1 Corinthians 14:20

1Co_14:20

Brethren, be not children in understanding.

The wisdom of childhood

I. We should possess childlike simplicity of character. To preserve the freshness of childhood in the moral world is the object of the gospel.

II. With this we are to unite manliness of understanding. Our childlikeness is to be confined to the moral nature; beyond that, in the reign of the intellect, will and activities, we are commanded as Christians to be men. (Christian Age.)

The manliness of the gospel

1. Did it ever strike you that St. Paul was mad? was a question asked once, not by a scoffer, but by a man of powerful intellect, who felt that the question between Christianity and unbelief turned upon the case of Paul. For if the charge of Festus could be substantiated, one of the most powerful chapters of Christian evidence would be cancelled.

2. But we commend to the honest inquirer the study of this one chapter. St. Paul is correcting an exaggerated idea of the value of a particular gift. In all times human nature has been inclined to put display above profiting; and it required a sound and well-balanced judgment to keep gift in its place. And who can doubt that the true estimate was that taken here by St. Paul? (see 1Co_12:31; 1Co_14:1). It required a very sound and a very sober judgment to subordinate the gift of tongues to the far less brilliant gift of prophesying in which only edification was aimed at. The maxims interspersed among the exhortations of this chapter are eminently illustrative of the plain and practical character of the man whom it is necessary for infidelity to represent as an enthusiast, or to hint into a madman (1Co_14:14-15; 1Co_14:19; 1Co_14:26; 1Co_14:32-33; 1Co_14:40).

3. The subject thus introduced is larger and wider than the mere question of the sanity of St. Paul. The charge, In understanding be men, warns us very seriously of a danger, peculiarly pressing in these times, that, namely, of divorcing religion from manliness. If this is the gospel voice, then one offence, at least, is rolled out of the way. St. Paul says that there may be a childishness in the use of Divine gifts. He boldly declares even spiritual influences to be subordinate to considerations of propriety, of expediency, of common sense. No man is to say, I am no longer a free agent; the hand of God is upon me. This is to bring Gods own gift into dishonour. It is just because it fits into His other gifts, because, while it elevates, it also sobers, that I see it to be an evidence of His interposition.

4. Now if miracle itself is not to be so treated as to make it childish, what shall we say of the excuses made in our day for the utter repudiation of every such criterion in reference to matters which can certainly plead no inspired authority? There are two higher classes of subjects upon the treatment of which St. Paul throws a guiding and comforting light in the weighty maxim before us.

I. Revelation of course must be above reason. What intellect could discover, God would not reveal. If therefore on any topic revelation exists, that is proof sufficient that on that topic reason was silent.

1. When once the Divine origin of a revelation is attested by evidences of its being worthy of its Divine author, then it speaks, on each point which it touches, with authority.

2. But the office of the understanding in the first weighing of evidences, does not end here. The trying and testing of professed books of Scripture by the early Church was felt to be a heavy responsibility of the reason. Nor was the one settlement absolutely final. Particular clauses are found, on more modern and searching scrutinies, to be no part of the original text. And it is true reverence, as well as true wisdom, to exercise, upon all such matters, a large-minded and a manly judgment. God will guard His word written, and the God of truth is never honoured by a disingenuous treatment of the truth itself.

3. But there remains the weightiest matter of all, which is the interpretation of doctrine by the comparison of Scripture with Scripture. And here the mind must be employed if edification is to come to the student. Yet there are men who seem almost to think the contradiction of reason a sign of truth, and the mortification of the intellect a Christian duty.

II. Practical duty. Sin makes great havoc of human happiness; but next to it stands folly.

1. Could you but know, e.g., the utter foolishness of many parents and teachers on the great subject of education you would not wonder at the results, whether in the wilfulness of the youth or the misery of the manhood. Or again, would we but look back upon our own lifes history, and mark the giddy thoughtlessness or the perverse infatuation which has characterised it, we could not but become conscious of the force of St. Pauls caution.

2. But how large is the action of this unintelligent childishness inside the Church, in the counsels and examples of Christian men! The whole theory of monasticism, the whole system of direction, whether Romanist or Anglican, all that subjects my conscience to another mans rule, all that encourages a grovelling spirit in the worship and service of God in place of that honest, free, courageous bearing which finds the love of God life, and His service perfect freedom, is a contravention of Pauls rule.

3. How childish are half the biographies, diaries, devotions, of Christian saints! How little calculated to draw after them into Gods service the strong inquiring intellect, the warm wholesome heart, the young enterprising life! Conclusion: Each one of us is in some real measure responsible for the look and tone of Christianity to our age. It is ours to make it great or to make it little, noble or contemptible. (Dean Vaughan.)

Men in understanding

In verse 19 the word understanding stands for the intellectual faculty itself; here it refers to its state of development, to the mature condition of mind, heart, and general character. The word children, which occurs twice in the text, first stands for boys, then for babes. The word malice may also be taken more generally as designating all evil dispositions and affections. Lastly, the word men signifies perfect, and refers to maturity of age, fulness of mental development, fitness for the manly discharge of the duties of life. Thus looked at the text would seem to say, Dont feel and act like a set of ignorant, conceited boys--with respect to all that is bad, indeed, be the veriest babes; but as to all that is good, be like those who, having gone through a long course of discipline, are at once ripe in years, and perfectly equipped as to knowledge and accomplishments, thorough men.

I. In the text then we have the infant, the boy, and the man, and something belonging to each used for moral and religious ends. A human being comes into the world as a combination of capabilities--so much raw material. By taking malice and understanding as representative terms we have the two great departments of human nature--the intellectual and the emotional.

1. A little infant, then, has wrapped up within it the capacities of the intellect and the forces of the passions. Without referring to the undeveloped state of an infants understanding, the apostle fixes attention on the undeveloped condition of the passions--the one idea that he wanted, and which, therefore, he exclusively refers to. Looking at a little sweet babe the apostle seems to says, Whatever capacity there may be here for what is bad, it is not manifested yet. How free from all that deforms society and degrades men! True, all the men in the world were once babes; would to God that, in one sense, they were babes again! But Christians, by the expulsion of corruption through the influences of the regenerating Spirit, ought in malice to be children.

2. Next we have the picture of a number of youths, who have advanced beyond childhood, but who have not yet acquired the knowledge, dispositions, and habits belonging to riper years. They are necessarily inexperienced; they think a great deal of any small acquirement or advantage by which they are distinguished; there are often among them envyings and animosities; they like pleasure and excitement; they can hardly understand what is meant by self-sacrifice, and know little of the greatness and beautifulness of duty as duty. However promising they may be they cannot but be defective in those things which belong to disciplined virtue and manly worth. In infants the reason and the feelings are alike undeveloped; in youth both have unfolded to a certain extent, and the apostle directs attention to the want of proportion between the development of the understanding and that of the passions. The understanding needs to be opened and cultivated--the passions grow of themselves. If the intellect be let alone, it will not expand; if the feelings be let alone, they will expand the more. The one requires to be encouraged and stimulated; the others to be repressed and restrained. The consequence is, that in early life the inferior parts are strong and active, as by the force of an internal impulse. Hence we have the phenomena that so often distinguish immaturity of character, folly, vanity, selfishness, ignorance, the want of all those things which make up that moral understanding in which the apostle wished the Corinthians to be men, but which is seldom found to be the characteristic of boys.

3. The image of full-grown men, mature in character as.well as in years. The apostle supposes a number of human beings to have passed through a thorough course of culture and discipline, and to have acquired an intellectual equipment, and attained a moral fitness for what they are to be and to do in life.

II. The appropriateness of this mode of illustration to the condition of the Corinthian Church.

1. The Corinthians were ambitious of personal distinction; they each wished to have the highest gifts conferred upon them; and those who were entrusted with any, especially with the power of unknown, or eloquent speech, were utterly regardless of order and propriety in their use and exhibition. The Christian Church became a theatre of display; and the Christian life, instead of being something serious and earnest, put on the appearance of a boisterous holiday, and was as little dignified as a plaything or a song. But, worse than this, with the immaturity, vanity, and folly of boys, there mingled at Corinth the passions of men. They could not all be first; some must listen if others speak; where some lead, others must follow. But this is difficult where all are ambitious; and hence the society was torn by dissensions, developed bad feelings, was combined with a narrow and childish intellect and heart.

