14.
The following is an example of Paul’s reasoning:
“Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not; but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe. If, therefore, the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say ye are mad? But if all prophesy, and there cometh in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all” (1 Cor. xiv, 22–24).
Speaking with tongues is for the unbeliever. Therefore if you speak with tongues the unbeliever is not convinced.
Prophesying is not for the unbeliever. Therefore if you prophesy the unbeliever is convinced.
“Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; as also in all of his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood” (2 Peter iii, 15, 16).
The Duke of Somerset says: “There is scarcely a single passage in the Pauline Epistles, or a single doctrine in the Pauline theology, which is not darkened or embroiled by the ambiguity of the expression” (Christian Theology and Modern Scepticism, p. 116).