in which all Christians must be children. What it is the Apostle tells us. They were to be children in malice, or rather perhaps vice. Compare on the one hand St Mat 11:25; Mat 18:3; Mat 19:14; 1Pe 2:2; on the other, ch. 1Co 3:1; Eph 4:14; and Heb 5:12. See also St Mat 10:16; Rom 16:19.

men ] Literally, perfect, i.e. of ripe age. Cf. ch. 1Co 2:6; Php 3:15; Heb 5:14.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Brethren, be not children in understanding – Be not childish; do not behave like little children. They admire, and are astonished at what is striking, novel, and what may be of no real utility. They are pleased with anything that will amuse them, and at little things that afford them play and pastime. So your admiration of a foreign language and of the ability to speak it, is of as little solid value as the common sports and plays of boys. This, says Doddridge, is an admirable stroke of oratory, and adapted to bring down their pride by showing them that those things on which they were disposed to value themselves were childish. It is sometimes well to appeal to Christians in this manner, and to show them that what they are engaged in is unworthy the dignity of the understanding – unfit to occupy the time and attention of an immortal mind. Much, alas! very much of that which engages the attention of Christians is just as unworthy of the dignity of the mind, and of their immortal nature, as were the aims and desires which the apostle rebuked among the Christians at Corinth. Much that pertains to dress, to accomplishment, to living, to employment, to amusement, to conversation, will appear, when we come to die, to have been like the playthings of children; and we shall feel that the immortal mind has been employed, and the time wasted, and the strength exhausted in that which was foolish and puerile.

Howbeit in malice be ye children – This is one of Pauls most happy turns of expression and of sentiment. He had just told them that in one respect they ought not to be children. Yet, as if this would appear to be speaking lightly of children – and Paul would not speak lightly of anyone, even of a child – he adds, that in another respect it would be well to be like them – nay, not only like children, but like infants. The phrase be ye children, here, does not express the force of the original nepiazete. It means, be infants, and is emphatic, and was used, evidently, by the apostle of design. The meaning may be thus expressed. Your admiration of foreign languages is like the sports and plays of childhood. In this respect be not children ( paidia); be men! Lay aside such childish things. Act worthy of the understanding which God has given you. I have mentioned children. Yet I would not speak unkindly or with contempt even of them. In one respect you may imitate them. Nay, you should not only be like children, that are somewhat advanced in years, but like infants. Be as free from malice, from any ill-will toward others, from envy, and every improper passion, as they are. This passage, therefore, accords with the repeated declaration of the Saviour, that in order to enter into heaven, it was needful that we should become as little children; Mat 18:3.

Be men – Margin, Perfect, or of a riper age ( teleioi). The word means full-grown men. Act like them whose understandings are mature and ripe.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

1Co 14:20

Brethren, be not children in understanding.

The wisdom of childhood

I. We should possess childlike simplicity of character. To preserve the freshness of childhood in the moral world is the object of the gospel.

II. With this we are to unite manliness of understanding. Our childlikeness is to be confined to the moral nature; beyond that, in the reign of the intellect, will and activities, we are commanded as Christians to be men. (Christian Age.)

The manliness of the gospel

1. Did it ever strike you that St. Paul was mad? was a question asked once, not by a scoffer, but by a man of powerful intellect, who felt that the question between Christianity and unbelief turned upon the case of Paul. For if the charge of Festus could be substantiated, one of the most powerful chapters of Christian evidence would be cancelled.

2. But we commend to the honest inquirer the study of this one chapter. St. Paul is correcting an exaggerated idea of the value of a particular gift. In all times human nature has been inclined to put display above profiting; and it required a sound and well-balanced judgment to keep gift in its place. And who can doubt that the true estimate was that taken here by St. Paul? (see 1Co 12:31; 1Co 14:1). It required a very sound and a very sober judgment to subordinate the gift of tongues to the far less brilliant gift of prophesying in which only edification was aimed at. The maxims interspersed among the exhortations of this chapter are eminently illustrative of the plain and practical character of the man whom it is necessary for infidelity to represent as an enthusiast, or to hint into a madman (1Co 14:14-15; 1Co 14:19; 1Co 14:26; 1Co 14:32-33; 1Co 14:40).

3. The subject thus introduced is larger and wider than the mere question of the sanity of St. Paul. The charge, In understanding be men, warns us very seriously of a danger, peculiarly pressing in these times, that, namely, of divorcing religion from manliness. If this is the gospel voice, then one offence, at least, is rolled out of the way. St. Paul says that there may be a childishness in the use of Divine gifts. He boldly declares even spiritual influences to be subordinate to considerations of propriety, of expediency, of common sense. No man is to say, I am no longer a free agent; the hand of God is upon me. This is to bring Gods own gift into dishonour. It is just because it fits into His other gifts, because, while it elevates, it also sobers, that I see it to be an evidence of His interposition.

4. Now if miracle itself is not to be so treated as to make it childish, what shall we say of the excuses made in our day for the utter repudiation of every such criterion in reference to matters which can certainly plead no inspired authority? There are two higher classes of subjects upon the treatment of which St. Paul throws a guiding and comforting light in the weighty maxim before us.

I. Revelation of course must be above reason. What intellect could discover, God would not reveal. If therefore on any topic revelation exists, that is proof sufficient that on that topic reason was silent.

1. When once the Divine origin of a revelation is attested by evidences of its being worthy of its Divine author, then it speaks, on each point which it touches, with authority.

2. But the office of the understanding in the first weighing of evidences, does not end here. The trying and testing of professed books of Scripture by the early Church was felt to be a heavy responsibility of the reason. Nor was the one settlement absolutely final. Particular clauses are found, on more modern and searching scrutinies, to be no part of the original text. And it is true reverence, as well as true wisdom, to exercise, upon all such matters, a large-minded and a manly judgment. God will guard His word written, and the God of truth is never honoured by a disingenuous treatment of the truth itself.

3. But there remains the weightiest matter of all, which is the interpretation of doctrine by the comparison of Scripture with Scripture. And here the mind must be employed if edification is to come to the student. Yet there are men who seem almost to think the contradiction of reason a sign of truth, and the mortification of the intellect a Christian duty.

II. Practical duty. Sin makes great havoc of human happiness; but next to it stands folly.

1. Could you but know, e.g., the utter foolishness of many parents and teachers on the great subject of education you would not wonder at the results, whether in the wilfulness of the youth or the misery of the manhood. Or again, would we but look back upon our own lifes history, and mark the giddy thoughtlessness or the perverse infatuation which has characterised it, we could not but become conscious of the force of St. Pauls caution.

2. But how large is the action of this unintelligent childishness inside the Church, in the counsels and examples of Christian men! The whole theory of monasticism, the whole system of direction, whether Romanist or Anglican, all that subjects my conscience to another mans rule, all that encourages a grovelling spirit in the worship and service of God in place of that honest, free, courageous bearing which finds the love of God life, and His service perfect freedom, is a contravention of Pauls rule.

3. How childish are half the biographies, diaries, devotions, of Christian saints! How little calculated to draw after them into Gods service the strong inquiring intellect, the warm wholesome heart, the young enterprising life! Conclusion: Each one of us is in some real measure responsible for the look and tone of Christianity to our age. It is ours to make it great or to make it little, noble or contemptible. (Dean Vaughan.)

Men in understanding

In verse 19 the word understanding stands for the intellectual faculty itself; here it refers to its state of development, to the mature condition of mind, heart, and general character. The word children, which occurs twice in the text, first stands for boys, then for babes. The word malice may also be taken more generally as designating all evil dispositions and affections. Lastly, the word men signifies perfect, and refers to maturity of age, fulness of mental development, fitness for the manly discharge of the duties of life. Thus looked at the text would seem to say, Dont feel and act like a set of ignorant, conceited boys–with respect to all that is bad, indeed, be the veriest babes; but as to all that is good, be like those who, having gone through a long course of discipline, are at once ripe in years, and perfectly equipped as to knowledge and accomplishments, thorough men.

I. In the text then we have the infant, the boy, and the man, and something belonging to each used for moral and religious ends. A human being comes into the world as a combination of capabilities–so much raw material. By taking malice and understanding as representative terms we have the two great departments of human nature–the intellectual and the emotional.

1. A little infant, then, has wrapped up within it the capacities of the intellect and the forces of the passions. Without referring to the undeveloped state of an infants understanding, the apostle fixes attention on the undeveloped condition of the passions–the one idea that he wanted, and which, therefore, he exclusively refers to. Looking at a little sweet babe the apostle seems to says, Whatever capacity there may be here for what is bad, it is not manifested yet. How free from all that deforms society and degrades men! True, all the men in the world were once babes; would to God that, in one sense, they were babes again! But Christians, by the expulsion of corruption through the influences of the regenerating Spirit, ought in malice to be children.

2. Next we have the picture of a number of youths, who have advanced beyond childhood, but who have not yet acquired the knowledge, dispositions, and habits belonging to riper years. They are necessarily inexperienced; they think a great deal of any small acquirement or advantage by which they are distinguished; there are often among them envyings and animosities; they like pleasure and excitement; they can hardly understand what is meant by self-sacrifice, and know little of the greatness and beautifulness of duty as duty. However promising they may be they cannot but be defective in those things which belong to disciplined virtue and manly worth. In infants the reason and the feelings are alike undeveloped; in youth both have unfolded to a certain extent, and the apostle directs attention to the want of proportion between the development of the understanding and that of the passions. The understanding needs to be opened and cultivated–the passions grow of themselves. If the intellect be let alone, it will not expand; if the feelings be let alone, they will expand the more. The one requires to be encouraged and stimulated; the others to be repressed and restrained. The consequence is, that in early life the inferior parts are strong and active, as by the force of an internal impulse. Hence we have the phenomena that so often distinguish immaturity of character, folly, vanity, selfishness, ignorance, the want of all those things which make up that moral understanding in which the apostle wished the Corinthians to be men, but which is seldom found to be the characteristic of boys.

3. The image of full-grown men, mature in character as.well as in years. The apostle supposes a number of human beings to have passed through a thorough course of culture and discipline, and to have acquired an intellectual equipment, and attained a moral fitness for what they are to be and to do in life.

II. The appropriateness of this mode of illustration to the condition of the Corinthian Church.

1. The Corinthians were ambitious of personal distinction; they each wished to have the highest gifts conferred upon them; and those who were entrusted with any, especially with the power of unknown, or eloquent speech, were utterly regardless of order and propriety in their use and exhibition. The Christian Church became a theatre of display; and the Christian life, instead of being something serious and earnest, put on the appearance of a boisterous holiday, and was as little dignified as a plaything or a song. But, worse than this, with the immaturity, vanity, and folly of boys, there mingled at Corinth the passions of men. They could not all be first; some must listen if others speak; where some lead, others must follow. But this is difficult where all are ambitious; and hence the society was torn by dissensions, developed bad feelings, was combined with a narrow and childish intellect and heart.