2. It is to this state of things that the admonition in the text refers. The apostle endeavours to instruct them by laying down important general principles, and to reprove them by severe and appropriate censure; aiming thus at once to open their understandings, and to subdue their passions. Be not mere boys, without deep and comprehensive views of duty. In malice, indeed, I wish you were even like babes, but in wisdom and knowledge, in mastery of yourselves, and in calm devotedness to the great business of the Christian life, I wish you to be men.

III. The advantages which attend the possession of a character like this.

1. It is favourable to stability both of opinion and conduct. One who is really a spiritual man, may be depended on. His intelligence is large; his views are matured; his principles are established; his habits are fixed; he is not likely to become marked by the levity and inconstancy which are often seen in the ignorant and immature, the young and the superficial (see Eph_4:8-15).

2. It capacitates for entering into the profounder truths and for enjoying the higher forms of instruction. In some parts of the Church there is the constant reiteration of just the three or four truths which make up what we call the gospel. The people are thus always kept at the alphabet, or in the spelling-book, or in the shortest and easiest reading lessons, and are never introduced to the high arguments which lie beyond. Now without the culture of their own minds, the full development of their spiritual faculties, a congregation will listen to the higher forms of Christian teaching, not only without benefit, but with weariness and wonder. That it is not right for people to continue in this stale, you learn from Heb_5:1-14; Heb_6:1-20, and 1Co_3:1-2, i.e., let me have hearers who in understanding are men, and instead of their being fatigued by the demand upon them, or offended by the form in which I convey my thoughts, they shall feel refreshed and strengthened by the exercise, and find themselves wiser, better, and happier men.

3. It will correct religious taste, and elevate and improve the general character. The Corinthians preferred the showy to the substantial. Their character was flashy, superficial. The apostle wished them to be men in understanding, that all this might be thoroughly corrected. And so it will be still if we, too, rise into the character that has been set before us. Christian men, who in some degree answer to this, are superior to dependence on flash and rhetoric, or any of the many and mean arts by which Christian teaching is often disfigured. Having got rid of the craving for distinction, learnt the more excellent way of being great, the extinction of selfishness, and the service of love, they will be free from those evil tempers in which small and contracted souls indulge. They will delight in the cultivation of all that is noble and dignified in the Christian character, and be distinguished and known alike for the strength and the beauties of holiness.

4. Those who are men in understanding will best know how to receive the kingdom of heaven like little children. But does not the New Testament demand the understanding of a child in order to the simple reception of the faith? No; it is not the childish, undeveloped understanding that is required, but the feeling in the child that is the effect of this--a readiness to rely on authority, and to receive the testimony of those whom it looks up to, without questioning. But this spirit is not, in a man, the consequence of ignorance, but the fruit of knowledge. Those who know nothing, and those who know a little, are often the most conceited. It requires the cultivated understanding of the man to know when he has arrived at an ultimate fact--where it is necessary to pause or stop in curious inquiries, and when it is proper to welcome the positive utterances of authority, and to rely upon them like a little child. The most mature Christian will live in the exercise of the most simple faith. He who knows most of God will know most of himself; he will, therefore, believe when others doubt, and will distrust when others presume. (T. Binney.)

Christian manliness

1. The scholar alludes here to the teaching of his Master, and defines it (Mat_18:3; Mat_11:25). It was notably the manner of the Great Teacher to fling out thoughts in a round unguarded axiom which He trusted the good sense of His sympathetic disciples to define and limit. His very doing so is of itself conclusive proof that He meant His pupils to be no children, but men, in understanding. He might have addressed us as Moses addressed the Israelites, and given us details instead of principles, and an example in the room of an axiom. It pleased Him, on the contrary, to inaugurate an adult dispensation.

2. The Church, however, has not entered into this purpose of its Founder. Others besides the Galatians desire to turn back again to be in bondage to beggarly elements. But if men will be childish in their religion, they shall not shelter themselves under Christs injunctions if St. Paul can hinder it. To be children in malice towards one another, and in humility towards God, is that state to which alone the Father reveals His grace. But to be children in understanding; to be credulous without reflection, obedient without intelligence;--this could not appear to the noblest intellect of his age worthy of that gospel which reveals the wisdom of God, and educates man into perfect manhood, into the stature of the fulness of Jesus Christ.

3. The right use of the understanding in regard to Christianity is, of course, determined by the special nature of the Christian faith. Christianity rests upon facts which are wholly supernatural. It reveals mysteries of which reason can say nothing, either to confirm or to dispute. At the same time, a Divine system which is to recover man must be fitted to men. It cannot override one part of man, his reason, in reaching another, his spirit. Consider the manly use of the understanding--

I. In reference to Divine truth. The revelation of God in His Sons gospel asks of our understanding--

1. To estimate its credentials with a candid mind and a pure heart.

(1) Suppose that I have been educated within the bosom of Christs Church, and have thus, by the happy experience of a religious life, put the faith of Jesus to frequent proof. In that ease I only use my understanding, as a man should, if I decline to reopen without cause the question of Christian evidences. A man may know whom he has trusted, and be no fool.

(2) Others, however, have had an educational belief in Christianity, which personal experience never verified. Before the understanding of such men the gospel pleads. It asks no more than a full hearing and an honest verdict. Their duty is to be, in malice, indeed, children, but in understanding, men; asking fair proof, and taking no less; grappling with a robust, not finical, intellect the question of questions. There is a reason which can be given for the faith that is in us.

2. The intelligent interpretation of its records. A childs open heart may drink in so much of Gods light from a text or two as will quicken it into holy life; but God means grown Christians to be at pains, by manly research and the use of reason, to ascertain the sense of His book. It is childish to dip into its pages with a pin, as if it were a book of fate; it is hardly less childish to cite texts at random, out of their connection, without asking when they were written, or with what design.

3. To grasp its truths as a whole. There is no intellectual manliness in shunning all dogmatic statements of theological truth, as if, in the haze of revelation, nothing could confidently be made out. It is true that few propositions in theology have escaped contradiction, and that at particular periods a rage for defining and systematising has been carried too far. But when all this has been conceded, the fact remains that the Church, from the second century to the nineteenth, has exercised its understanding on the materials of revelation with such substantial harmony that all its main doctrines have survived and commanded the assent of the most opposite schools. But were theology a chaos of conflicting opinions, still it would be manly to grapple with the teaching of Scripture, and endeavour to digest it into a system. Shall the facts of nature be classified and not the results of revelation?

4. An attitude towards all truth of fearless and open-minded candour, so long as it is unproved; so soon as it is proved true, one of rejoicing welcome. The crude and hasty theories of the day, whose value is chiefly to stimulate and guide further research, will make no man uneasy who has studied the history of past discovery. The shadows which coming truths cast before them are often mis-shapen, after the manner of shadows, and they startle the timorous; but the truth itself is always reassuring, a cheerful thing to healthy souls. No man ought to be so eager in the search for truth as the friend of Christ, nor can any man afford to meet it with a manlier greeting.

II. In reference to human practice.

1. It was in connection with a practical question--the profitable conduct of congregational worship--that St. Paul gave this injunction. When people are possessed by a very high ideal of duty, or ruled by their faith in what is Divine, they come easily in danger of despising common sense. Once let men imagine that God can possibly be pleased with a thing which offends reason, and there is nothing too irrational for them to do in His service. Or, let them only suppose that He cares for external form, apart from the inner spirit of an act, and the door is opened at once to childish trifling in worship and a painful casuistry in morals.

2. Two principles rationally applied will solve many knots of casuistry.

(1) That we are no longer children, who please our Father by an unintelligent observance of mere external rules, but men, whose service, to be worth anything, must proceed from intelligent sympathy with His mind. To do, or abstain from doing, this, that, or the other petty act, because you are told you ought to, without knowing why, is to be a child. Be men.

