Shared ground

Paul links spiritual gifts to the controlling priority of love. In this paragraph he treats gifts as real and worth desiring, but he ranks them by how much they benefit other people in the gathering. His repeated benchmark is whether the church is “built up” (vv. 3–5). That shared goal frames everything he says about tongues and prophecy.

He also draws a clear contrast between speech that outsiders (or even fellow believers) cannot understand and speech that is understood. Tongue-speech, as described here, is directed “to God,” not “to people,” and “no one understands” it (v. 2). Prophecy, by contrast, is aimed at people and results in understandable strengthening, urging, and comfort (vv. 3–4).

Where interpretation differs (only where needed)

1) What “tongues” are. Some read tongues here as real human languages the speaker has not learned, while others think Paul is describing a kind of spiritual speech that is not a normal human language. Either way, Paul’s point in these verses is that the congregation does not understand it unless there is interpretation.

2) What “in the spirit…mysteries” means. Some take “mysteries” to mean genuine divine truths that remain hidden to listeners because the speech is not understood. Others take it more simply as “unintelligible to the group,” so the content is inaccessible even if meaningful to God. The text itself stresses the listener’s lack of access (“no one understands”), not a detailed explanation of the content.

3) What “greater” measures (v. 5). Some hear “greater” as a statement about higher status or authority. Others read it as “more valuable in that moment” because it produces more benefit for the gathered church. In these verses, the stated reason for “greater” is the assembly’s being built up, especially once interpretation is included.

Why the disagreement exists

Paul uses compact phrases (“tongues,” “in the spirit,” “mysteries,” “greater”) while focusing on a practical outcome: whether others are strengthened. Because he does not fully define the nature of tongues, the internal experience of the speaker, or the social implications of “greater,” readers fill in those gaps from other biblical passages or from assumptions about early Christian meetings.

What this passage clearly contributes

• Explicit in the text: love is the primary aim; gifts are still desired; prophecy is especially prioritized because it strengthens, urges, and comforts others; tongues (as described here) are not understood by others and mainly strengthen the speaker; interpretation changes tongues from private benefit to church-wide benefit (vv. 1–5).
• Reasonable theological inference: spiritual expressions are evaluated in community life by whether they build up others, not by how impressive they appear; “greater” is tied to usefulness for the church’s strengthening rather than personal display.

1 Corinthians 13:1 stands in the background: even the most dramatic speech becomes empty when detached from love.