14. [For] if I pray in a tongue, my spirit is at prayer but my mind is unproductive.
15. So what is to be done? I will pray with the spirit, but I will also pray with the mind. I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will also sing praise with the mind.
16. Otherwise, if you pronounce a blessing [with] the spirit, how shall one who holds the place of the uninstructed say the “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since he does not know what you are saying?
17. For you may be giving thanks very well, but the other is not built up.
18. I give thanks to God that I speak in tongues more than any of you,
19. but in the church I would rather speak five words with my mind, so as to instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.
20. Brothers, stop being childish in your thinking. In respect to evil be like infants, but in your thinking be mature.
21. It is written in the law:“By people speaking strange tonguesand by the lips of foreignersI will speak to this people,and even so they will not listen to me,says the Lord.”
22. Thus, tongues are a sign not for those who believe but for unbelievers, whereas prophecy is not for unbelievers but for those who believe.
23. So if the whole church meets in one place and everyone speaks in tongues, and then uninstructed people or unbelievers should come in, will they not say that you are out of your minds?
24. But if everyone is prophesying, and an unbeliever or uninstructed person should come in, he will be convinced by everyone and judged by everyone,
25. and the secrets of his heart will be disclosed, and so he will fall down and worship God, declaring, “God is really in your midst.”