(2) The subordination of the morally small to the morally great. All right things are not equally important. Seek therefore to make sure of the weightier matters of the law. For if our eye is set on the doing of these, the mint, anise, and cummin, which are apt to give us so much trouble, will not be left undone. Conclusion: The understanding holds the function in Christian life of a regulator, nowise that of a moving power. A Christian who is only one intellectually is simply no Christian at all; for, till the heart is converted and become that of a little child, the man cannot see, cannot, by force of intellect, discern, the kingdom of heaven. Let us seek to retain the heart of childhood, but let us guide it by the understanding of a man. (J. Oswald Dykes, D. D.)

Christianity and manhood

I. The distinction between childishness and childlikeness. Be not children in mind: howbeit in malice be ye babes.

1. These two ideas are frequently confounded, especially by young Christians. At first awaking to the Divine life wonder largely takes the place of understanding, and feeling that of thought. Being simple in motives is easily mistaken for being simple in ideas and rudimentary in knowledge. In the newly converted the two simplicities are engagingly combined, and they may thus appear to be essentially connected. But this is not the case. The experience which does not strengthen and enrich itself by sanctified thinking and meditation will soon become unreal, unwholesome, and unsafe.

2. The childhood which is the ideal of Christian character is a moral and not an intellectual childhood. We are to put away childish things according to the general law of a healthy intellectual growth. Leaving the first principles we are to go on unto perfection.

II. The summons to perfect our nature. This applies to every faculty we possess, in its relative and normally harmonious development.

1. Muscular Christianity has still its gospel to preach. The body has claims which are too much ignored. Flabbiness and effeminacy are not proofs of holiness. The qualities and accomplishments, too, by which men are enabled to fulfil their role as business men, members of society, citizens, etc., are well within the calling of the Christian, and demand his attention. They may be a sign to many who would fail to appreciate more esoteric doctrines or practices.

2. And so of knowledge, this most characteristic and ennobling faculty of man. Science, art, philosophy, and literature have all their place in providing us with a true understanding of life, and perfecting the mind for higher things. The true goal of all these studies is Divine knowledge or wisdom, but they lead only to the threshold. Christ calls us to a higher school, and even identifies the knowledge of God and Himself with eternal life.

Conclusion: The following considerations may help to prove that Christianity, so far from stunting or stereotyping the thought of man, has a real need for its exercise, and makes the greatest demands upon it.

1. Christianity introduces its subjects to a great, suggestive, and stimulating experience.

2. It reveals the profoundest principles of life, and trains us in their application.

3. It demands the wisest and most skillful service.

4. It declares it as its purpose to perfect mans nature and character.

5. It proclaims every faculty sacred, and of the nature of a Divine stewardship. (St. John A. Frere.)

The right use of the understanding in matters of religion

It may be of use to premise an observation or two, the truth of which must be presupposed in all directions given to men about the exercise of their understandings in religion.

1. Religion is in itself an intelligible and rational thing, of which a clear and consistent account may be conveyed to the mind, and which may be shown to have a foundation in reason and argument, and not in the ignorance and folly of mankind.

2. Religion is a thing not only barely intelligible and rational, but apparently and obviously so, which may be easily understood and comprehended by mankind. Thus it must be, if religion be indeed the subject of the inquiry and discussion of all men; because it is certain that the faculties of the greatest part of men will never allow them to penetrate into things that are any way abstruse or difficult. Besides, we must conclude from the goodness of God that He would never make anything upon which the happiness of man depends, as it plainly does upon religion, either impossible or hard to be known or comprehended by them.

I. I shall now proceed to consider what this exercise of the understanding which is required from us with respect to religion implies.

1. It implies fairness and candour and care and diligence in our religious inquiries and disquisitions; that we keep our intellectual eye pure and unprejudiced, and withal lively and vigorous, in which state alone it is capable of discerning and tracing out the truths of religion.

2. Another thing implied in the exercise of our understandings with respect to religion is our acquiescing in the principles of it upon sufficient evidence being laid before us of their truth. As credulity, or an implicit belief, is altogether unbecoming, so likewise is a sceptical humour, which puts us upon evading evidence, which makes us doubt where there is no occasion to hesitate, where there is light enough to guide us, and to determine our judgment, according to the established rules of reasoning, and of giving our assent.

3. There is one thing more implied in the due exercise and cultivation of our understandings with respect to religion, which is our improving and increasing our knowledge of it in proportion to our abilities. If men would but faithfully endeavour to become acquainted with the entire system of religion, many of them, at least, would in a little time find that they were able to penetrate much farther into it than, before their making the experiment, they were apt to think they could do. The case of our mental and bodily powers is in general the same: both are greatly strengthened by use, whereas without it they run to rust, and contract a weakness and ineptitude for effecting things of which, through practice and custom, they would have been very capable.

II. I shall show for what reasons we should thus exercise and employ our understandings about religion.

1. Both our dignity and happiness depend upon our doing so.

(1) What a shining figure does that man make who, by means of a well-tutored and refined understanding and a large stock of true knowledge, can speak pertinently upon any important subject that occurs in conversation and instruct others in the useful or entertaining sciences or arts of life!

(2) And as our dignity depends so much upon our exercising our understandings in the subjects of religion, So likewise does our happiness. For as we are formed with a love of truth and a desire of knowledge, so every discovery of truth is attended with a most sensible delight. And the more important and certain the truth which is discovered is, the greater is the pleasure which results from the knowledge of it. Now, as the great truths of religion must to every ingenious man appear to be above all others momentous, and likewise very clear and certain, the mind which inquires into them and gradually traces them out must be entertained with a most pure and continually increasing pleasure.

2. We should exercise our intelligent powers about religion, because without this there can be no merit or virtue in our religion, nor can it ever be pleasing and acceptable to God. Religion, according to the most obvious notion of it, is a reasonable, voluntary, and liberal service, flowing from principles of light and knowledge, the calm approbation of our minds, and the generous affections of our hearts.

Instructions and inferences:

1. We may see the ingenuous spirit of our religion which, disdaining to take advantage of the ignorance, credulity, and inattention of mankind, lays itself open to the examination of all men, and even invites and requires them carefully to try and prove it.

2. We may see that the ignorance of the true nature and grounds of religion, or, which is very nearly related to it, the implicit belief of religion which so commonly prevails among professed Christians, even in places of the greatest liberty, is very faulty and inexcusable.

3. We may infer the iniquity of all those methods which are used to deter or discourage men in inquiring freely into religion and increasing as far as they are able their knowledge of it.

4. We may see how much it concerns every man to raise and cultivate in himself a serious, honest, and diligent, temper of searching into religion, and to propagate the same among others as far as it is in his power to do it; because in this temper the very essence of the duty of exercising our understandings about religion consists, and because it is the seedplot of truth and virtue in men, the root from whence the most generous improvements both in the knowledge and practice of our duty shoot and grow.

5. Let the knowledge which we attain to in consequence of the exercise of our understandings about religion be always substituted by us as the foundation of a good conduct and virtuous conversation in the world, Religion is, above all other sciences and institutions, practical. (J. Orr, D. D.)

The mind the standard of the man

Dr. Watts once overheard a stranger say, What! is that the great Dr. Watts? The Doctor, who was of low stature, turning to the gentleman, promptly said--

Were I so tall to reach the poles,

Or mete the ocean with my span,

I must be measured by my soul--

The minds the standard of the man.

