What is it then, my brothers? when you come together everyone has a holy song, or a revelation, or a tongue, or is giving the sense of it. Let everything be done for the common good.
You may be certain, my brothers, that it has frequently been in my mind to come to you but till now I was kept from it, so that I might have some fruit from you in the same way as I have had it from the other nations.
For he who makes use of tongues is not talking to men but to God; because no one has the sense of what he is saying; but in the Spirit he is talking of secret things.
It may seem to you that all this time we have been attempting to put ourselves in the right; but we are saying these things before God in Christ. For all things, dear brothers, are for your profit.
For this cause I am writing these things while I am away, so that there may be need for me, when I am present, to make use of sharp measures, by the authority which the Lord has given me for building up and not for destruction.
Through whom all the body, being rightly formed and united together, by the full working of every part, is increased to the building up of itself in love.