2. It is to this state of things that the admonition in the text refers. The apostle endeavours to instruct them by laying down important general principles, and to reprove them by severe and appropriate censure; aiming thus at once to open their understandings, and to subdue their passions. Be not mere boys, without deep and comprehensive views of duty. In malice, indeed, I wish you were even like babes, but in wisdom and knowledge, in mastery of yourselves, and in calm devotedness to the great business of the Christian life, I wish you to be men.

III. The advantages which attend the possession of a character like this.

1. It is favourable to stability both of opinion and conduct. One who is really a spiritual man, may be depended on. His intelligence is large; his views are matured; his principles are established; his habits are fixed; he is not likely to become marked by the levity and inconstancy which are often seen in the ignorant and immature, the young and the superficial (see Eph 4:8-15).

2. It capacitates for entering into the profounder truths and for enjoying the higher forms of instruction. In some parts of the Church there is the constant reiteration of just the three or four truths which make up what we call the gospel. The people are thus always kept at the alphabet, or in the spelling-book, or in the shortest and easiest reading lessons, and are never introduced to the high arguments which lie beyond. Now without the culture of their own minds, the full development of their spiritual faculties, a congregation will listen to the higher forms of Christian teaching, not only without benefit, but with weariness and wonder. That it is not right for people to continue in this stale, you learn from Heb 5:1-14; Heb 6:1-20, and 1Co 3:1-2, i.e., let me have hearers who in understanding are men, and instead of their being fatigued by the demand upon them, or offended by the form in which I convey my thoughts, they shall feel refreshed and strengthened by the exercise, and find themselves wiser, better, and happier men.

3. It will correct religious taste, and elevate and improve the general character. The Corinthians preferred the showy to the substantial. Their character was flashy, superficial. The apostle wished them to be men in understanding, that all this might be thoroughly corrected. And so it will be still if we, too, rise into the character that has been set before us. Christian men, who in some degree answer to this, are superior to dependence on flash and rhetoric, or any of the many and mean arts by which Christian teaching is often disfigured. Having got rid of the craving for distinction, learnt the more excellent way of being great, the extinction of selfishness, and the service of love, they will be free from those evil tempers in which small and contracted souls indulge. They will delight in the cultivation of all that is noble and dignified in the Christian character, and be distinguished and known alike for the strength and the beauties of holiness.

4. Those who are men in understanding will best know how to receive the kingdom of heaven like little children. But does not the New Testament demand the understanding of a child in order to the simple reception of the faith? No; it is not the childish, undeveloped understanding that is required, but the feeling in the child that is the effect of this–a readiness to rely on authority, and to receive the testimony of those whom it looks up to, without questioning. But this spirit is not, in a man, the consequence of ignorance, but the fruit of knowledge. Those who know nothing, and those who know a little, are often the most conceited. It requires the cultivated understanding of the man to know when he has arrived at an ultimate fact–where it is necessary to pause or stop in curious inquiries, and when it is proper to welcome the positive utterances of authority, and to rely upon them like a little child. The most mature Christian will live in the exercise of the most simple faith. He who knows most of God will know most of himself; he will, therefore, believe when others doubt, and will distrust when others presume. (T. Binney.)

Christian manliness

1. The scholar alludes here to the teaching of his Master, and defines it (Mat 18:3; Mat 11:25). It was notably the manner of the Great Teacher to fling out thoughts in a round unguarded axiom which He trusted the good sense of His sympathetic disciples to define and limit. His very doing so is of itself conclusive proof that He meant His pupils to be no children, but men, in understanding. He might have addressed us as Moses addressed the Israelites, and given us details instead of principles, and an example in the room of an axiom. It pleased Him, on the contrary, to inaugurate an adult dispensation.

2. The Church, however, has not entered into this purpose of its Founder. Others besides the Galatians desire to turn back again to be in bondage to beggarly elements. But if men will be childish in their religion, they shall not shelter themselves under Christs injunctions if St. Paul can hinder it. To be children in malice towards one another, and in humility towards God, is that state to which alone the Father reveals His grace. But to be children in understanding; to be credulous without reflection, obedient without intelligence;–this could not appear to the noblest intellect of his age worthy of that gospel which reveals the wisdom of God, and educates man into perfect manhood, into the stature of the fulness of Jesus Christ.

3. The right use of the understanding in regard to Christianity is, of course, determined by the special nature of the Christian faith. Christianity rests upon facts which are wholly supernatural. It reveals mysteries of which reason can say nothing, either to confirm or to dispute. At the same time, a Divine system which is to recover man must be fitted to men. It cannot override one part of man, his reason, in reaching another, his spirit. Consider the manly use of the understanding–

I. In reference to Divine truth. The revelation of God in His Sons gospel asks of our understanding–

1. To estimate its credentials with a candid mind and a pure heart.

(1) Suppose that I have been educated within the bosom of Christs Church, and have thus, by the happy experience of a religious life, put the faith of Jesus to frequent proof. In that ease I only use my understanding, as a man should, if I decline to reopen without cause the question of Christian evidences. A man may know whom he has trusted, and be no fool.

(2) Others, however, have had an educational belief in Christianity, which personal experience never verified. Before the understanding of such men the gospel pleads. It asks no more than a full hearing and an honest verdict. Their duty is to be, in malice, indeed, children, but in understanding, men; asking fair proof, and taking no less; grappling with a robust, not finical, intellect the question of questions. There is a reason which can be given for the faith that is in us.

2. The intelligent interpretation of its records. A childs open heart may drink in so much of Gods light from a text or two as will quicken it into holy life; but God means grown Christians to be at pains, by manly research and the use of reason, to ascertain the sense of His book. It is childish to dip into its pages with a pin, as if it were a book of fate; it is hardly less childish to cite texts at random, out of their connection, without asking when they were written, or with what design.

3. To grasp its truths as a whole. There is no intellectual manliness in shunning all dogmatic statements of theological truth, as if, in the haze of revelation, nothing could confidently be made out. It is true that few propositions in theology have escaped contradiction, and that at particular periods a rage for defining and systematising has been carried too far. But when all this has been conceded, the fact remains that the Church, from the second century to the nineteenth, has exercised its understanding on the materials of revelation with such substantial harmony that all its main doctrines have survived and commanded the assent of the most opposite schools. But were theology a chaos of conflicting opinions, still it would be manly to grapple with the teaching of Scripture, and endeavour to digest it into a system. Shall the facts of nature be classified and not the results of revelation?

4. An attitude towards all truth of fearless and open-minded candour, so long as it is unproved; so soon as it is proved true, one of rejoicing welcome. The crude and hasty theories of the day, whose value is chiefly to stimulate and guide further research, will make no man uneasy who has studied the history of past discovery. The shadows which coming truths cast before them are often mis-shapen, after the manner of shadows, and they startle the timorous; but the truth itself is always reassuring, a cheerful thing to healthy souls. No man ought to be so eager in the search for truth as the friend of Christ, nor can any man afford to meet it with a manlier greeting.

II. In reference to human practice.

1. It was in connection with a practical question–the profitable conduct of congregational worship–that St. Paul gave this injunction. When people are possessed by a very high ideal of duty, or ruled by their faith in what is Divine, they come easily in danger of despising common sense. Once let men imagine that God can possibly be pleased with a thing which offends reason, and there is nothing too irrational for them to do in His service. Or, let them only suppose that He cares for external form, apart from the inner spirit of an act, and the door is opened at once to childish trifling in worship and a painful casuistry in morals.

2. Two principles rationally applied will solve many knots of casuistry.

(1) That we are no longer children, who please our Father by an unintelligent observance of mere external rules, but men, whose service, to be worth anything, must proceed from intelligent sympathy with His mind. To do, or abstain from doing, this, that, or the other petty act, because you are told you ought to, without knowing why, is to be a child. Be men.

(2) The subordination of the morally small to the morally great. All right things are not equally important. Seek therefore to make sure of the weightier matters of the law. For if our eye is set on the doing of these, the mint, anise, and cummin, which are apt to give us so much trouble, will not be left undone. Conclusion: The understanding holds the function in Christian life of a regulator, nowise that of a moving power. A Christian who is only one intellectually is simply no Christian at all; for, till the heart is converted and become that of a little child, the man cannot see, cannot, by force of intellect, discern, the kingdom of heaven. Let us seek to retain the heart of childhood, but let us guide it by the understanding of a man. (J. Oswald Dykes, D. D.)

Christianity and manhood

I. The distinction between childishness and childlikeness. Be not children in mind: howbeit in malice be ye babes.

1. These two ideas are frequently confounded, especially by young Christians. At first awaking to the Divine life wonder largely takes the place of understanding, and feeling that of thought. Being simple in motives is easily mistaken for being simple in ideas and rudimentary in knowledge. In the newly converted the two simplicities are engagingly combined, and they may thus appear to be essentially connected. But this is not the case. The experience which does not strengthen and enrich itself by sanctified thinking and meditation will soon become unreal, unwholesome, and unsafe.

2. The childhood which is the ideal of Christian character is a moral and not an intellectual childhood. We are to put away childish things according to the general law of a healthy intellectual growth. Leaving the first principles we are to go on unto perfection.

II. The summons to perfect our nature. This applies to every faculty we possess, in its relative and normally harmonious development.

1. Muscular Christianity has still its gospel to preach. The body has claims which are too much ignored. Flabbiness and effeminacy are not proofs of holiness. The qualities and accomplishments, too, by which men are enabled to fulfil their role as business men, members of society, citizens, etc., are well within the calling of the Christian, and demand his attention. They may be a sign to many who would fail to appreciate more esoteric doctrines or practices.

2. And so of knowledge, this most characteristic and ennobling faculty of man. Science, art, philosophy, and literature have all their place in providing us with a true understanding of life, and perfecting the mind for higher things. The true goal of all these studies is Divine knowledge or wisdom, but they lead only to the threshold. Christ calls us to a higher school, and even identifies the knowledge of God and Himself with eternal life.

Conclusion: The following considerations may help to prove that Christianity, so far from stunting or stereotyping the thought of man, has a real need for its exercise, and makes the greatest demands upon it.

1. Christianity introduces its subjects to a great, suggestive, and stimulating experience.

2. It reveals the profoundest principles of life, and trains us in their application.

3. It demands the wisest and most skillful service.

4. It declares it as its purpose to perfect mans nature and character.

5. It proclaims every faculty sacred, and of the nature of a Divine stewardship. (St. John A. Frere.)

The right use of the understanding in matters of religion

It may be of use to premise an observation or two, the truth of which must be presupposed in all directions given to men about the exercise of their understandings in religion.