The true test

The true test of any Church or ministry is not so much the knowledge which it gives or the order which it secures, as its productiveness of new men in Christ Jesus; and it is an awful test. When I see where there is the least disturbance among you, where there is the slightest disagreement in a Sunday school matter, that the old worthy members of my Church act like anybody else, and squabble, and full of answerings, call back and carry away hard feelings, I say to myself, I have not made any men yet, my preaching has been as poor as any other ministers. One fails for one reason and another for another. When I judge from what you are, I feel that I am about as poor a minister as I know of, (H. W. Beecher.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co 14:20. Brethren, be not children in understanding — By exercising the gift of tongues in the manner you do, preferring the things which make a fine show and gain applause, above things more useful and solid. This is an admirable stroke of true oratory, and was a severe reproof to the Corinthians, who piqued themselves on their wisdom, to represent their speaking unknown languages, and contending about precedency, as a childishness which men of sense would be ashamed of. Howbeit in malice — Or wickedness rather, as κακια here signifies; be ye children — As much as possible like infants; have all the gentleness, sweetness, and innocency of their tender age; but in understanding be men — Τελειοι, full-grown men. Conduct yourselves with the good sense and prudence of such, knowing religion was not designed to destroy any of our natural faculties, but to exalt and improve them, our reason in particular. Doddridge makes the following remark on this part of the apostle’s epistle to the Corinthians: “Had the most zealous Protestant divine endeavoured to expose the absurdity of praying and praising in an unknown tongue, as practised in the Church of Rome, it is difficult to imagine what he could have written more full to the purpose than the apostle hath done here.” He adds, for the instruction of those who preach the gospel, “that a height of composition, an abstruseness of thought, and an obscurity of phrase, which common Christians cannot understand, is really a speaking in an unknown tongue, though the language used be the language of the country.”

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14:20 To be mature in understanding such matters, one must consider the purpose of spiritual gifts and not treat them as ends in themselves for one’s own enjoyment.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Co 14:20. Ἀδελφοὶ, brethren) The vocative put at the beginning has an agreeable force.—τῇ κακίᾳ· ταῖς φρεσὶ) Ammonius makes this seasonable observation: “νοῦς is covert reasoning, ἀπόκρυφος λογισμὸς; but φρένες implies GOOD thoughts,” αἱ ΑΓΑΘΑΙ διάνοιαι. Nor does κακία denote malice [badness], but vice, or whatever is opposed to virtue.—νηπιάζετε, be ye children) νηπιάζω, similar to the forms ἀκμάζω, πυῤῥάζω.—τέλειοι, perfect) and therefore determining the true value of every thing according to its use.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co_14:20. Up to this point Paul has been contending against speaking with tongues in public and without interpretation, on the ground of its uselessness. He now adds an animated and winning admonition, well calculated to meet the conceit of the Corinthians on this poin.

ἀδελφοί] suavem vim habet (Bengel).

Become not children as respects your power of judgment. His readers were becoming so, inasmuch as, through their increasing craving after glossolalia, they lacked more and more the power of distinguishing and judging between the useful and the useless; their speaking with tongues assumed the character of childishness. As regards malice (1Co_5:8), on the other hand be children; have a child-nature in quite another respect, namely, by being free from all malicious thoughts and actions (Mat_18:3). Comp. Rom_16:19; Gal_6:3; Tit_1:10; Lucian, Halc. 2 : νηπιότης φρενῶν.

Regarding νηπιάζειν, to be a child (in Greek writers also νηπιάχειν and νηπιαχεύειν), comp. Hipp. Ep. p. 1281. 52.

τέλειοι] of full age, adultus. See Plat. Legg. xi. p. 929 C. Comp. on Eph_4:13.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co 14:20 . P. has argued the superiority of intelligible speech, as a man of practical sense; he finally appeals to the good sense of his readers: “Brethren, be not children in mind” (see parls.) “in judgment” (Ed [2114] ), “the reasoning power on its reflective and discriminating side” (El [2115] ); φρένες differs from νοῦς much as φρόνιμος from f1σοφός (see notes to 1Co 4:10 , 1Co 10:15 ). Emulation and love of display were betraying this Church into a childishness the very opposite of that broad intelligence and enlightenment on which it plumed itself ( 1Co 1:5 , 1Co 4:10 , 1Co 8:1 , 1Co 10:15 , etc.). “It is characteristic of the child to prefer the amusing to the useful, the shining to the solid” (Gd [2116] ). This is a keen reproof, softened, however, by the kindly ἀδελφοί (“suavem vim habet,” Bg [2117] ). γίνεσθε , “be in effect,” “show yourselves”; cf. 1Co 11:1 , etc. “In malice, however, be babes (act the babe); but in mind show yourselves full-grown (men)”. For the force of the ending in νηπιάζω , cf. πυρρ - άζω , to redden , Mat 16:2 ; the vb [2118] is based on νήπιος , a kind of superlative to παιδίον “be (not boyish, but actually) childish” (Ed [2119] ), or “ infantile , in malice”. For the antithesis of τέλειος (= ἀνήρ ) and νήπιος , see 1Co 2:6 , 1Co 13:9 ff., and parls. For κακία , cf. note on 1Co 5:8 : P. desiderates the affection of the little child (see Eph 4:32 f., for the qualities opp [2120] to κακία ), as Jesus (in Mat 18:1 ff.) its simplicity and humbleness . Gd [2121] excellently paraphrases this ver.: “Si vous voulez être des enfants, à la bonne heure, pourvu que ce soit quant à la malice; mais, quant à l’intelligence, avancez de plus en plus vers la maturité complète”.

[2114] T. C. Edwards’ Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians . 2

[2115] C. J. Ellicott’s St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians .

[2116] F. Godet’s Commentaire sur la prem. Ép. aux Corinthiens (Eng. Trans.).

[2117] Bengel’s Gnomon Novi Testamenti.

[2118] verb

[2119] T. C. Edwards’ Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians . 2

[2120] opposite, opposition.

[2121] F. Godet’s Commentaire sur la prem. Ép. aux Corinthiens (Eng. Trans.).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vv. 20. “Brethren, become not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, and in understanding be men.” — The address brethren, is fitted to bring them back to the feeling of Christian dignity which had been singularly weakened in them. The μὴ γίνεσθε, become not, gives it to be understood that this abandonment to a sort of childishness has already begun among them. It is indeed the characteristic of the child to prefer the amusing to the useful, the brilliant to the solid. And this is what the Corinthians did by their marked taste for glossolalia, and the sort of disdain they testified for prophecy and still more for teaching. The word φρήν, strictly the diaphragm, denotes the physical seat of the action of the νοῦς, the understanding. The νοῦς is the faculty of the soul (ψυχή), whereby the latter discerns spiritually as by the eye it discerns physically. The apostle adds, not without an allusion to all those defects in charity with which he has had to charge them in the course of the Epistle: “If you will be children, well and good, provided it be in malice; but as to understanding, advance more and more toward full maturity.” Malice, κακία, has its seat in the heart, not in the understanding.

What an exhortation to people so proud of their wisdom! The words, Rom 16:19, have some resemblance to these, but without offering the humiliating side contained in our passage.

Before going further, let us sum up the course of this discussion: Paul began with proving, that in respect of usefulness, the gift of tongues is inferior to prophecy (1Co 14:1-5). Then, advancing a step, he showed that without interpretation this gift becomes even entirely useless (1Co 14:6-15). He went still further; he proved, in the third place, that to exercise it in this way, is to commit a real impropriety against the Church (1Co 14:16-19); finally, he concluded, 1Co 14:20, with an appeal to the good sense of his readers.

Throughout this whole exposition, the apostle has considered the exercise of gifts only from the standpoint of their usefulness to the members of the Church; but in their assemblies for worship, there was another element requiring to be taken into account; this was the strangers, not yet gained or only half gained for the faith, and whom it was necessary to avoid alienating by giving them offence. It is with a view to such persons that the apostle treats the question in the sequel. 1Co 14:20 is at once the preface to this new development and the conclusion of the foregoing.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co_14:20

Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.

