1 Corinthians 12-14
Purpose of Gifts

This imprecatory psalm laments the captivity in Babylon and calls down curses on those who rejoiced in the destruction of Jerusalem, namely Edom and Babylon. The Babylonians tormented the exiles with demands for songs of Zion. The psalmist replies that Jerusalem is his greatest delight, and one can't sing joyfully while away from it. He asks God to judge Edom for cheering the destruction of Jerusalem, and to justly repay the Babylonians, destroying their children as Babylon destroyed Israel's.

Paul now turns his attention to the questions the Corinthians had asked him regarding manifestations of the Spirit. Pagans had spiritual manifestations too that caused them to follow after demonic influences.  The content and result of spiritual manifestations is used to determine whether its good or bad, from God or satan.  When they were pagans, they were led astray to mute idols, and by ignorance, the same could happen regarding speech (most mystery religions had ecstatic utterances).  This section continues the theme of limiting individual rights and freedoms for the benefit of others, in light of God's future reward. After establishing the unity of the Trinity in the operation of "gifts" Paul states the basic principle that the manifestations of the Spirit are given for the benefit of all. The unity of the Body is the goal, and is achieved by diversity of the parts. The Holy Spirit distributes to each person, separately, as He desires. It's His will, not our seeking, that determines what the Holy Spirit distributes.

By the work of the Holy Spirit all believers were incorporated or immersed/baptized into the Body of Christ; this occurs when we believe and are regenerated (cf Eph 1:13). The result is that all are members of the Body, set in place as God desired (12:18), and all have an integral part to play. If the body were just one big part, where would the body be? Therefore, each member has a role to play for the benefit of the body. Recall that in the early church, there was no NT, there were only occasional visits and letters from the apostles. God supernaturally gifted people, with skills and abilities they did not have before they were believers, to meet the needs of the Body. In cases where God's will needed to be known, the Holy Spirit would communicate His words through the prophets. The church was built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, proclaiming the word of God (Eph 2:20-21). When God's message needed to be authenticated, God's Spirit would confirm His message with miracles. Not all had the same gift (bestowal of grace), and the grace was to be used for the benefit of all. Note that Paul lists tongues last, since that was causing some problems among the carnal Corinthians. Note too, that Paul tells them to earnestly desire the best gifts, but earlier clearly made the case that they already had the gifts as God desired and apportioned to each. So this doesn't refer to seeking a gift for oneself, but rather seeking the manifestation of the gifts for the common good. The eternal truth of God being communicated would have a greater benefit to the body than one individual being healed, because that word would be applicable every day to every believer, present and future. While the healing was an individual benefit that resulted in God being glorified (as did Jesus' authenticating miracles, and those of the apostles) the enduring truth had a longer term impact.

The odds are that if you've been to a Christian wedding, there was some mention of this chapter, and rightly so. But it should also be the marching orders for believers in an assembly/church, who were commanded to love one another by their Lord (Jn 13:35). It's one of the key questions on the final exam of life. How have you loved your fellow believers as yourself? Failure to act in love is failure to lay up treasure in heaven, and forfeiture of reward. Note that every time the Scriptures portray the angels speaking, their words are totally intelligible.

The characteristics of love (including the one in the beginning of verse 8) are worth defining, understanding, and applying; see application below.

Love endures, but gifts cease. Prophecies, tongues, and words of knowledge have a limited time for being useful. In the early church, when there was a need to know God's will, prophecy or a Spirit directed word of knowledge provided that answer (see last chapter comments). Two different verbs and tenses are used regarding the ending of the gifts. For prophecy and knowledge, when "that which is complete/perfect/mature has come" then the partial will pass away or no longer be in effect. Tongues would cease, in and of themselves (subjunctive middle) from a verb that is used of storms subsiding, or people stopping speaking.
There are three options for when this ending takes place, 1) in heaven or the kingdom, 2) when the NT canon was completed, or 3) when the Body reaches a level of maturity where it can grow and reproduce without them (a view which best accounts for all the NT data).
The first view, seeing and knowing clearly, could also be true of the other views. It would be obvious that when this ages ends, so would all that belongs to it. Therefore this view would be somewhat redundant. However, the last verse of this chapter (13:13) makes this view impossible.
Many who favor the second view consider the coming of the NT (canon), a function of the ministry of the apostles and prophets (the gifted men in Eph 4), who laid the foundation of the church, to be the end point Paul had in mind. When people had access to the NT they could know what Jesus said, and the Spirit wanted, because it was clearly and objectively written. They would have full knowledge, and there would be no longer need for supernatural revelation, other than what the Spirit of Truth had guided them to write and say.
The third view builds on the second, and incorporates data from the other epistles, where the ministries of the gifts and gifted men are supplanted the maturity of the Body. See comments in Ephesians 4 where a pretty airtight case will be made for the cessation of the gifted men mentioned there, when their purpose is fulfilled. Tongues aren't mentioned in Ephesians 4, which talks about the purpose of specific gifted men, but the purpose of tongues is spelled out in 1Corinthians 14 (next chapter).
Faith, hope, and love remain, but the greatest is love. This statement invalidates the first view above, because the end point Paul had in mind, still had these three "graces." Faith and hope are no longer operative in the kingdom, because faith has become sight, and the hope (of reward) is no longer a hope, but a realized possession.

