In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul spends some time arguing for intelligibility in worship. Whatever else we may say about the details of that chapter (particularly the first 25 verses), intelligibility seems to be his main concern. He is open to things being beneficial on a personal basis that may not be beneficial to the wider church community. But he is equally keen to insist that whatever takes place in public worship, it be mindful of the upbuilding of others. That is to say, aim to build up others rather than just benefit yourself. As such, prefer what everybody can understand over what nobody can.

One of his key points is that uninterpreted tongues cannot be understood by anybody else so they are, therefore, not at all helpful in building up other people. Only what can be understood has any benefit to those listening. Whilst in the passage Paul’s main focus is on uninterpreted tongue speaking, it isn’t hard to see how his concern applies to all manner of aspects of the church service.

Take preaching as an example. There is an old adage: if they aren’t learning, you aren’t teaching. In other words, if people don’t understand what on earth you’re going on about, you haven’t actually taught anybody anything. This is absolutely true of our preaching. If we are overly intellectual, getting caught up in parsing Greek in the pulpit and chasing all the “interesting” little side details, we might enjoy ourselves as much as the tongue-speakers in Corinth did. Unfortunately, it will go over the heads of many people and do little if anything for their upbuilding. If people don’t understand us, if they don’t understand the main ideas in the passage, we haven’t really taught them anything and they haven’t really been built up by us.

The same goes for the songs we sing. I remember the old days of the worship wars. Those discussions still occasionally rear their head here and there. The point that often gets lost – and has something to say to all sides of this particular discussion – is if people can’t understand what they’re singing, what on earth does it actually do for their upbuilding? On the traditional hymnody side of matters, it doesn’t make any difference how much you love Wesley, if the average punter in your pews hasn’t got a scooby what ‘thine eye diffused a quickening ray’ means, you aren’t really doing anything to build them up. By the same token, there are plenty of phrases in modern songs that are not always immediately obvious what they mean. Mileage may vary on these things, of course. But if the ordinary member of your church cannot straightforwardly explain what these things mean, how are we actually building them up by singing these songs?

Likewise, we have to be careful with the prayers that we pray. What good is it if we pray in the vaguest terms with a continual ‘you obviously know Lord’? Of course the Lord knows. He knews before we even prayed it. Unfortunately, nobody else in the room knows what you’re talking about and at least part of congregational prayer is to build up in prayer the others present. Similarly, long and wordy prayers which are virtually impossible to follow do very little to anybody else listening in.

Again and again, there are elements of our worship together that matter. Paul’s concern is for the upbuilding of the church and he is adamant that what others cannot understand will not build them up. If we care about others, we will be keen to ensure that what we do is intelligble and understandable for them. If we want to see anybody built up in Christ and encouraged in the faith, these things will only be if they are actually understood.