There are two characteristics of children; the one a disposition to be pleased with trifles, or to put a false estimate on things; the other, comparative innocence. There is a great difference as to every thing evil between a little child and a full-grown man. The former of these characteristics the apostle wished the Corinthians to lay aside. The latter he wished them to cultivate. They had displayed a childish disposition in estimating the gift of tongues above more useful gifts, and in using it when it could answer no good purpose. A little child, however, is some thing so lovely, and is so often held up in Scripture for imitation, that he could not say, without qualification, Be not children. He therefore says, Be not children as to understanding; but as to malice, a comprehensive word for evil dispositions, be ye children. So our Lord said, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven, Mat_18:3.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Now he reproveth them freely for their childish folly, which see not how this gift of tongues which was given to the profit of the Church, is turned by their ambition into an instrument of cursing, seeing that this same also is contained amongst the punishments wherewith God punished the stubbornness of his people, that he dispersed them amongst strangers whose language they understood not.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Brethren--an appellation calculated to conciliate their favorable reception of his exhortation.

children in understanding--as preference of gifts abused to nonedification would make you (compare Co1 3:1; Mat 10:16; Rom 16:19; Eph 4:14). The Greek for "understanding" expresses the will of one's spirit, Rom 8:6 (it is not found elsewhere); as the "heart" is the will of the "soul." The same Greek is used for "minded" in Rom 8:6.

men--full-grown. Be childlike, not childish.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 20. Be not children in understanding] There are three words here to which we must endeavour to affix the proper sense.

1. παιδια signifies children in general, but particularly such as are grown up, so as to be fit to send to school in order to receive instruction;

2. νηπιος, from νη, not, and ειπω, I speak, signifies an infant; one that cannot yet speak, and is in the lowest stage of infancy;

3. τελειοι, from τελεω, I complete or perfect, signifies those who are arrived at perfect maturity, both of growth and understanding. We shall now see the apostle's meaning: Brethren, be not, παιδια, as little children, just beginning to go to school, in order to learn the first elements of their mother tongue, and with an understanding only sufficient to apprehend those elements.

In malice] κακια, In wickedness, νηπιαζετε, be ye as infants, who neither speak, do, nor purpose evil.

But in understanding] τελειοι γινεσθε, Be ye perfect men, whose vigour of body, and energy of mind show a complete growth, and a well cultivated understanding.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

20. Brethren, be not children in understanding He proceeds a step farther; for he shows that the Corinthians are so infatuated, that they, of their own accord. draw down upon themselves, and eagerly desire, as though it were a singular benefit, what the Lord threatens that he will send, when he designs to inflict upon his people the severest punishment. What dreadful madness is this — to pursue eagerly with their whole desire, what, in the sight of God, is regarded as a curse! That we may, however, understand more accurately Paul’s meaning, we must, observe, that this statement is grounded on the testimony of Isaiah, which he immediately afterwards subjoins. (Isaiah 28:11, 12.) And as interpreters have been misled, from not observing the connection to be of this nature, to prevent all mistake, we shall first explain the passage in Isaiah, and then we shall come to Paul’s words.

In that chapter the Prophet, inveighs with severity against the ten tribes, which had abandoned themselves to every kind of wickedness. The only consolation is, that God had still a people uncorrupted in the tribe of Judah; but straightway he deplores the corruption of that tribe also; and he does so the more sharply, because there was no hope of amendment. For thus he speaks in the name of God — Whom shall I teach knowledge? those that are weaned from their mother? those that are drawn from the breasts By this he means, that they are no more capable of instruction than little children but lately weaned.

It is added — Precept upon precept, instruction upon instruction, charge upon charge, direction upon direction, here a little, and there a little In these words he expresses, in the style of a mimic, the slowness and carelessness by which they were kept back. “In teaching them, I lose my labor, for they make no progress, because they are beyond measure uncultivated, and what they had been taught by means of long-continued labor, they in a single moment forget.”

It is added still farther — He that speaketh to that people is like one that maketh use of stammering lips, and a foreign language This is the passage that Paul quotes. Now the meaning is, that the people have been visited with such blindness and madness, that they no more understand God when speaking to them, than they would some barbarian or foreigner, stammering in an unknown tongue — which is a dreadful curse. He has not, however, quoted the Prophet’s words with exactness, because he reckoned it enough to make a pointed reference to the passage, that the Corinthians, on being admonished, might attentively consider it. As to his saying that it was written in the law, this is not at variance with common usage; for the Prophets had not a ministry distinct from the law, but were the interpreters of the law, and their doctrine is, as it were, a sort of appendage to it; hence the law included the whole body of Scripture, up to the advent of Christ. Now Paul from this infers as follows — “Brethren, it is necessary to guard against that childishness, which is so severely reproved by the Prophet — that the word of God sounds in your ears without any fruit. Now, when you reject prophecy, which is placed within your reach, and prefer to stand amazed at empty sound, is not this voluntarily to incur the curse of God?

Farther, lest the Corinthians should say in reply, that to be spiritually children, is elsewhere commended, (Matthew 18:4,) Paul anticipates this objection, and exhorts them, indeed, to be children in malice, but to beware of being children in understanding Hence we infer how shameless a part those act, who make Christian simplicity consist in ignorance. Paul would have all believers to be, as far as possible, in full maturity as to understanding The Pope, inasmuch as it is easier to govern asses than men, gives orders, under pretext of simplicity, that all under him shall remain uninstructed. Let us from this draw a comparison between the dominion of Popery, and the institution of Christ, and see how far they agree.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(20) Howbeit in malice be ye children.—Better, however in evil be ye infants. There are three grades spoken of here in the original—infants, children, full-grown men. Their conduct in exalting these “tongues,” against which he has been warning them, is a proof that they are yet children in knowledge. They ought to be full-grown; the only thing in which they ought to be children is evil, and in that they cannot be too young, too inexperienced; they should be merely “infants.” (A similar thought occurs in 1Co_2:6; 1Co_3:1; 1Co_13:10-11.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

20. howbeit in malice be ye children] This is subjoined lest the Apostle should be charged with contradicting his Master. There is a sense in which all Christians must be children. What it is the Apostle tells us. They were to be children in malice, or rather perhaps vice. Compare on the one hand St Mat_11:25; Mat_18:3; Mat_19:14; 1Pe_2:2; on the other, ch. 1Co_3:1; Eph_4:14; and Heb_5:12. See also St Mat_10:16; Rom_16:19.

men] Literally, perfect, i.e. of ripe age. Cf. ch. 1Co_2:6; Php_3:15; Heb_5:14.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In the law it is written,.... In Isa 28:11 for the word law is not be confined to the five books of Moses, but includes all the writings of the Old Testament; and this entirely agrees with the sense of the Jews. Says R. Azarias (q).

"is it not to be found with our wise men, of blessed memory, in many places, that the word "law", comprehends the prophets, and the holy writings?''

And he gives an instance out of the Talmud, and which indeed is very pertinent to the purpose, and is rightly produced, and will support the apostle in calling the prophecy of Isaiah the law, since it is so called in the following passage (r). R. Chijah bar Aba says, that

"R. Jochanan said, from whence is the resurrection of the dead to be proved, , "out of the law?" from what is said in Isa 52:8 "thy watchmen shall lift up the voice, with the voice together shall they sing". It is not said "they sing", but "they shall sing": from hence the resurrection of the dead is to be proved out of the law.''

And out of the same book the apostle cites the following words;

with men of other tongues, and other lips, will I speak unto this people, and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord: the words, "men of", are a supplement of our translators, and which does not seem very necessary: nor is any made in other versions. The words, as they are in our translation of the prophet, are read thus, "with stammering lips, and another tongue, will he speak to this people". Some difference there is between the two passages, which are of no great moment; the words "lips" and "tongue" are inverted by the apostle; nor was it at all material to observe the strict order of them in the citation: and he has also rendered "stammering lips" by "other tongues", and that very rightly; for the word used by Isaiah, does not signify stammering, but derision or mocking; so persons that are spoken to in a language they understand not, look upon themselves to be mocked and derided: and the apostle is to be justified by the Chaldee paraphrase, which renders the words, , "with change of speech": that is, with another and different language. Moreover, it is to be observed, that the prophet delivers the passage in the third person, and the apostle cites it in the first: the reason of this is, because he adds these words to it, "saith the Lord": partly for the sake of the authority of the words, and partly to engage the attention of the Corinthians to them; and certain it is, that Isaiah's meaning is, that the Lord would speak in such a manner to the Jews: the other phrase, "for all that will they not hear me", are taken out of Isa 28:12. Some think that this prophecy refers to God's speaking, by the apostles on the day of Pentecost, with divers tongues, to the Jews; when, though there were three thousand converted at that time, yet these were but comparatively few; the body of the people remained incredulous, and hearkened not to the apostles, though their ministry was attended with such signs and wonders: but rather the sense seems to be this, that whereas the Lord had spoken in the plainest manner to the people of the Jews, by the prophets, as he would afterwards by the apostles, and had repeated his words so often, that even a child might be thought to be capable of receiving them; yet such was their stupidity and obstinacy, that they slighted and disregarded them; wherefore he threatens them he would take another method with them, and speak to them in his providences, by people of different and strange languages, as by the Chaldeans, Medes, and Persians, in the seventy years' captivity, and by the Romans, and other nations since, among whom they now are; and yet all this has had no effect upon them to listen to the doctrine of the prophets and apostles. Hence the Corinthians had no reason to be so desirous of speaking with divers tongues, since these have been threatened and used by God in a way of punishment to a people, and not a blessing.