1. Religion is in itself an intelligible and rational thing, of which a clear and consistent account may be conveyed to the mind, and which may be shown to have a foundation in reason and argument, and not in the ignorance and folly of mankind.

2. Religion is a thing not only barely intelligible and rational, but apparently and obviously so, which may be easily understood and comprehended by mankind. Thus it must be, if religion be indeed the subject of the inquiry and discussion of all men; because it is certain that the faculties of the greatest part of men will never allow them to penetrate into things that are any way abstruse or difficult. Besides, we must conclude from the goodness of God that He would never make anything upon which the happiness of man depends, as it plainly does upon religion, either impossible or hard to be known or comprehended by them.

I. I shall now proceed to consider what this exercise of the understanding which is required from us with respect to religion implies.

1. It implies fairness and candour and care and diligence in our religious inquiries and disquisitions; that we keep our intellectual eye pure and unprejudiced, and withal lively and vigorous, in which state alone it is capable of discerning and tracing out the truths of religion.

2. Another thing implied in the exercise of our understandings with respect to religion is our acquiescing in the principles of it upon sufficient evidence being laid before us of their truth. As credulity, or an implicit belief, is altogether unbecoming, so likewise is a sceptical humour, which puts us upon evading evidence, which makes us doubt where there is no occasion to hesitate, where there is light enough to guide us, and to determine our judgment, according to the established rules of reasoning, and of giving our assent.

3. There is one thing more implied in the due exercise and cultivation of our understandings with respect to religion, which is our improving and increasing our knowledge of it in proportion to our abilities. If men would but faithfully endeavour to become acquainted with the entire system of religion, many of them, at least, would in a little time find that they were able to penetrate much farther into it than, before their making the experiment, they were apt to think they could do. The case of our mental and bodily powers is in general the same: both are greatly strengthened by use, whereas without it they run to rust, and contract a weakness and ineptitude for effecting things of which, through practice and custom, they would have been very capable.

II. I shall show for what reasons we should thus exercise and employ our understandings about religion.

1. Both our dignity and happiness depend upon our doing so.

(1) What a shining figure does that man make who, by means of a well-tutored and refined understanding and a large stock of true knowledge, can speak pertinently upon any important subject that occurs in conversation and instruct others in the useful or entertaining sciences or arts of life!

(2) And as our dignity depends so much upon our exercising our understandings in the subjects of religion, So likewise does our happiness. For as we are formed with a love of truth and a desire of knowledge, so every discovery of truth is attended with a most sensible delight. And the more important and certain the truth which is discovered is, the greater is the pleasure which results from the knowledge of it. Now, as the great truths of religion must to every ingenious man appear to be above all others momentous, and likewise very clear and certain, the mind which inquires into them and gradually traces them out must be entertained with a most pure and continually increasing pleasure.

2. We should exercise our intelligent powers about religion, because without this there can be no merit or virtue in our religion, nor can it ever be pleasing and acceptable to God. Religion, according to the most obvious notion of it, is a reasonable, voluntary, and liberal service, flowing from principles of light and knowledge, the calm approbation of our minds, and the generous affections of our hearts.

Instructions and inferences:

1. We may see the ingenuous spirit of our religion which, disdaining to take advantage of the ignorance, credulity, and inattention of mankind, lays itself open to the examination of all men, and even invites and requires them carefully to try and prove it.

2. We may see that the ignorance of the true nature and grounds of religion, or, which is very nearly related to it, the implicit belief of religion which so commonly prevails among professed Christians, even in places of the greatest liberty, is very faulty and inexcusable.

3. We may infer the iniquity of all those methods which are used to deter or discourage men in inquiring freely into religion and increasing as far as they are able their knowledge of it.

4. We may see how much it concerns every man to raise and cultivate in himself a serious, honest, and diligent, temper of searching into religion, and to propagate the same among others as far as it is in his power to do it; because in this temper the very essence of the duty of exercising our understandings about religion consists, and because it is the seedplot of truth and virtue in men, the root from whence the most generous improvements both in the knowledge and practice of our duty shoot and grow.

5. Let the knowledge which we attain to in consequence of the exercise of our understandings about religion be always substituted by us as the foundation of a good conduct and virtuous conversation in the world, Religion is, above all other sciences and institutions, practical. (J. Orr, D. D.)

The mind the standard of the man

Dr. Watts once overheard a stranger say, What! is that the great Dr. Watts? The Doctor, who was of low stature, turning to the gentleman, promptly said–

Were I so tall to reach the poles,

Or mete the ocean with my span,

I must be measured by my soul–

The minds the standard of the man.

The true test

The true test of any Church or ministry is not so much the knowledge which it gives or the order which it secures, as its productiveness of new men in Christ Jesus; and it is an awful test. When I see where there is the least disturbance among you, where there is the slightest disagreement in a Sunday school matter, that the old worthy members of my Church act like anybody else, and squabble, and full of answerings, call back and carry away hard feelings, I say to myself, I have not made any men yet, my preaching has been as poor as any other ministers. One fails for one reason and another for another. When I judge from what you are, I feel that I am about as poor a minister as I know of, (H. W. Beecher.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 20. Be not children in understanding] There are three words here to which we must endeavour to affix the proper sense.

1. signifies children in general, but particularly such as are grown up, so as to be fit to send to school in order to receive instruction;

2. , from , not, and , I speak, signifies an infant; one that cannot yet speak, and is in the lowest stage of infancy;

3. , from , I complete or perfect, signifies those who are arrived at perfect maturity, both of growth and understanding. We shall now see the apostle’s meaning: Brethren, be not, , as little children, just beginning to go to school, in order to learn the first elements of their mother tongue, and with an understanding only sufficient to apprehend those elements.

In malice] , In wickedness, , be ye as infants, who neither speak, do, nor purpose evil.

But in understanding] , Be ye perfect men, whose vigour of body, and energy of mind show a complete growth, and a well cultivated understanding.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Be not children in understanding; in understanding the differences of gifts, and which are more excellent, or of the right use of gifts.

Howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men; you are commanded indeed in something to be like little children, Mat 28:3, but it is not to be understood with relation to knowledge and understanding, but with reference to innocence and malice, which is opposite to it; ye ought to study to be men in understanding, though with respect to innocence ye ought to be as little children.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

20. Brethrenan appellationcalculated to conciliate their favorable reception of hisexhortation.

children in understandingaspreference of gifts abused to nonedification would make you (compare1Co 3:1; Mat 10:16;Rom 16:19; Eph 4:14).The Greek for “understanding” expresses the will ofone’s spirit, Ro 8:6 (itis not found elsewhere); as the “heart” is the will of the”soul.” The same Greek is used for “minded”in Ro 8:6.

menfull-grown. Bechildlike, not childish.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Brethren, be not children in understanding,…. There are some things in children in which it is reproachful for believers to be like them; as nonproficiency in knowledge, want of capacity to receive, bear, and digest strong meat; levity, fickleness, and inconstancy, unskilfulness in the word, deficiency of knowledge, want of understanding, not of things natural, but spiritual and evangelical; which is the more aggravated, since their understandings were opened and enlightened; an understanding was given them; the Spirit of God, as a spirit of understanding, was bestowed on them; they had the Scriptures, which are able to make wise unto salvation, and the man of God perfect; and also the ministers of the Gospel to explain divine truths to them; and many had been a long time in the school of Christ, and might have been teachers of others; and yet; after all, were children in understanding, and needed to be taught the first principles of the oracles of God. The apostle here has chiefly reference to the gift of speaking with tongues, these Corinthians were so desirous of; which when they had it, was only to talk like children; and for them to prefer it to other gifts, which were more useful and beneficial, discovered their judgment to be but the judgment of children; and if they desired this, and made use of it for ostentation, it showed a childish vanity, from which the apostle here dissuades:

howbeit in malice be ye children: in other things it is commendable to imitate children, and be like them; as in innocence and harmlessness of conversation; to be meek, modest, and humble, free from pride and vain glory; to be without guile and hypocrisy, without rancour and bitterness, envying and malice, but tender hearted, and ready to forgive. This the apostle recommends:

but in understanding be men; or “perfect”, of ripe and full age, who have their senses exercised to discern between good and evil, “a man”, says Aben Ezra p, in our language, signifies , “one full of knowledge”, as in Ex 10:11. It is not perfection of justification that is here meant, for babes in Christ are as perfect in this sense as grown men; nor a perfection of sanctification, for there is no such thing as this in any in this life; there is a perfection of sanctification in Christ, and of parts in everyone that is a new creature; and as that denotes sincerity and uprightness, it is in all that have known the grace of God in truth; but then these are each of them as true of new born babes, young converts, as of older Christians, and strong men: but of knowledge and understanding in divine things; which though it is imperfect in the best, yet in some it is in greater perfection than in others; who may, in a comparative sense, be said to be perfect, or men of full age, who are arrived to a considerable ripeness and maturity of spiritual knowledge; and this is what believers should be pressing after, and desirous of, and make use of all proper methods, such as reading, hearing, and praying, to attain unto.

p Comment. in Psal. xxxvii. 23.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Be not children in mind ( ). “Cease becoming children in your intellects,” as some of them evidently were. Cf. Heb 5:11-14 for a like complaint of intellectual dulness for being old babies.

In malice be ye babes ( ).

Be men ( ). Keep on becoming adults in your minds. A noble and a needed command, pertinent today.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Understanding [] . Only here in the New Testament.

Originally, in a physical sense, the diaphragm. Denoting the reasoning power on the reflective side, and perhaps intentionally used instead of nouv (ver. 15), which emphasizes the distinction from ecstasy.

Children – be ye children [ – ] . The A. V. misses the distinction between children and babes, the stronger term for being unversed in malice. In understanding they are to be above mere children. In malice they are to be very babes. See on child, ch. 13 11.

Malice [] . See on Jas 1:21.

Men [] . Lit., perfect. See on ch. 1Co 2:6.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “Brethren, be not children in understanding;” (adelphoi, me paidia ginesthe tais phresin) “Become ye not play-children (frivolous) in your minds, mentality, or way of thinking.” The child prefers the amusing, the exciting, the spectacular, rather than the useful, lacking discriminating judgment.

2) “Howbeit in malice be ye children,” (alla te kakia nepiazete) “But in the malice (disposition) be infant-like.” Be quick to forgive, to overlook, and to put old grudges away, behind, remember them against one another no more, in the spirit of the Lord, Jer 31:34; Heb 8:12; Heb 10:17.

