If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, do I speak with the mind of Christ? The spiritual gifts of prophecy, tongues, and interpretation are gifts are often considered in debates between cessationists and continuationists, but seldom in the full context of 1 Corinthians. Particularly, how is Paul’s teaching on the gifts in 1 Cor. 12-14 connected to the wisdom and discernment detailed in 1 Cor. 2:6-16. Put another way, are speaking in tongues and prophecy examples of “spiritual things discerned spiritually”?
When these passages are brought back together, a line of argument appears that unites the seemingly disparate parts of the letter. Paul both exhibits through his own example and exhorts the church in Corinth to have the mind of Christ by practicing the virtue of practical wisdom (φρόνησις). In the context of the letter, then, the gifts of prophecy, tongues, and interpretation can only be practiced properly as an exercise of practical wisdom (φρόνησις).
This contextual lens, derived from the broader argument of 1 Corinthians, illuminates and adjudicates arguments between charismatics and cessationists. Christians should approach the gifts of tongues, prophecy, and interpretation as opportunities to practice the Spirit-given virtue of φρόνησις. In those chapters, Paul is drawing on the same anthropological insight he uses to discuss spiritual discernment in 2:6-16, wisdom in 3:18-22, and adjudicating lawsuits in 6:1-8. In order to show the connection between the gifts and the virtue of φρόνησις it will be helpful to consider Paul’s arguments out of order, first the general teaching on the gifts in 12:1-31, then the specific gifts of prophecy, tongues, and interpretation in 14:1-33, and finally the topic of love in 13:1-13. As a result, this paper connects the first-century practice of the gifts in Corinth to the practice of φρόνησις in the church for all time.