(q) Meor. Enayim, c. 7. fol. 47. I. (r) T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 91. 2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

20 Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.

Ver. 20. Be not children] Mentibus scilicet, sed moribus, Mat 18:3. {See Trapp on "Mat 18:3"}

In malice be ye children] In innocence and ignoscence.

In understanding be men] Is it not a shame to have no more understanding at 80 than at eight years of age?

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Brethren, be not children in understanding - Be not childish; do not behave like little children. They admire, and are astonished at what is striking, novel, and what may be of no real utility. They are pleased with anything that will amuse them, and at little things that afford them play and pastime. So your admiration of a foreign language and of the ability to speak it, is of as little solid value as the common sports and plays of boys. This, says Doddridge, is an admirable stroke of oratory, and adapted to bring down their pride by showing them that those things on which they were disposed to value themselves were “childish.” It is sometimes well to appeal to Christians in this manner, and to show them that what they are engaged in is “unworthy” the dignity of the understanding - unfit to occupy the time and attention of an immortal mind. Much, alas! very much of that which engages the attention of Christians is just as unworthy of the dignity of the mind, and of their immortal nature, as were the aims and desires which the apostle rebuked among the Christians at Corinth. Much that pertains to dress, to accomplishment, to living, to employment, to amusement, to conversation, will appear, when we come to die, to have been like the playthings of “children;” and we shall feel that the immortal mind has been employed, and the time wasted, and the strength exhausted in that which was foolish and puerile.

Howbeit in malice be ye children - This is one of Paul’s most happy turns of expression and of sentiment. He had just told them that in one respect they ought not to be children. Yet, as if this would appear to be speaking lightly of children - and Paul would not speak lightly of anyone, even of a child - he adds, that in “another” respect it would be well to be like them - nay, not only like children, but like “infants.” The phrase “be ye children,” here, does not express the force of the original νηπιάζετε nēpiazete. It means, “be infants,” and is emphatic, and was used, evidently, by the apostle of design. The meaning may be thus expressed. “Your admiration of foreign languages is like the sports and plays of “childhood.” In this respect be not children (παιδίᾳ paidia); be men! Lay aside such childish things. Act worthy of the “understanding” which God has given you. I have mentioned children. Yet I would not speak unkindly or with contempt even of them. “In one respect” you may imitate them. Nay, you should not only be like “children,” that are somewhat advanced in years, but like “infants.” Be as free from malice, from any ill-will toward others, from envy, and every improper passion, as they are.” This passage, therefore, accords with the repeated declaration of the Saviour, that in order to enter into heaven, it was needful that we should become as little children; Mat 18:3.

Be men - Margin, “Perfect, or of a riper age” (τέλειοι teleioi). The word means full-grown men. Act like them whose understandings are mature and ripe.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Tongues are for a sign, not to believers, but to unbelievers, according to what the law (under which he comprehends the prophet Isaias, xxviii. 11.) said: In other tongues, and other lips, I will speak to this people: and neither so will they hear me. St. Paul here gives the sense, rather than the words of the prophet, and expounds them of what happened particularly on the day of Pentecost, when the miraculous gift of tongues was designed to strike the unbelieving people with admiration, and to bring them afterwards to the true faith: but when he adds, that tongues are not for the believers, and that prophecies are not fo the unbelievers, he cannot mean that tongues, used with discretion, may not also be profitable to believers, or that prophecies and instructions may not also be profitable to unbelievers, as well as to the believers; for this would be to contradict what he teaches in this chapter, and particularly (ver. 24.) where he says, that by prophecy the infidel is convinced, &c. St. Paul, whose design in all this chapter is to regulate the meetings, that they may be conducted with greater edification, and for the instruction, both of the Christians and unbelievers, thanks God, that he has the gift of tongues more than they, but says, that in the Church, or at such Church-meetings, he had rather, for the common edification of others, speak five words, &c. than ten thousand words, &c. and so he concludes, (ver. 39.) be zealous to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Be not children in understanding; in understanding the differences of gifts, and which are more excellent, or of the right use of gifts.

Howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men; you are commanded indeed in something to be like little children, Mat 28:3, but it is not to be understood with relation to knowledge and understanding, but with reference to innocence and malice, which is opposite to it; ye ought to study to be men in understanding, though with respect to innocence ye ought to be as little children.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

20. Brethren—Beginning on another key, with an affectionate confidential undertone, yet of reproof.

Children—They were like children preferring profitless sound to profitable thought.

Howbeit—As if suddenly recollecting that there was a point, namely, malice, in which they might well resemble infants, which the Greek for this second word children really signifies.

Men—Perfect, grown up persons.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Be not children in understanding; rather, in your minds. Your tendency to overvalue glossolaly shows you to be somewhat childish. It is remarkable that this is the only verse of the New Testament in which the common Greek word "mind" (phren) occurs. Howbeit in malice be ye children; better, but in wickedness be babes. The Authorized Version misses the climax involved in the change of the word. The Christian should always be childlike, (Mat_11:25 Mat_19:4) but never childish. (1Co_13:11; Eph_4:14) Be men; rather, become or prove yourselves full-grown; literally, perfect.

Babes, not in mind, but in malice.

There is in the style of St. Paul"s admonitions a happy mingling of suavity and severity. A proverb reminds us that a hand of steel may be covered by a glove of velvet. The apostle will have no compromise with the errors, follies, and injurious judgments of the Corinthians; yet he speaks to them in language of gentleness and persuasion, addresses them as "brethren," and entreats them to act with wisdom and considerateness.

I CHILDISHNESS OF JUDGMENT AND OF CONDUCT IS BLAMABLE. There is all the difference in the world between childlike conduct, i.e. conduct partaking of the true, proper, ideal character of the child, and childlish conduct, i.e. conduct on the part of men which resembles the follies and frivolities of the infantile age. When the Corinthians preferred dazzling gifts to Christian graces, they were like children to whom a painted sweetmeat is dearer than a substantival treasure. And such a disposition is still exhibited by those to whom a splendid ritual, imposing learning, social eminence, are more admirable than a Christ-like spirit, a gentle, unobtrusive, self denying habit.

II CHILDLIKE FREEDOM FROM MALICE AND ALL VICE IS COMMENDABLE. Our Lord himself lays it; down as one indeed, as the chief condition of entrance into his kingdom, that his disciples should become as little children. He taught this his favourite doctrine both by word and by symbols. This has ever been a stumbling block in the way of the vain, the proud, the self seeking, and it has been brought as a reproach against the religion of the Lord Jesus. Yet the morally cultivated have seen, in the condition laid down by him who was "meek and lowly in heart," a condition worthy of God and beneficial to humanity. Alas! in human society how much is there to corrupt the primitive simplicity of childhood! Sacred and precious is the spiritual power which restores the bloom of spring, the brightness of morning, the dew of youth.

III MANLINESS OF UNDERSTANDING IS WORTHY OF HUMAN EFFORT AND ASPIRATION. If it is the glory of childhood to act upon pure, fresh, unsophisticated impulse, it is the glory of manhood to deliberate, to weigh motives and inducements and authorities, and to decide reasonably and justly. Well had it been for the Christian Church had it always been guided by the counsels of the thoughtful and the wise. There is abundant room for a manly understanding to show itself in the reasonings of the theologian, the policy of the bishop, the appeals of the preacher, the counsels of the pastor. And there is a far wider scope for the exercise of sanctified manliness of intelligence in the varied departments of human society, civil as well as ecclesiastical. It is the glory of Christianity that whilst it stoops to the child, it rises to the man, and aids him to realize the intellectual and spiritual prerogatives of manhood. T. Mind and Christianity.

