1 Corinthians 14:20-22

Expanded Bible

²⁰Brothers and sisters, do not think like children. In evil things be like ·babies [infants], but in your thinking you should be ·like adults [mature; grown-up]. ²¹It is written in the ·Scriptures [^LLaw; ^Creferring here to all of Scripture]:

“With people who use ·strange words [^Ldifferent tongues/languages] and ·foreign languages [^Ldifferent lips]
I will speak to these people.
But even then they will not ·listen to [or obey] me [Is. 28:11–12; see also Deut. 28:49],”

says the Lord. [^CIsrael didn’t listen when God used foreign-speaking Assyrians to punish them; similarly people won’t benefit from hearing tongues they don’t understand.]

²²So ·the gift of speaking in different kinds of languages [or ecstatic utterance; ^Ltongues] is a sign for unbelievers, not for believers [^Ctongues served as a warning of judgment and a call to repentance; see Acts 2:4, 21, 38–40]. And prophecy is for believers, not for unbelievers.

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1 Corinthians 14:20-22

New International Version

²⁰Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children.^(A) In regard to evil be infants,^(B) but in your thinking be adults. ²¹In the Law^(C) it is written:

“With other tongues
and through the lips of foreigners
I will speak to this people,
but even then they will not listen to me,^(D)
says the Lord.”^[a]

²²Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy,^(E) however, is not for unbelievers but for believers.

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