The first verse is in the second person plural, addressing the Body, not the individual members. See comments on 12:1-11 for why this can not be a reference to the personal seeking of individual gifts (they were all distributed as God determined). The Body should seek the use or manifestation of the gifts that build up the Body, since that's their purpose. Prophecy accomplishes that purpose by edifying, exhorting, and consoling (which is a good functional definition -verse 3), and as a result builds up the Body. Tongues on the other hand, just build up the person speaking (maybe because their worth or value gets boosted by using their gift?), because no one can understand them. He speaks mysteries to God, but whatever he is saying is a mystery to everyone else, so why would the tongue speaker be wasting everyone's time with the incomprehensible? (Oh, some preachers do that all the time.) If it is only benefiting themselves, it's the selfish behavior that God judges, like that exhibited at the Lord's Supper. If the tongue was interpreted so that people could understand what was being said, the Body would be edified, which is why he'd rather they all prophesied rather than spoke in tongues. Paul's comment that he wishes they all spoke in tongues, but rather that they all prophesied, can be taken a number ways. 1) Once his readers understand the purpose of tongues (a sign to unbelievers14:22), he wishes they all spoke in tongues so more of his kinsmen the Jews would be saved. 2) In light of the comments at the beginning of this section, he can't mean that he wants a church full of tongue speakers, nor a church full of prophets, because God has already distributed to each as He wills. When tongues are interpreted, they can function as prophecy, an intelligible message from God. 3) The grammar of verse 5 is an indicative ("wish"), an infinitive ("to speak"), and a hina+subjunctive (which always expresses a purpose statement = "purpose prophesying"). This yields a translation: "Instead/but I wish that all you desiring to speak in tongues would rather instead purpose to prophesy." Thus Paul wants all the tongues speakers to prophesy, but this would be incompatible with the fact that they can't change what God has given them, unless they do so via interpretation.
For those tongue speakers who are puffed up by their gift, Paul reminds them that prophecy is greater.

Tongues in Acts 2 were known languages. Angels always spoke intelligibly, even in heaven. The gift of tongues was translatable into known speech. There is no basis for equating tongues with the "ecstatic speech" of the pagan religions (they all had it, particularly the mystery religions), and it was frequently a result of demons possessing the bodies of the "worshipers." Judeo-Christianity is a cognitive religion, with the understandable truth to an individual with a call for a response of the will (worship = response to revelation -See Gen 22). So to bypass one's mind is to fail to love God with all your mind. Unless the sounds have distinction/meaning, they are useless. The speaker of something unintelligible isn't even speaking to God, much less other believers, but rather the air. See Goofy about Gifts on Truthbase.net.

Children often fail to understand the purpose and nature of things, so Paul gives the purpose of tongues by quoting Isaiah 28:10-11. It's a reference to God raising up the Assyrians to judge the Israelites, who failed to listen to His prophets. The Assyrians spoke a language the Jews couldn't understand, as they were being taken into captivity. In NT times God was judging the Jews by demonstrating His power in a new group, the church. Tongues were not a sign of encouragement to the believers on the day of Pentecost that God was with them, but a sign of judgment to the Jews that God was no longer with them. So tongues are sign for unbelievers, not believers. Prophecy on the other hand, is for believers, and a means of convicting unbelievers, by presenting them with propositional truth which exposes their sin. An unbeliever walking into an assembly of people speaking languages no one understands would conclude that they are crazy. But if convicted by the Holy Spirit of truth, will confess that God is among the believers.

So when the church gathers everyone should bring something to build up the others. Everyone, means everyone, needs to focus on offering something that will build up one another (there's another of the one another passages). If someone is going to speak in tongues, pray for an interpreter, otherwise, not a sound should be uttered, or they have crossed the line into self-centered sin. Prophets who speak for edification, exhortation, and comfort, (in the pre NT canon days), needed to do so in order, so all could hear and learn. In pagan religions the evil spirits took control of the people, in Yahweh worship, the prophets needed to be in control of themselves, yielding to others, for God is the God of order and peace. Women, mentioned previously in chapter 11 (see post comments there) were to keep silent, and listen. If they wanted to ask a question, they should ask their husbands at home (which is why the WEB translated "wives"). Who did single women ask? Could the church solicit questions, giving them permission to speak in a church setting?

Paul ends with an admonition for the "spiritual" to recognize the words of the Spirit through His authenticated spokesman. He desires the primacy of prophecy, and forbids the forbidding of tongues (which had value when translated, and for unbelievers who could understand them in their native tongue). The last words are decently/honorably, and in order. Good ones.