I RELIGION IS NOT MERE SENTIMENT.

II RELIGION DEMANDS THE EXERCISE OF MENTAL POWERS.

III THE MORE DEVELOPED THE MIND BECOMES UNDER GRACIOUS INFLUENCES, THE MORE USEFUL, HAPPY, AND HONOURED WILL THE POSSESSOR BECOME.

1. Better fitted to labour for God"s glory.

2. For the advancement of mankind.

3. Will become himself more firmly established in the truth.

1. The grasp of revealed truth will be more tenacious;

2. the conception of the Divine character loftier;

3. the realization of personal duty clearer and stronger.

IV CULTIVATE THE MIND.

1. Store it.

2. Exercise it vigorously. Generally minds are wrecked by too little effort, not by too much.

3. Discipline it carefully.

4. Keep it ever under salutary influences. Lest you become wise in your own conceit. Pride has great facility for entering by the door of knowledge. H.

The Christian both a child and a man.

The apostolic counsel here given bears immediate relation to the exaggerated estimate of the value of the "gift of tongues" which prevailed in the Church at Corinth. "Their conduct in exalting these "tongues," against which he has been warning them, is a proof that they are yet children in knowledge. They ought to be full grown; the only thing in which they ought to be children is evil, and in that they cannot be too young, too inexperienced; they should be merely "infants. There is a sense in which all Christians must be children. There is a sense in which all Christians must be "men," "perfect," "full grown." To express the thought of the apostle in a sharply defined sentence childlike, but not childish." Refer to Bible sentiments about children. It seems always impressed with the little idea of evil which young children have. Take a thousandfold forms of human sin and transgression, and you will find that the little child can form no conception of the meanings of the terms in which you express them. The young child is the type of simplicity and innocence. But, in this passage, the apostle is rather thinking of the friendliness of children, of their readiness to forgive; they seldom or ever are found "bearing malice." Illustrating the point that the Christian should be both a child and a man, we notice

I WHAT CHILD CHARACTERISTICS SHOULD WE FIND IN A CHRISTIAN? George Macdonald, in a Christmas sermon, given in "Adela Cathcart," very suggestively says, "It is as if God spoke to each of us according to our need: My son, my daughter, you are growing old and cunning; you must grow a child again, with my Son, this blessed birth time.

You are growing old and selfish; you must become a child. You are growing old and careful; you must become a child. You are growing old and distrustful; you must become a child. You are growing old, and petty, and weak, and foolish; you must become a child my child; like the baby there, that strong sunrise of faith and hope and love, lying in his mother"s arms in the stable." The characteristics of child nature which ought to be found, nourished into the fulness of beauty, in Christian hearts and lives are such as these each will prove suggestive of illustration

(1) receptivity;

(2) submissiveness;

(3) obedience;

(4) trustfulness;

(5) absence of self consciousness;

(6) hopefulness;

(7) simplicity;

(8) forgiveness.

these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ". (2Pe_1:8)

II WHAT MANLY CHARACTERISTICS SHOULD WE FIND IN A CHRISTIAN? A man differs from a child in this, that what he is he is by force of will, and not as a mere accident of his being. What in a child we properly call innocence, in a man we call virtue. The proper manly characteristics are such as

(1) self control;

(2) cultured intelligence;

(3) energy;

(4) prudence;

(5) charity;

(6) generous estimate of motives;

(7) self sacrifice.

It is true that the Christian estimate of the manly is not precisely that which the world favours. The world has ever chiefly extolled the active virtues, and associated the passive virtues almost exclusively with womanhood. But in the Lord Jesus Christ has been presented to us the perfect type of manhood: we can concieve or wish nothing higher or more sublime; and we find the passive and active virtues fully represented and harmoniously blended in him. The world"s best thought of manhood and womanhood meet in him; and so woman and man can make him their ideal. Nothing can be sublimer for a life aim than to seek to be a child as Jesus was, and, at the same time, to be a man as noble as Jesus was. R.T.

The power of Christianity on intellect.

This text directly encourages the cultivation of intellect, and supposes that Christianity will exert a practical and helpful influence on such cultivation.

I CHRISTIANITY WILL HELP TO MAKE US INTELLECTUAL MEN. Christianity recognizes no model, ideal man, save one whose whole circle of faculties has been duly developed, and certainly that noble part, the mind. It presents to us its ideal man in the person of Jesus Christ; there we see what it proposes to bring all men up to, and behold, in the very beginnings of Christ"s life we read that "he grew in wisdom and in stature," exhibiting a surprising intelligence, which astonished the great doctors in the temple. A willingly ignorant Christian is an anomaly, a strange being, an imperfection, essentially incomplete; he has not felt, or he has resisted, the full force of the Christly principles and requirements.

1. Christianity comes into the world to rescue man from his fallen condition. Man"s self willed fall involved his mind as well as his will, and the restorative applies to the fallen mind. The mind suffered sadly, lost its guiding truth, lost its harmonies, lost its place of rule, which was usurped by the passions of the body.

2. History confirms the relation of Christianity to intellect. Illustrate times of Wickliffe and Luther, etc.

3. The Christian services and duties help the intellect. Other religions are mostly ceremonial, making only routine demands. Christian services are essentially spiritual things, applications of mind to God"s written Word, contemplations of Divine and heavenly realities, ordering of the thoughts so as to fashion them into prayers; these, and many other things, actually, by their own direct influence, storing and training the mind. The public Christian worship is intelligent. Its praises are expressed in the words of cultivated poets. Our Bible is the utterance of learning as well as of inspiration. Our preaching is the product of study and thought, and its appeal is made to the understanding as well as to the heart.

4. Christianity, with its revelations and doctrines, provides the very best food for the mind. It is the highest of sciences. It is the philosophy of the Infinite and the Absolute it is the science of God.

5. Christianity makes the cultivation of the intellect a matter of direct counsel. It bids us "with all our getting get understanding," and assures us that "wisdom is to be chosen rather than riches." And the apostle complains that the believers do not mentally grow as fast as they should that he has to feed them with the milk of first principles, when they ought to be able to take the strong meat of the Christian mysteries. If this be the relation of Christianity to mind, then two things are manifest.

(1) Those men are utterly wrong who sneer at religion as a weak thing, and affirm that there is an antagonism between reason and revelation.

(2) We are quite in the spirit of the religion which we profess, when we do our utmost to take our stand honourably among the intellectual men of our day. Our very religion helps us "in understanding to be men.

II CHRISTIANITY PREVENTS OUR BECOMING INTELLECTUALLY PROUD MEN. It does so:

1. By announcing mysteries that are at present unfathomable by the human intelligence.

2. By making clear the distinction between speculation and knowledge.

3. By setting forth prominently its teaching of man"s entire dependence on the Divine help. If we know anything, we know it only as God"s revelation to us.

III CHRISTIANITY KEEPS US FROM BEING ONLY INTELLECTUAL MEN. The mind may be cultivated and the morals neglected, so that a man may become dry, and cold, and hard, and unlovely. Men may be mentally vigorous and morally weak; intellectual giants, but slaves to passion. Christianity keeps men from this

(1) by proposing to harmonize man"s whole nature by beginning with the regeneration of his heart; and

(2) by carefully developing the character and the moral qualities. Asking the love of the soul for God manifested in Jesus, it quickens and strengthens and nourishes every moral good, every moral power, and helps a man to grow healthily on every side of his nature, so as to develop into the "stature of the perfect man. R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Be not children in understanding - This is an admirable stroke of true oratory! to bring down the height of their spirits, by representing that wherein they prided themselves most, as mere folly and childishness. In wickedness be ye infants - Have all the innocence of that tender age. But in understanding be ye grown men - Knowing religion was not designed to destroy any of our natural faculties, but to exalt and improve them, our reason in particular.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

be not children (Greek - Ἀδμίν, youths).

be ye children babies.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

As if the apostle had said, My brethren, be not like children in understanding, who prefer gay and gaudy things, which make a fine show, as the gift of tongues does, before things more useful.

