1 Corinthians 14:20

“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 μὴ γίνεσθε, 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 φρήν, strictly the diaphragm, denotes the physical seat of the action of the νοῦς, the understanding. The νοῦς is the faculty of the soul (ψυχή), 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, κακία, has its seat in the heart, not in the understanding.

What an exhortation to people so proud of their wisdom! The words, Romans 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 (1 Corinthians 14:1-5). Then, advancing a step, he showed that without interpretation this gift becomes even entirely useless (1 Corinthians 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 (1 Corinthians 14:16-19); finally, he concluded, 1 Corinthians 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. 1 Corinthians 14:20 is at once the preface to this new development and the conclusion of the foregoing.