3) “But in understanding be men.” (However in your mentality, comprehension) become ye mature ones – grown up ones.” In contrast with undiscerning childishness of mind, Paul exhorted the Corinth brethren to be mature, to be men in judgment or evaluation, in order to be most serviceable to the church and one’s fellowman. This is the practical spirit of prophecy.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

20. Brethren, be not children in understanding He proceeds a step farther; for he shows that the Corinthians are so infatuated, that they, of their own accord. draw down upon themselves, and eagerly desire, as though it were a singular benefit, what the Lord threatens that he will send, when he designs to inflict upon his people the severest punishment. What dreadful madness is this — to pursue eagerly with their whole desire, what, in the sight of God, is regarded as a curse! That we may, however, understand more accurately Paul’s meaning, we must, observe, that this statement is grounded on the testimony of Isaiah, which he immediately afterwards subjoins. (Isa 28:11.) And as interpreters have been misled, from not observing the connection to be of this nature, to prevent all mistake, we shall first explain the passage in Isaiah, and then we shall come to Paul’s words.

In that chapter the Prophet, inveighs with severity against the ten tribes, which had abandoned themselves to every kind of wickedness. The only consolation is, that God had still a people uncorrupted in the tribe of Judah; but straightway he deplores the corruption of that tribe also; and he does so the more sharply, because there was no hope of amendment. For thus he speaks in the name of God — Whom shall I teach knowledge? those that are weaned from their mother? those that are drawn from the breasts By this he means, that they are no more capable of instruction than little children but lately weaned.

It is added — Precept upon precept, instruction upon instruction, charge upon charge, direction upon direction, here a little, and there a little In these words he expresses, in the style of a mimic, (843) the slowness and carelessness by which they were kept back. “In teaching them, I lose my labor, for they make no progress, because they are beyond measure uncultivated, and what they had been taught by means of long-continued labor, they in a single moment forget.”

It is added still farther — He that speaketh to that people is like one that maketh use of stammering lips, and a foreign language This is the passage that Paul quotes. Now the meaning is, (844) that the people have been visited with such blindness and madness, that they no more understand God when speaking to them, than they would some barbarian or foreigner, stammering in an unknown tongue — which is a dreadful curse. He has not, however, quoted the Prophet’s words with exactness, because he reckoned it enough to make a pointed reference to the passage, that the Corinthians, on being admonished, might attentively consider it. As to his saying that it was written in the law, (845) this is not at variance with common usage; for the Prophets had not a ministry distinct from the law, but were the interpreters of the law, and their doctrine is, as it were, a sort of appendage to it; hence the law included the whole body of Scripture, up to the advent of Christ. Now Paul from this infers as follows — “Brethren, it is necessary to guard against that childishness, which is so severely reproved by the Prophet — that the word of God sounds in your ears without any fruit. Now, when you reject prophecy, which is placed within your reach, and prefer to stand amazed at empty sound, is not this voluntarily to incur the curse of God? (846)

Farther, lest the Corinthians should say in reply, that to be spiritually children, is elsewhere commended, (Mat 18:4,) Paul anticipates this objection, and exhorts them, indeed, to be children in malice, but to beware of being children in understanding Hence we infer how shameless a part those act, who make Christian simplicity consist in ignorance. Paul would have all believers to be, as far as possible, in full maturity as to understanding The Pope, inasmuch as it is easier to govern asses than men, gives orders, under pretext of simplicity, that all under him shall remain uninstructed. (847) Let us from this draw a comparison between the dominion of Popery, and the institution of Christ, and see how far they agree. (848)

(843) Mimetice Our author has here evidently in his eye the Greek adverb, μιμητικῶς — imitatively See Plut. 2.18. B. — Ed

(844) “ Or le Prophete signifie;” — “Now the Prophet means.”

(845) “ It is written in the law. ‘In the law,’ that is, in the Scripture, in opposition to the words of the Scribes; for that distinction was very usual in the schools. ‘ This we learn out of the law, and this from the words of the Scribes. The words of the law (that is, of the Scripture) have no need of confirmation, but the words of the Scribes have need of confirmation.’ The former Prophets, and the latter, and the Hagiographa, are each styled by the name of the law. ” Lightfoot. — Ed.

(846) Henderson on Isaiah, when commenting on the passage here quoted by the Apostle, (Isa 28:9,) observes, that it “contains the taunting language of the drunken priests and judges of the Jews, who repel with scorn the idea that they should require the plain and reiterated lessons which Jehovah taught by his messengers. Such elementary instruction was fit” (in their view) “only for babes: it was an insult to their understanding to suppose that they stood in need of it. The language of verse 10” ( precept pon, precept , etc.) “more resembles that of inebriated persons, than any used by persons in a state of sobriety. The words are obviously selected to suit the character of those supposed to employ them; and, by their monosyllabic and repetitious forms, admirably express the initiatory process of tuition which they indignantly despise. 13-24 The language they employed in caviling at the Prophetic warnings was all but barbarous: it consisted of barely intelligible sounds: they should, by way of condign punishment, hear the foreign, and to them apparently mocking accents of the Chaldeans, whom God would employ as the interpreters of his severe but righteous will. The passage is employed by Paul (1Co 14:20) quite in the spirit of the connection in which it here stands. He tacitly compares the Corinthian faction, which boasted of the faculty of speaking in unknown tongues, to the puerile characters adverted to, 1Co 14:9, ( παιδία, νηπάζετε, etc.) and then reminds them, that speaking in such languages had been represented in the Jewish Scriptures — ἐν τῷ νόμῳ ( in the law) as a punishment, or a mark of the Divine displeasure, and not as a matter of desire or envy.” — Ed

(847) “ En ignorance et bestise “ — “In ignorance and stupidity.”

(848) Calvin makes a similar observation when commenting on Eph 4:14. “ Nam postquam Christo nati sumus, debemus adolescere, ita ut non simus intelligentia pueri. Hine apparet, qualis sub Papatu sit Christianismus, ubi, quam diligentissime possunt, in hoc laborant pastores, ut plebem in prima infantia detineant;” — “For after being born to Christ, we ought to grow, and not to be children in understanding. (1Co 14:20.) Hence it appears what sort of Christianity there is in connection with Popery, in which the pastors labor as strenuously as they can to keep the people in infancy.” — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

Appleburys Comments

Rules For Using Spiritual Gifts (2040)

Text

1Co. 14:20-40. Brethren, be not children in mind: yet in malice be ye babes, but in mind be men. 21 In the law it is written, By men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers will I speak unto this people; and not even thus will they hear me, saith the Lord. 22 Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to the unbelieving: but prophesying is for a sign, not to the unbelieving, but to them that believe. 23 If therefore the whole church be assembled together and all speak with tongues, and there come in men unlearned or unbelieving, will they not say that ye are mad? 24 But if all prophesy, and there come in one unbelieving or unlearned, he is reproved by all, he is judged by all; 25 the secrets of his heart are made manifest; and so he will fall down on his face and worship God, declaring that God is among you indeed.

26 What is it then, brethren? When ye come together, each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching, hath a revelation, hath a tongue, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. 27 If any man speaketh in a tongue, let it be by two, or at the most three, and that in turn; and let one interpret: 28 but if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God. 29 And let the prophets speak by two or three, and let the others discern. 30 But if a revelation be made to another sitting by, let the first keep silence. 31 For ye all can prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be exhorted; 32 and the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets; 33 for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.
As in all the churches of the saints, 34 let the women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but let them be in subjection, as also saith the law. 35 And if they would learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home: for it is shameful for a woman to speak in the church. 36 What? was it from you that the word of God went forth? or came it unto you alone?
37 If any man thinketh himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him take knowledge of the things which I write unto you, that they are the commandment of the Lord. 38 But if any man is ignorant, let him be ignorant.
39 Wherefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. 40 But let all things be done decently and in order.

Commentary

be not children in mind.They were to take a mature view of the purpose of the gifts. Gifts did belong to the childhood period of the church as indicated in 1Co. 13:11; they were not marks of spiritual maturity. But more than this, some in the church were acting like children in the possession of the gifts. As a result, there was jealousy among brethren in the Lord. The possession of the gift was not a sign of Gods preference of one above the other, for God is not partial. But it was well to be like babes in malice for babes have none, but in mind Paul wanted them to be mature men.

By men of strange tongues.That is, those who speak in foreign languages. This word defines speaking in tongues and justifies our assumption that speaking in tongues was not some unintelligible speech-like utterance, but rather that it was speaking in a foreign language. In calling upon the Corinthians to take a mature view of the gift of tongues, Paul reminds them that their primary purpose was to be a sign for the unbeliever, while prophecy was for the edification of the believer. He illustrated his point by a reference from the law (a general term for Old Testament). See Isa. 28:11-12.

According to the quotation from Isaiah, the prophet was answering the quibbling of those who rejected the message of the prophet. They said it was childish, precept upon precept, line upon line. The Lord said that since they wouldnt listen to the prophet, they would have to listen to foreigners and then they really wouldnt understand. Paul uses this to show that tongues were not primarily for the church, for they couldnt understand without having the message translated. But just as in the time of the prophet when the stranger was to speak a foreign language, so those who used the gift of tongues were to speak a language capable of being translated for the edification of all.

Wherefore tongues are for a sign.The gift of tongues was for a sign to cause the unbeliever to see that God was speaking to him in his own language through one who would not be expected to know his native tongue. See Act. 2:11-13. Prophecy, on the other hand, was for the edification of the believers. Prophecy was not a sign for the believers. They needed no such sign since they were already believers. These words, given in italics in the American Standard Version do not occur in the Greek text and should not be inserted in the English translation.

will they not say that ye are mad?Paul assumes a situation in which the whole church is assembled and all are speaking in tongues. Into this assembly there came certain unlearned men or unbelievers. They were two classes who did not understand what was being said through the gift of tongues. The unlearned is the church member who did not possess the ability to speak in tongues. See comment on 1Co. 14:16. Some have assumed that the unbeliever in this case was a foreigner who could have understood the foreign language since Paul had indicated that tongues were a sign for unbelievers. But it is a mistake to assume that all unbelievers were foreigners, and in this case it is evident that they were not, for they did not understand what was being said and therefore joined with the unlearned in saying that all were mad.

But if all prophesy.Paul then assumed a similar situation in which all were prophesying. In this case all understood and were edified. The result was that all declared that God was among them.

Let all things be done unto edifying.Whether one had a psalm, or a teaching, or a revelation, or a tongue, or an interpretation, his object should be to edify the church. This was the first of the list of important instructions given for the guidance of those who possessed spiritual gifts in Corinth.

