14:26
We now get positive teaching on worship. “Each one of you has a hymn, a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation”. It appears that all would come with something to contribute, in a moment Paul will give further instructions on doing things in an orderly manner, but let’s look at the matter of contributing first. Clearly, for practical reasons this could only be put into practice in a literal sense of “everyone” in relatively small gatherings, in a large church it would just not be practical. However, what is relevant in all cases is that there is no scope for passivity in worship. We should attend intending to contribute, ie to worship with our hearts and minds, to actively listen to the preaching, to actively pray. It is worth noting, given all that Paul has said about tongues, that he includes tongues in the list. Later he will insist that interpretation should go together with tongues. The underlying ethos is that everything is done in order to build up the church.
14:27,28
Having given the general principle, Paul now gives some caveats and sensible constraints. Spirit led worship and common sense are not contradictory! So, there were to be at most two or three who would speak in tongues, and they should speak in order, not all babbling at once. Moreover, there must be someone to interpret. Note the implication that there is a gift of interpretation, and that the one with this gift can more or less guarantee to be able to interpret the tongue. If there was no one around with the gift of interpretation, there was to be no public tongue speaking, for it would be a waste of time. This also implies that the gift of interpretation is a reliable steady gift. Ie it is not a case of someone being able to interpret occasionally, rather the person(s) with this gift can use it regularly.
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