Thus, do not you choose what best pleaseth you, but what most profits others. I would have you indeed in some respects to be as children, namely in innocency and harmlessness, in freedom from malice, and all kind of wickedness; but in understanding, be and act as men, as persons of mature judgment, who know what is fittest to be spoken, and best to be done.

To be like children in the innocency of our actions, is a virtue; but to be like them in the impotency and weakness of our understanding, is a reproach: In understanding be men.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

INFANCY AND MANHOOD OF CHRISTIANITY

20. “Brethren, be not little children in understanding, but in sin be ye infants, but in understanding be ye perfect.” It is a deplorable fact that most people let the devil fill up their heads with trash early in life, thus preoccupying the cranium with the devil’s filth before they have an opportunity to load up with God’s truth and Heaven’s gold. I expect to praise God through all eternity for a preaching father and sainted mother who fortified my susceptible infancy, flexible childhood and precarious youth against the dark ingress of the vulgar vices. Most people have great carloads of Hell’s trash and filth to unload before they can take in the precious truth of God. Here we are commanded explicitly to abide in the innocence of infancy, so far as the wickedness of the world is concerned, ever remaining ignorant of its vices and follies; while in point of sanctified intelligence he commands us, “Be ye perfect,” i. e., spiritual adults. This is another instance in which the inspired pen develops the gracious economy in the two great salient points of infancy and manhood, there being a progressive state preceding and succeeding each one of these grand, salient epochs which are instantaneously reached. Throughout the New Testament, Christian experience is set forth by two Greek words, i. e., the neepios, “the infant,” and the teeleios, “the adult.” The removal of depravity, which locks the soul fast in spiritual infancy, is indispensable to his admission into the sphere of spiritual adultage, which, instead of being the ultimatum of all progress, is the inauguration into a state of grand and illimitable progress, development and achievement; as for material life, we must pass out of infancy into adultage in order to enter upon any of the great enterprises peculiar to this world. The dwarfhood of the church of the present day is the insuperable difficulty disqualifying her to conquer the world for Christ.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Brethren, be not children in mind: yet in malice be ye babes, but in mind be men . [The apostle here reiterates the thought at 1Co_13:11 . To desire showy and comparatively worthless gifts was to be like children, pleased with toys. But as Paul exhorted them to be wise as men, the words of the Lord seem to have flashed through his mind ( Mat_10:16 ) so that he parallels men with serpents and babes with doves. "Yet in malice be ye babes" is a parenthesis added by way of fullness. It has nothing to do with the line of argument, for there was no possible malice in the use of tongues.]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

20. Be not children in understanding. Use manly good sense and judgment in the church. To babble in an unknown tongue is like a child. In malice be ye children. To vainly choose a course that would merely excite wonder, and not edify, would seem to partake of malice rather than love.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

General Information:

Paul tells them that speaking in different languages was told ahead of time by the prophet Isaiah many years before this speaking in other languages happened at the start of Christ's church.

do not be children in your thinking

Here "children" is a metaphor for being spiritually immature. AT: "do not think like children" (See: Metaphor)

In the law it is written,

This can be stated in active form: AT: "The prophet wrote these words in the law:" (See: Active or Passive)

By men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers

These two phrases mean basically the same thing and are used together for emphasis. (See: Parallelism)

translationWords

children

evil

law

written

tongue

lord

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

20. φρεσίν. Here only in N.T. Originally signifying the diaphragm, this word came to mean the seat, first of the affections and then of the understanding. Arist., De Part. Anim. III. 10, reverses the process: ὅταν γὰρ διὰ τὴν γειτνίασιν ἑλκύσωσιν ὑγρότητα θερμὴν καὶ περιττωματικήν, εὐθὺς ἐπιδήλως ταράττει τὴν διάνοιαν καὶ τὴν αἴσθησιν, διὸ καὶ καλοῦνται φρένες ὡς μετέχουσαί τι τοῦ φρονεῖν. See note on φρόνιμοι, ch. 1Co 4:10, those who used their φρένες or intellects.

τῇ κακίᾳ νηπιάζετε. This is subjoined lest the Apostle should be charged with contradicting his Master. There is a sense in which all Christians must be children. What it is the Apostle tells us. They were to be children, or rather babes (νηπίοι), in malice, or perhaps vice. Compare on the one hand Mat 11:25; Mat 18:3; Mat 19:14; 1Pe 2:2; on the other, ch. 1Co 3:1; Eph 4:14; and Heb 5:12-13. See also Mat 10:16. The difference arises from the point of view. Those whom the world calls childish the Gospel calls τέλειοι, and those whom the world calls experienced the Gospel stigmatizes as babes. Note especially the distinction drawn in Rom 16:19.

τέλειοι. Perfect, i.e. of ripe age. Cf. 1Co 2:6; Php 3:15; Heb 5:14, and note on ch. 1Co 13:11. The A. and R.V. paraphrase by men.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

20.] With this exhortation he concludes this part of his argument, in which he reproves the folly of displaying and being anxious for a gift in which there was no edification.

‘ἀδελφοί ‘suavem vim habet,’ Bengel.

ταῖς φρεσίν, in your understandings, as this preference shews you to be.

τῇ κακίᾳ—dat. of reference, as regards vice: see Winer, edn. 6, § 31.6.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

20. This verse is better taken as the beginning of a new portion of the subject rather than as the conclusion of what precedes. It opens affectionately. Comp. 10:14; Rom 10:1; Gal 3:15, Gal 3:6:1; 1Th 5:25: in each case the opening Ἀδελφοί makes a fresh start.

‘Brethren, do not prove children in your minds, but in jealousy of one another show yourselves (not merely children but) babes: in your minds (Pro 7:7, Pro 9:4) prove full-grown men’; i.e. ‘Play the part of babies, if you like, in freedom from malice: but in common sense try to act like grown-up people.’ A severe rebuke to those who prided themselves on their intelligence. Children prefer what glitters and makes a show to what is much more valuable; and it was childish to prefer ecstatic utterance to other and far more useful gifts.† Nowhere else in N.T. does φρένες occur, but in LXX it is frequent in Proverbs in the phrase ἐνδεὴς φρενῶν, which St Paul may have in his mind. AV. and RV. are probably right in translating κακία ‘malice’ or ‘maliciousness,’ rather than ‘wickedness’ or ‘vice,’ in all the places in which it occurs in St Paul (v. 8; Rom 1:29; Eph 4:31; Col 3:8; Tit 3:3, where it is joined with φθόνος). In 1Pe 2:1 (see Hort) it is joined with δόλος, φθόνοι, and καταλαλιαί. In class. Grk. κακία in the moral sense is opposed to ἀρετή, and is vice of any kind, but especially cowardice. Later it comes to mean maliciousness and ill-will; often in the Testaments of the XII. Patriarchs; Symeon 4:6; Zabulon 8:5; Gad 6:7; and especially Benjamin 8:1; ἀπόδρατε τὴν κακίαν, τὸν φθόνον καὶ τὴν μισαδελφίαν. See 2 Mal 4:4. Everywhere in St Paul the Vulgate has malitia, and even in Mat 6:34; but in Act 8:22 nequitia. Νηπιάζειν occurs nowhere else in the Bible: comp. 13:11; Rom 16:19.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Understanding [σρεσιν] . Only here in the New Testament.

Originally, in a physical sense, the diaphragm. Denoting the reasoning power on the reflective side, and perhaps intentionally used instead of nouv (ver. 15), which emphasizes the distinction from ecstasy.

Children - be ye children [παιδια - νηπιαζετε] . The A. V. misses the distinction between children and babes, the stronger term for being unversed in malice. In understanding they are to be above mere children. In malice they are to be very babes. See on child, ch. 13 11.

Malice [κακια] . See on Jas 1:21.

Men [τελειοι] . Lit., perfect. See on ch. 1Co 2:6.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.