If an man speaketh in a tongue.Instead of all speaking at once with the resulting confusion that would cause men to say, You are mad, they were to use common sense and Christian courtesy and limit the speakers to two or three and that in turn. One was to interpret, but if no interpreter was present the one with the gift of tongues was to be silent. He could, however, speak to God in private in the tongue.

let the prophets.The same rule of common sense was to govern the prophets. Others were to discern, that is, they could decide correctly concerning what was heard. It may, however, refer to the gift of discerning of spirits (1Co. 12:10). Courteous consideration for another who might have a message for the group was to determine which one was to speak. The gift was to be used that all might learn and be built up in the Christian life.

the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.The prophets own spiritsthat is, the prophets themselveswere used by the Holy Spirit to deliver the revelation from God, but the prophet could exercise self-control in the use of the gift. This is solid evidence that they were not involved in some ecstatic experience in which it was impossible to control their speaking. The reason for exercising such control was clear: God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.

As in all the churches of the saints.This refers to those who made up the church. See comment on 1Co. 1:2. Saints were those who had been separated from a life of sin and who had dedicated themselves to the service of the Lord. There was no place among saints for jealousy and discourtesy that led to the sin of strife and division. It would be well to restore the use of this term in the church and live up to its evident meaning.

let the women keep silence in the churches.This was to apply to all the churches of the saints. See notes on 1Co. 11:1-16 about the relation between man and woman while praying or prophesying in the church. This, however, has to do with wives and their husbands. Several things are indicated for their guidance: (1) Wives are to be in subjectionhave respect for their own husband (1Pe. 3:1-6). This is not the subjection of a slave, but the giving of honor that is due the husband who in turn is to love his wife (Gen. 1:16; Eph. 5:21-33). (2) Let them ask their husbands at home. This implies the necessity of the husband assuming his responsibility in the matter of Christian teaching in the home. (3) This was to be observed because of the culture of that day, for it was a shameful thing for a woman to speak in the church. In our culture, it is not a shame for a woman to speak in public provided she can do so and maintain her womanly dignity. (4) The instruction seems to have involved the misuse of gifts. Just what the problem was, we may not know, but the Corinthians did. Paul gave the regulations to protect the church from the misuse of the gifts. Perhaps some would disagree with him, but he reminded them that the gospel did not originate with them nor did it come to them alone.

the commandment of the Lord.What was said by the inspired apostle was the commandment of the Lord and it was to be obeyed by His church. In all probability, there were some in Corinth who were claiming that they were prophets or even apostles, but if such a one disregarded this truth and failed to agree with what God said through the inspired apostle Paul, he was not to be recognized as a true leader of the church. Ignorance of this fact did not change the matter; Gods commandments for the church were delivered through His apostle.

desire earnestly to prophesy, forbid not to speak with tongues.As the chapter began, so it closes: the gifts were for the benefit of the church in the absence of the completed revelation of Gods will and were to be used to accomplish the task for which they were distributed by the Holy Spirit. They were not to forbid the use of the gift of tongues; it was to be used in accordance with its purpose and the rules given to regulate its use. In this way, all things could be done decently and in order.

Summary

Chapter fourteen concludes the three-chapter discussion of the subject of spiritual gifts. It is the longest of any of the discussions of problems with which the apostle deals in the epistle except that of division. These two issues were related in that the misuse of the gift of tongues was causing jealousy and strife in the church.
In attacking the problem, the apostle did not discourage the use of the gifts, but argues for the necessity of correcting the misuse of them. In the thirteenth chapter he had pointed out the most excellent way of love that would correct the sin of jealousy over the possession of the gift of tongues. In this chapter he presents two more corrective measures to overcome the misuse of the gift of tongues. The gifts were to be used to edify the church, whether prophecy or tongues. The gift of tongues was not to be used unless the message spoken in a foreign language was translated so that all the church might receive edification. Prophecy which required no interpretation was to be preferred in the church. Tongues were primarily intended as a sign for the unbeliever.
Paul presents two series of arguments in support of these corrective measures. Each series has three steps in it. The first series shows the necessity of using the gifts to edify the church. Even Paul wouldnt benefit the church by using the gift of tongues unless he translated so that the church might be edified. Then he shows how such instruments as the flute or harp must give understandable sounds if they are to benefit those who hear. Just so, the gift of speaking in foreign languages had to be accompanied with the gift of interpretation (translation) to be of benefit to the church. His third argument indicated that the human tongue must be used to speak a message that can be understood or the one speaking will be speaking into the air and those who hear will be like foreigners to him. Therefore, he declares, Seek that ye may abound unto edification of the church.
In the second series, he argues for the necessity of translating the message delivered in a foreign language. He assumes a case in which he might be praying in a foreign language. Unless he understands what he is saying, his spirit is praying under the control of the Holy Spirit, but he is not benefitted. Therefore, he argues that the one speaking in a tongue must translate in order for the gift to be used in a profitable manner for the speaker and for those who hear. In his second argument in this series, he thinks of those who may not have the giftsthe unlearnedand who are not able to say Amen to what is being said because they do not understand the language. Therefore, it must be translated for the benefit of those who do not have the gift. Then he adds a word about his own experience in using the gift of tongues. He thanked God that he spoke in tongues more than all, but adds, in the church, I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that I might instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue. The message simply had to be translated to make it profitable for the whole church.
With this basic issue established, Paul proceeded to present certain rules and regulations to govern the use of gifts. They were to be used in accord with Gods purpose. The church was to take a mature view of them instead of the childish attitude they had allowed to govern their thinking. The gifts were not a mark of maturity; they belonged to the childhood period of the church, but they were not to be allowed to become a source of jealousy and strife in the church. Christian courtesy toward others was to regulate their use. If all spoke at once and no one understood, the unlearned and the unbeliever would say that they were mad. But if the rules were observed, all would know that God was in their midst. For this reason they were to limit those who spoke to two or three, and these were to speak in turn; others were to listen and be benefitted by the message. No one was to speak in tongues unless there was one present to translate. Paul plainly pointed out that the prophets could control themselves in the use of these gifts. He reminded them that God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.
A difficult problem is presented in his reference to women who were to keep silence in the church. This was the rule in all the churches of the saints. There was, in all probability, some trouble that had arisen in connection with the misuse of the gift of tongues. Wives were to have proper consideration for their own husbands who were to assume the responsibilitynot authorityfor teaching at home. Respect for each other in public and at home was necessary then and now. It is a shame for a wife or a husband to be discourteous to each other at home or in the church. What Paul wrote was the commandment of the Lord.
He closed the chapter with this exhortation, Desire earnestly to prophesy, and adds, forbid not to speak in tongues. These gifts had a place in the early church, and when their purpose was fulfilled they were done away. Now we have the whole revelation of the Lord in the Bible. Let us follow Pauls closing word also by doing all things decently and in order.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(20) Howbeit in malice be ye children.Better, however in evil be ye infants. There are three grades spoken of here in the originalinfants, children, full-grown men. Their conduct in exalting these tongues, against which he has been warning them, is a proof that they are yet children in knowledge. They ought to be full-grown; the only thing in which they ought to be children is evil, and in that they cannot be too young, too inexperienced; they should be merely infants. (A similar thought occurs in 1Co. 2:6; 1Co. 3:1; 1Co. 13:10-11.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

20. Brethren Beginning on another key, with an affectionate confidential undertone, yet of reproof.

Children They were like children preferring profitless sound to profitable thought.

Howbeit As if suddenly recollecting that there was a point, namely, malice, in which they might well resemble infants, which the Greek for this second word children really signifies.

Men Perfect, grown up persons.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘Brothers, do not be children in mind. Yet in malice be you babes, but in mind be men.’

He then appeals to them to think in an adult way. Children mainly think totally selfishly and without fully considering what they are saying (compare Jer 4:22), not because they are totally selfish but because to them life revolves around them and their affairs They thus might be satisfied to continue babbling meaninglessly in company, and even enjoy it. But no sensible adult would do so. Sensible adults recognise the wider horizon. Thus they should behave like adults, and take many things into consideration.

Then he remembers some of the maliciousness he has heard with regard to this question, or possibly seeks to prevent it rising, so he adds, ‘if you want to be children then be babes as far as malice is concerned’. In other words, be adults when thinking of what will benefit God’s people, but do not let your malice develop and grow like adults would, rather let it remain small and temporary and quickly forgotten like that of little children.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Purpose of the Gifts In 1Co 14:20-25 Paul explains the purpose of the gifts of utterance in public worship.

1Co 14:20 Comments – We are not to be childlike in the way we think, which is nave simple-minded (Jer 4:22). However, we are to be like children in their sense of purity and innocence, rather than being full of evil. The word “men” is figurative of being mature, or perfect (Mat 5:48). In summary, we are to be wise, yet harmless (Mat 16:19, Rom 16:19).

Jer 4:22, “For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding : they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.”

Mat 10:16, “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves .”

Rom 16:19, “For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil .”

Mat 5:48, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

Illustration – Note that in Jer 4:22, the prophet uses the same analogy about the nation of Israel as Paul uses to the Church here.

Jer 4:22, “For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.”

1Co 14:22 “Wherefore” Comments 1Co 14:21 says, “they will not hear me,” which refers to unbelievers; so these are unbelievers being addressed by God, who speaks to unbelievers in a strange tongue.

1Co 14:22 “tongues are for a sign” – Comments Tongues are a sign to unbelievers, which is what we see taking place in Act 2:7-8. On the day of Pentecost, these men understood their own language. Likewise, tongues are for a sign to unbelievers who come to church. Since the unbeliever falls under conviction because he understands what has been said, this verse implies that the use of the gift of interpretation of tongues is used to manifest the secrets of his heart.

Act 2:7-8, “And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?”

1Co 14:22 “but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe” – Comments 1Co 14:3 says that prophecy edifies, exhorts and comforts. This type of message is not for sinners needing salvation, but for believers. Why would Paul deal at length with these two gifts and not the others: perhaps because tongues were the most widespread gift of the Spirit operating in the church? Also, the gifts of utterance are easy to abuse.

1Co 14:22 Comments When a message in tongues and interpretation is given, it is given to unbelievers. But prophecy is given to believers.

1Co 14:21-22 Comments – Tongues Prophesied in the Old Testament – Isaiah prophesied that a nation speaking an unknown language would be used to speak to the people of Israel. God would use a foreign people to speak to His people since the Israelites refused to listen to Him. This prophecy was a sign to the unbelieving Israel when it was finally fulfilled. Assyria took over the nation of Israel in the time of Isaiah, the prophet, thus fulfilling the prophecy, which was a sign of God’s judgment. Therefore, as in the Old Testament, thus the gift of tongues has the same fulfillment in the New Testament. Tongues are still a sign to unbelievers.

1Co 14:23 “will they not say that ye are mad?” – Illustration:

Act 2:13, “Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.”

1Co 14:23 Comments The tongues must be accompanied by an interpretation so that the message can expose the heart of the unbeliever and convict his heart of sin. Tongues alone cannot do this, as the person would seem as a barbarian to the unbeliever. Without understanding the tongues, unbelievers will say the church is mad, unlike the gifts of tongues and interpreting working together. Without the gift of interpretation, the noise of tongues coming forth sounds crazy. When the interpretation follows, this message can convict his heart.

1Co 14:25 “And thus” Comments The phrase “and thus” means “Because of what the unbeliever has seen and heard…”

1Co 14:24-25 Comments The Purpose of Prophecy in Convicting the Sinner – In 1Co 14:24-25 Paul explains that prophecy can also convict the unbeliever.

Illustration On the day of Pentecost about three thousand souls were convicted of their sins in an atmosphere of tongues and preaching.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

1Co 14:20. Be not children in understanding: This is an admirable stroke of true oratory, adapted to humble their spirits, by representing those things in which they were most ready to pride themselves, as comparatively little. The word u957? refers to infants, and is not sufficiently expressed by the word children; for they are sometimes vain, and sometimes malicious too; the old Adam more or less discovers itself in them: it should rather be rendered, be little infants in malice,, by which is to be understood all sorts of evil tempers of mind which are contrary to the gentleness of childhood; and in particular their emulation and strife about the exercise of their gifts in their assemblies. The word signifies full-grown men; intimating, that it was a kind of puerility to emulate, and to quarrel with one another.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

1Co 14:20 . Up to this point Paul has been contending against speaking with tongues in public and without interpretation, on the ground of its uselessness. He now adds an animated and winning admonition, well calculated to meet the conceit of the Corinthians on this poin.

] “suavem vim habet” (Bengel).

Become not children as respects your power of judgment . His readers were becoming so, inasmuch as, through their increasing craving after glossolalia, they lacked more and more the power of distinguishing and judging between the useful and the useless; their speaking with tongues assumed the character of childishness. As regards malice (1Co 5:8 ), on the other hand be children ; have a child-nature in quite another respect, namely, by being free from all malicious thoughts and actions (Mat 18:3 ). Comp. Rom 16:19 ; Gal 6:3 ; Tit 1:10 ; Lucian, Halc . 2 : .

Regarding , to be a child (in Greek writers also and ), comp. Hipp. Ep. p. 1281. 52.

] of full age, adultus . See Plat. Legg. xi. p. 929 C. Comp. on Eph 4:13 .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

20 Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.

Ver. 20. Be not children ] Mentibus scilicet, sed moribus, Mat 18:3 . See Trapp on “ Mat 18:3 “

In malice be ye children ] In innocence and ignoscence.

In understanding be men ] Is it not a shame to have no more understanding at 80 than at eight years of age?

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

20. ] With this exhortation he concludes this part of his argument, in which he reproves the folly of displaying and being anxious for a gift in which there was no edification.

‘ ‘suavem vim habet,’ Bengel.

, in your understandings , as this preference shews you to be.

dat. of reference, as regards vice : see Winer, edn. 6, 31.6.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

1Co 14:20 . P. has argued the superiority of intelligible speech, as a man of practical sense; he finally appeals to the good sense of his readers: “Brethren, be not children in mind” (see parls.) “in judgment” (Ed [2114] ), “the reasoning power on its reflective and discriminating side” (El [2115] ); differs from much as from f1 (see notes to 1Co 4:10 , 1Co 10:15 ). Emulation and love of display were betraying this Church into a childishness the very opposite of that broad intelligence and enlightenment on which it plumed itself ( 1Co 1:5 , 1Co 4:10 , 1Co 8:1 , 1Co 10:15 , etc.). “It is characteristic of the child to prefer the amusing to the useful, the shining to the solid” (Gd [2116] ). This is a keen reproof, softened, however, by the kindly (“suavem vim habet,” Bg [2117] ). , “be in effect,” “show yourselves”; cf. 1Co 11:1 , etc. “In malice, however, be babes (act the babe); but in mind show yourselves full-grown (men)”. For the force of the ending in , cf. – , to redden , Mat 16:2 ; the vb [2118] is based on , a kind of superlative to “be (not boyish, but actually) childish” (Ed [2119] ), or “ infantile , in malice”. For the antithesis of (= ) and , see 1Co 2:6 , 1Co 13:9 ff., and parls. For , cf. note on 1Co 5:8 : P. desiderates the affection of the little child (see Eph 4:32 f., for the qualities opp [2120] to ), as Jesus (in Mat 18:1 ff.) its simplicity and humbleness . Gd [2121] excellently paraphrases this ver.: “Si vous voulez tre des enfants, la bonne heure, pourvu que ce soit quant la malice; mais, quant l’intelligence, avancez de plus en plus vers la maturit complte”.

[2114] T. C. Edwards’ Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians . 2

[2115] C. J. Ellicott’s St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians .

[2116] F. Godet’s Commentaire sur la prem. p. aux Corinthiens (Eng. Trans.).

[2117] Bengel’s Gnomon Novi Testamenti.

[2118] verb

[2119] T. C. Edwards’ Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians . 2

[2120] opposite, opposition.

[2121] F. Godet’s Commentaire sur la prem. p. aux Corinthiens (Eng. Trans.).

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 1Co 14:20-25

20Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature. 21In the Law it is written, “By men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people, and even so they will not listen to Me,” says the Lord. 22So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers; but prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers but to those who believe. 23Therefore if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad? 24But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all; 25the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.

1Co 14:20 “do not be children” This is a present imperative with a negative article, which usually means to stop an act in process. They were being children in this area (cf. Eph 4:14), though they thought they were so spiritual and wise!

“in your thinking” This is from the Greek word for diaphragm or midriff. This, not the brain, was thought to be the physiological site of the intellect for the ancients.

“yet in evil be infants” In some areas believers should be uninformed (cf. Mat 10:16; Rom 16:19). One of the greatest protections against evil is ignorance or naivete.

“be mature” Paul uses this term (i.e., teleios) to describe the believer who fully understands the gospel and lives it (cf. 1Co 2:6; 1Co 13:10; 1Co 14:20; Eph 4:13; Php 3:15; Col 1:28). All believers start as baby Christians and must grow. There are levels of understanding and godly living. However, this term does not imply a sinlessness, but a spiritual fullness and equipment for service.

1Co 14:21-22 This is a partial quote from Isa 28:11-12. It relates to the Assyrian invasion of Israel. 1Co 14:22 is related to this quote and not to the entire context. This sentence is exactly opposite to all else Paul says in this context. It must only relate to the OT quote. Paul is using “sign” in two ways: judgment and grace.

1Co 14:21 “In the Law” Usually in a Jewish context this would refer to the writings of Moses (i.e., Genesis – Deuteronomy), but not always. In Joh 10:34; Joh 12:34; and Joh 15:25, this phrase refers to a quote from the Psalms, as it does in Rom 3:9. This same phrase is used in 1Co 14:34, but it is uncertain to which texts it refers unless possibly Genesis 3.

Walter Kaiser, in Toward An Exegetical Theology, p. 110, makes the interesting comment that 1Co 14:34-35 are a quote from the letter which Paul received from the Corinthian church. Usually Paul’s answers to their written questions are introduced by the phrase, “now concerning” (cf. 1Co 7:1; 1Co 7:25; 1Co 8:1; 1Co 12:1; 1Co 16:1), but not always (i.e., the apparent quote from the letter found in 1Co 6:12; 1Co 10:23). If this is true then “the Law also says” may refer to Psa 68:11, which is alluded to without quoting in 1Co 14:36! Psa 68:11 affirms the proclamation of the good news in gathered worship by women. Gordon Fee, in his commentary on 1 Corinthians (New International Commentary) also asserts that Paul did not write 1Co 14:34-35 (pp. 699-708).

1Co 14:23 “if” This is another third class conditional sentence (cf. 1Co 14:6-8; 1Co 14:11; 1Co 14:14).

“the whole church assembles together” The literary context of chapters 11-14 deals with guidelines for gathered worship.

Usually these early churches (see Special Topic at 1Co 1:2) met in private homes (i.e., house churches). Often in a city the size of Corinth there would be several homes involved. This may be one of the reasons for the development of factions within the church. Paul’s words imply a larger group meeting possible to celebrate the love feast (cf. 1Co 11:17-34) and Lord’s Supper. How often or where they met is uncertain. From this verse obviously guests were allowed, which shows it was not a secret or closed meeting.

NASB”you are mad”

NKJV, NRSV”you are out of your mind”

TEV”you are all crazy”

NJB”you are all raving”

This term (i.e., mainomai) is used in Act 12:15; Act 26:24-25. In Joh 10:20 it is used to describe demon possession. This term does not imply insanity, but possession by a spirit. In Greek culture this would have been seen as a privileged spiritual state, but no so in Christianity.

1Co 14:24 “if” This is another third class conditional sentence (cf. 1Co 14:6-8; 1Co 14:11; 1Co 14:14; 1Co 14:23-24; 1Co 14:28-29).

NASB”convicted. . .called to account”

NKJV”convinced. . .judged”

NRSV”reproved. . .called to account”

TEV”convinced of their sin. . .judged”

NJB”find himself put to the test. . .judged”

Prophecy brings understanding and conviction; tongues bring confusion to visiting unbelievers or new believers.

“all. . .all. . .all” This does not imply that every believer spoke at every worship service, but that all that was done at the worship service added to the spiritual conviction which the visitors and possible new believers experienced. The “all” surely includes women believers present.

1Co 14:25 “the secrets of his heart are disclosed” This may refer to the truth that

1. God knows the thoughts of mankind and brings conviction by His Spirit (cf. 1 Cor. 24)

2. public confession of sin was a part of first century worship (cf. Mat 3:6; Mar 1:5; Act 19:18; and Jas 5:16)

SPECIAL TOPIC: THE HEART

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

be = become.

children. App-108.

understanding. Greek. phren. Only here.

malice. App-128.

be ye children = act as babes. Greek. nepiazo. Compare App-108.

men, i.e. of mature age and thought. Greek. teleioa. See App-123., and 1Co 125:1.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

20.] With this exhortation he concludes this part of his argument, in which he reproves the folly of displaying and being anxious for a gift in which there was no edification.

suavem vim habet, Bengel.

, in your understandings, as this preference shews you to be.

-dat. of reference, as regards vice: see Winer, edn. 6, 31.6.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

1Co 14:20. , brethren) The vocative put at the beginning has an agreeable force.- ) Ammonius makes this seasonable observation: is covert reasoning, ; but implies GOOD thoughts, . Nor does denote malice [badness], but vice, or whatever is opposed to virtue.-, be ye children) , similar to the forms , .-, perfect) and therefore determining the true value of every thing according to its use.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

1Co 14:20

1Co 14:20

Brethren,-It seems that strife had arisen over these gifts, as to which was the greater and the more honorable. He pleads with them as brethren, insisting that it was the part of wisdom to desire to so speak that others would be profited, and that there should be no strife or bitterness over these questions. So he turns aside to reprove them.

be not children in mind:-Be not weak and attracted by the sound and show of tongues like children who are pleased with anything that will amuse, and at little things that afford them play and pastime. The Corinthians had displayed a childish disposition in estimating the gift of tongues above the more useful and important gifts, and in using it when it could answer no good purpose.

yet in malice be ye babes,-In malice and bitterness, be free from all malicious thoughts and actions as little children who cannot cherish such.

but in mind be men.-[As to judgment in approving those things which are excellent, be full-grown persons, by attaining of the maturity of the calling in Christ Jesus.]

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

be not children (Greek – , youths).

be ye children babies.

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

not: 1Co 3:1, 1Co 3:2, 1Co 13:11, Psa 119:99, Isa 11:3, Rom 16:19, Eph 4:14, Eph 4:15, Phi 1:9, Heb 5:12, Heb 5:13, Heb 6:1-3, 2Pe 3:18

malice: Psa 131:1, Psa 131:2, Mat 11:25, Mat 18:3, Mat 19:4, Mar 10:15, 1Pe 2:2

but: Psa 119:99

men: Gr. perfect, or, of a ripe age, 1Co 2:6, Phi 3:15

Reciprocal: 2Ch 13:7 – young Ezr 8:18 – a man of understanding Neh 4:13 – Therefore Est 1:22 – according Est 5:4 – the banquet Job 34:2 – General Job 36:4 – perfect Pro 13:16 – prudent Ecc 10:10 – wisdom Isa 46:8 – Remember Jer 4:22 – they are wise Eze 1:10 – the face of a man Mat 10:16 – wise Mat 19:14 – for Mar 10:14 – for Mar 13:14 – let him Luk 9:47 – took Luk 18:16 – for Act 10:46 – speak 1Co 8:1 – touching 1Co 10:7 – be 1Co 10:15 – General 1Co 16:13 – quit Eph 4:13 – unto a Eph 4:31 – with Eph 5:15 – walk Col 4:12 – that 1Pe 2:1 – malice 2Pe 1:5 – knowledge Rev 4:7 – as

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

BABES, YET MEN

Brethren, be not children in mind: howbeit in malice be ye babes, but in mind be men.

1Co 14:20 (R. V.)

Two kinds of childishness are indicated by the Apostle, the one to be deprecated, the other to be desired.

I. The child is offered as the example of what Christians ought to be.No doubt the words of our Lord were much in the mind of the Apostolic Church. Verily, I say unto you, except ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. The humble station and low social rank of the primitive converts gave an obvious propriety to their description of themselves as possessing the characteristic qualities of childrensimplicity, weakness, innocence. In the Epistle to the Romans St. Paul exults in the obedience of his converts, and declares that he would have them wise unto that which is good, and simple unto that which is evil, an aspiration which lies open to the objection that good and evil are not always clearly marked, and that it is not very easy to secure that the wisdom which shall be available for one class of experiences shall co-exist with the simplicity which is proper for another.

II. There are in the text two distinctions which we must mark and appreciate.There is a sphere within which experience and knowledge are injuriousthe sphere of moral wrong-doing. There is a sphere within which experience and knowledge are indispensablethe sphere of the intellect. In malice be ye babes, but in mind be men. That is one distinctiona distinction of spheres or of subject-matter. By his emphatic association of mind with manhood, St. Paul indicates the importance which he claims for the intellect in the life of the Christian and of the society of Christians. It is possible, he would say, in your abhorrence of moral corruption to exalt an universal childishness as the proper temper of a disciple. But herein you avoid one error only to fall into another. Innocence ceases to be admirable when it certifies immaturity. Christianity is not a religion for the cradle and the nursery only, or mainly, since Christianity is the religion of God manifest in man, and man is then most competent to fulfil his service when he brings to it the plenitude of his powers. St. Paul contrasts the man and the babe, and he tells us that the Christian is to keep the balance and obey the law of his manhood. In mind be men.

III. St. Paul seems to mark off sharply the moral from the intellectual obligation of discipleship.The one resolves itself into a jealous vigilance against every form of evil; the other exacts an honest and arduous service of every kind of truth. Fidelity to a standard once established is the dominant aspect of the one; progress and growth, the recompense and result of discipline and effort, are the leading features of the other. Abstinence and acquisition, to hold fast and to attain, to become as a little child, and, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, to press on toward the goal, it is by such phrases, divergent in suggestion yet correlated in religious experience, that the duty of the Christian is expressed in the New Testament.

Rev. Canon Henson.

Illustration

It is related of the famous Cambridge don of the seventeenth century, Joseph Meade, that he pursued with his pupils a somewhat unusual method, choosing rather to set every one his daily task than constantly to confine himself and them to precise hours for lectures. In the evening they all came to his chamber to satisfy him that they had performed the task he had set them. The first question which he used then to propound to every one in his order was Quid dubitas?What doubts have you met in your studies to-day? For he supposed that to doubt nothing and to understand nothing were verifiable alike.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

CHILDLIKE QUALITIES

What did Christ mean by saying that we are to become like children? It is not the goodness of children which our Lord praises. It is certain natural qualities of children that have a sad way of vanishing as we grow older, but which, if they are lost, we must do our best to recover. What are those qualities? If we recall the circumstances in which our Lord spoke about children, we shall at once see that the prayer, I thank Thee that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes, was uttered after His rejection by the chief priests and elders, and of His acceptance by the band of Apostles, and it must refer to that.

I. Candour and simplicity.Is not one of the most characteristic and delightful qualities of children their habit of looking straight at what is before them and judging it to the best of their power, without prejudice or fear of consequence, on its merits? A childs candour and simplicity sometimes, by clashing with our polite conventions, causes momentary annoyance, but it is, in essence, a most valuable quality, as we cannot deny even while we suffer from it. And it is this childlike quality in the Apostles which distinguishes them from the Pharisees and enables them to receive the new revelation of Christ. While some were saying, Jesus cannot be a prophet because He was born in Nazareth, the Apostles, looking neither before nor behind, having neither prejudice nor fear of consequence, looking straight at their Master, discovered that He had for them the words of eternal life. And so they made the confession on which the Church is founded: Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now this sincerity, this true thinking and plain speaking, which is natural to children, often tends to be worn away as we leave childhood behind us, by the proper and natural desire to stand well with the little world of society, politics, or religion in which we happen to move, and, if so, it must be recovered, and we have to set it before us as a virtue to be attained; we have to turn and become in this respect once more like little children.

II. The absence of self-importance.And the second childlike quality which also we must labour to get back again is absence of self-importance. You will remember that our Lords putting the little child in the midst followed upon the wrangling of the Apostles as to their order of precedence. Children are not, as a rule, concerned with themselves in such a way as that; they look away from themselves. And this self-importance brings in its train vices which are objectionable to others and excruciating to ourselves, one of which the Apostle notices in the textMalice. Do not be malicious: children are not. Malice springs out of jealousy, and jealousy is the other side of self-importance. To be wrapped up in ones own consequence is to be intolerant of the consequence of others; and of all vices surely jealousy is the most mean and, alas for human nature, among the most widely diffused. If it creeps in, how can we banish it? How can we get rid of it? Of course we cannot recover the unconscious un-pretentiousness of childhood: we come to know our own measure too exactly for that; but we can do thiswe can endeavour to take a real and unaffected interest in other people for their own sakes, to look on their good qualities without envying them. Surely it lies well within the power of us all to let no malicious word pass our lips; and in that endeavour do let us press into service all the powers of our nature to help us to preserve a frank interest in other people for their own sake, and not as they compare with or affect us. If we have humour, let our humour show us the absurdity of the self-wrapt jealous heart. If we have imagination, let it remind us how disagreeable we find the self-centred person. And if we have common sense, let us apply it here as throughout the realm of our spiritual concerns.

III. Mans judgment the outgrowth of a childs sincerity.And that word brings us back to the second part of our textIn understanding be men. Common sense, wisdom, comes as near as we can get to what St. Paul is here urging upon the Corinthians. He is not exhorting them to any great effort of intellect, nor to accept the foundations of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. St. Paul is always telling them that the Gospel appeals to the child more than to the grown man. In the apprehension of the message it is the child in us that comes into playthe frank outlook, the instinct for goodness, humilityall childlike qualities. It is to them the Gospel appeals. And so St. Paul is not contradicting his Master; he is urging that, when the Christian faith has been received, there is room in our religious life, as much as in any other life, for the exercise of a mans faculty of judgment, common sense. And, if you think about it, the childs virtue of sincerity and the mans faculty of judgment are very closely allied, and one is really the outgrowth of the other. I dare say you have often remarked the judgments of Christ. Those judgments of His which enraged the Pharisees, and almost His own disciples, were simple judgments of common sense, guided by sincerity. It is not enough that we the clergy, or you the laity, should be as harmless as doves, if we are not also as wise as serpents. It is not enough to be children in malice; let us also in understanding be men.

Rev. Canon Beeching.

Illustration

Sir Thomas Browne wrote as a physician, but his exaltation of reason and learning are not less befitting other Christians, and his quaint yet penetrating words do not wholly lose their relevance when the subject of our inquiry is not Nature but Revelation: The World was made to be inhabited by Beasts, but studied and contemplated by Man; tis the Debt of our Reason we owe unto God, and the homage we pay for not being Beasts. Without this, the World is still as though it had not been, or as it was before the sixth day, when as yet there was not a Creature that could conceive or say that there was a World. The Wisdom of God receives small honour from those vulgar Heads that rudely stare about, and with a gross rusticity admire His works; those highly magnify Him, whose judicious inquiry into His acts, and deliberate research into His creatures, return the duty of a devout and learned admiration. Therefore,

Search while thou wilt, and let thy Reason go,

To ransome Truth, even to th Abyss below;

Rally the scattered Causes; and that line,

Which Nature twists, be able to untwine.

It is thy Makers will, for unto none

But unto Reason can He eer be known.

Teach my endeavours so Thy works to read,

That learning them in Thee, I may proceed.

Give Thou my reason that instructive flight,

Whose weary wings may on Thy hands still light.

Teach me to soar aloft, yet ever so

When near the Sun, to stoop again below.

Thus shall my humble Feathers safely hover,

And though near Earth, more than the Heavens discover.

And then at last, when homeward I shall drive,

Rich with the spoils of Nature, to my Hive,

There will I sit with that industrious Flie,

Buzzing Thy praises which shall never die,

Till Death abrupts them, and succeeding Glory

Bid me go on in a more lasting story.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

1Co 14:20. The brethren at Corinth had behaved so foolishly over their spiritual gifts, the apostle likened them to children. He was willing for them to be as free from malice as children, but in understanding (activities of the mind) he wished them to be as men. They certainly had shown malice toward each other, when they had be-

come contentious among themselves over their spiritual gifts. It was like children quarrelling with each other over whose mechanical toy would do the best performances. No wonder Paul thought it necessary to give this subject three whole chapters, and parts of some others.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

1Co 14:20. Brethren, be not children in understandingpower of judging,howbeit in malice be children, but in understanding be men (Gr. perfect, mature): let your manly sense be applied to this subject, and ye will need neither direction nor persuasion from me: to babble in an unintelligible tongue better becomes children than men; but in that malice which rivalry, envy, and jealousy beget, ye do well to be as babes.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

As if the apostle had said, My brethren, be not like children in understanding, who prefer gay and gaudy things, which make a fine show, as the gift of tongues does, before things more useful.

Thus, do not you choose what best pleaseth you, but what most profits others. I would have you indeed in some respects to be as children, namely in innocency and harmlessness, in freedom from malice, and all kind of wickedness; but in understanding, be and act as men, as persons of mature judgment, who know what is fittest to be spoken, and best to be done.

To be like children in the innocency of our actions, is a virtue; but to be like them in the impotency and weakness of our understanding, is a reproach: In understanding be men.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Tongues, A Sign to Unbelievers

Paul appealed to the members of Christ’s family at Corinth to quit being like children desiring the prettiest gift. Instead, he wanted them to be like men using good judgment to choose the most useful gift. Yet, he wanted them to take a child’s approach to differences, bearing not one grudge ( 1Co 14:20 ).

The apostle quoted from Isa 28:11-12 , which was originally used to tell Israel that God would speak to them regarding their stubbornness through their captors, the Assyrians. It shows that tongues were foreign languages. Further, speaking in tongues was not profitable unless it was understood by the hearers. Tongue speaking was used to convert unbelievers, while prophecy was used to teach believers ( 1Co 14:21-22 ).

Obviously, if all spoke in tongues at once, confusion would be the result. Such would drive unbelievers away. On the other hand, if all prophesied, the unbeliever would be convinced of his sin and see his need to respond to the gospel. Feeling the truths were directed at him, the unbeliever would be pricked in his heart (see Act 2:37 ) and would respond. He would feel that God must have exposed his inner thoughts to the prophet and would recognize the speakers as God’s ambassadors of truth ( 1Co 14:23-25 ).

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

1Co 14:20. Brethren, be not children in understanding By exercising the gift of tongues in the manner you do, preferring the things which make a fine show and gain applause, above things more useful and solid. This is an admirable stroke of true oratory, and was a severe reproof to the Corinthians, who piqued themselves on their wisdom, to represent their speaking unknown languages, and contending about precedency, as a childishness which men of sense would be ashamed of. Howbeit in malice Or wickedness rather, as here signifies; be ye children As much as possible like infants; have all the gentleness, sweetness, and innocency of their tender age; but in understanding be men , full-grown men. Conduct yourselves with the good sense and prudence of such, knowing religion was not designed to destroy any of our natural faculties, but to exalt and improve them, our reason in particular. Doddridge makes the following remark on this part of the apostles epistle to the Corinthians: Had the most zealous Protestant divine endeavoured to expose the absurdity of praying and praising in an unknown tongue, as practised in the Church of Rome, it is difficult to imagine what he could have written more full to the purpose than the apostle hath done here. He adds, for the instruction of those who preach the gospel, that a height of composition, an abstruseness of thought, and an obscurity of phrase, which common Christians cannot understand, is really a speaking in an unknown tongue, though the language used be the language of the country.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Vv. 20. Brethren, become not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, and in understanding be men. The address brethren, is fitted to bring them back to the feeling of Christian dignity which had been singularly weakened in them. The , become not, gives it to be understood that this abandonment to a sort of childishness has already begun among them. It is indeed the characteristic of the child to prefer the amusing to the useful, the brilliant to the solid. And this is what the Corinthians did by their marked taste for glossolalia, and the sort of disdain they testified for prophecy and still more for teaching. The word , strictly the diaphragm, denotes the physical seat of the action of the , the understanding. The is the faculty of the soul (), whereby the latter discerns spiritually as by the eye it discerns physically. The apostle adds, not without an allusion to all those defects in charity with which he has had to charge them in the course of the Epistle: If you will be children, well and good, provided it be in malice; but as to understanding, advance more and more toward full maturity. Malice, , has its seat in the heart, not in the understanding.

What an exhortation to people so proud of their wisdom! The words, Rom 16:19, have some resemblance to these, but without offering the humiliating side contained in our passage.

Before going further, let us sum up the course of this discussion: Paul began with proving, that in respect of usefulness, the gift of tongues is inferior to prophecy (1Co 14:1-5). Then, advancing a step, he showed that without interpretation this gift becomes even entirely useless (1Co 14:6-15). He went still further; he proved, in the third place, that to exercise it in this way, is to commit a real impropriety against the Church (1Co 14:16-19); finally, he concluded, 1Co 14:20, with an appeal to the good sense of his readers.

Throughout this whole exposition, the apostle has considered the exercise of gifts only from the standpoint of their usefulness to the members of the Church; but in their assemblies for worship, there was another element requiring to be taken into account; this was the strangers, not yet gained or only half gained for the faith, and whom it was necessary to avoid alienating by giving them offence. It is with a view to such persons that the apostle treats the question in the sequel. 1Co 14:20 is at once the preface to this new development and the conclusion of the foregoing.

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

Brethren, be not children in mind: yet in malice be ye babes, but in mind be men. [The apostle here reiterates the thought at 1Co 13:11 . To desire showy and comparatively worthless gifts was to be like children, pleased with toys. But as Paul exhorted them to be wise as men, the words of the Lord seem to have flashed through his mind (Mat 10:16) so that he parallels men with serpents and babes with doves. “Yet in malice be ye babes” is a parenthesis added by way of fullness. It has nothing to do with the line of argument, for there was no possible malice in the use of tongues.]

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

INFANCY AND MANHOOD OF CHRISTIANITY

20. Brethren, be not little children in understanding, but in sin be ye infants, but in understanding be ye perfect. It is a deplorable fact that most people let the devil fill up their heads with trash early in life, thus preoccupying the cranium with the devils filth before they have an opportunity to load up with Gods truth and Heavens gold. I expect to praise God through all eternity for a preaching father and sainted mother who fortified my susceptible infancy, flexible childhood and precarious youth against the dark ingress of the vulgar vices. Most people have great carloads of Hells trash and filth to unload before they can take in the precious truth of God. Here we are commanded explicitly to abide in the innocence of infancy, so far as the wickedness of the world is concerned, ever remaining ignorant of its vices and follies; while in point of sanctified intelligence he commands us, Be ye perfect, i. e., spiritual adults. This is another instance in which the inspired pen develops the gracious economy in the two great salient points of infancy and manhood, there being a progressive state preceding and succeeding each one of these grand, salient epochs which are instantaneously reached. Throughout the New Testament, Christian experience is set forth by two Greek words, i. e., the neepios, the infant, and the teeleios, the adult. The removal of depravity, which locks the soul fast in spiritual infancy, is indispensable to his admission into the sphere of spiritual adultage, which, instead of being the ultimatum of all progress, is the inauguration into a state of grand and illimitable progress, development and achievement; as for material life, we must pass out of infancy into adultage in order to enter upon any of the great enterprises peculiar to this world. The dwarfhood of the church of the present day is the insuperable difficulty disqualifying her to conquer the world for Christ.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

1Co 14:20-25. Such over-valuing of tongues reveals an infantile intelligence (a sharp thrust for a church so rich in intellectuals); only in malice is it proper to be babes. Scripture announces that the Lord will speak by men of strange tongues to this people and yet they will not hear. Tongues then are a sign to unbelievers, not to believers; prophecy is for believers, not unbelievers. So if the church is assembled and all speak with tongues, and non-members or unbelievers come in, they will think the whole assembly has gone mad. But if a man belonging to one of these classes comes in and all prophesy, he is convicted and judged by all, the things he supposes to be known only to himself are dragged into the light, and thus he is brought to worship God and recognise His presence. The point of 1Co 14:22 a is not that tongues are a sign conducing to the salvation of unbelievers, and that the Corinthians defeat Gods purpose by all speaking with tongues at once so that the sign misses its mark. We cannot indeed press the fact that the prophecy was one of judgment (Isa 28:11 f.*) since Pauls use of the OT was not controlled by its original sense. But the last clause proves that the sign was not intended favourably. And the interpretation, all speak with tongues at once is unjustifiable. For 1Co 14:24 obviously does not mean that all prophesy at once, since this would have been not much less of a Babel than the other, and not calculated to have the effect described in 1Co 14:24 f. In both cases they speak successively not simultaneously. Tongues will establish unbelievers in their unbelief. As they hear speaker after speaker pour out unintelligible harangues, they will draw the inference that the members are all mad and that Christianity is an insane delusion.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

14:20 {9} Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.

(9) Now he reproves those freely for their childish folly, who do not see how this gift of tongues which was given to the profit of the Church, is turned by their ambition into an instrument of cursing, seeing that this same cursing is also contained among the punishments with which God punished the stubbornness of his people, that he dispersed them amongst strangers whose language they did not understand.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Application in view of unbelievers 14:20-25

Uninterpreted tongues did not benefit visiting unbelievers any more than they edified the believers in church meetings. Prophecy, on the other hand, benefited both groups.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Thinking that tongues-speaking demonstrates spirituality evidences immaturity.

"Children prefer what glitters and makes a show to what is much more valuable; and it was childish to prefer ecstatic utterance to other and far more useful gifts." [Note: Robertson and Plummer, p. 315.]

"Some people have the idea that speaking in a tongue is an evidence of spiritual maturity, but Paul taught that it is possible to exercise the gift in an unspiritual and immature manner." [Note: Wiersbe, 1:614.]

There is a sense in which it is good for Christians to be childlike, namely, in our innocence regarding evil. Still, in understanding, we need to be mature (cf. 1Co 3:1-2). The Corinthians were not innocent in their behavior any more than they were mature in their thinking.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)