What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also.
1 Corinthians 14:15
I just “found” this verse (as if it’s been hiding!) I’m sure I must have read across it at some point, but it just struck me as very beautiful with its thought of both spirit and mind together, praying and singing to God. Our culture tries to convince us — and itself — that the two don’t play well together. How wrong that is!
Original Context
This verse is part of a long paragraph of instruction to the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 14:1-19). Apparently, they were very enamored of the spiritual gift known as “speaking in tongues”.
The first occurrence of Christians speaking in languages with which they were not familiar (recorded in Acts 2:1-11) happened on the church’s birthday: the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit dramatically came to empower the believers. On that day, all of the many visitors to Jerusalem from countries throughout the Roman world were amazed to hear the believers telling about Jesus in their own languages.
Another aspect of that gift, however, included speaking in a language not known to any of the listeners, possibly more of an angelic language than a human one. It was impressive, and sincerely expressed the believer’s worship. But it was not very enlightening to the hearers. Paul’s instructions were to give preference to speech that benefited the church and encouraged other believers. Worshippers were to either be able to interpret the language spoken, or else save it for private worship. Talking, praying or singing with only the spirit, in a manner that the mind could not comprehend, was simply less useful.
Spirit and Mind Make Us Who We Are
It was once thought that what differentiated humans from animals was the use of tools…until we saw chimpanzees stripping leaves to get a good stick for poking into termite mounds for insects or using rocks to crack open nuts 1. We also thought of intelligence and learning ability, but we’ve seen how intelligent are such diverse creatures as octopi 2, dolphins, pigs, and elephants, among others.
Still, our logic and reasoning ability gives us access to learn things like math and physics, to build skyscrapers and rockets, to go to the moon and to the bottom of the Mariana Trench 3. The scope of our minds is far beyond that of animals.
Our spirits make us even more special. We are unique in our capacity to wonder or care about something beyond the purely physical. We see this in burial practices that show concern for an afterlife. We see it in appreciation for beauty, in our creation of art and music, for instance. We see it in belief in deities and guiding forces that has persisted across cultures and times. We see it in moral values, in the way we know that something can be morally “right” or “wrong”.
The smart chimpanzees and octopuses 4 show no sign of awareness of any of those things. They don’t think beyond purely survival, as individuals and as groups. Humans do. It’s part of our being made in the image of God.
Our Minds Are Valued
The Corinthians were in danger of emphasizing spirit over mind. They were impressed by those “spiritual” enough to speak in exotic tongues. Paul reminded them that ability to understand that worship was important, also. He told them to desire gifts like prophecy — bringing God’s word into people’s lives — even more than other good gifts.
Today, there are religions and belief systems such as New Age and Eastern mysticism that are in danger of that same mistake. They value feelings, experiences, and altered states of mind to the neglect of all logic and evidence. Their spiritual experiences are not without value. But they are not so helpful when serious choices are needed: a cancer diagnosis, a financial crisis, a job upheaval. Those things need a fully-engaged mind.
There are those who, without really understanding it, put Christianity into that same “too spiritual to be any earthly good” category. They believe that Christians have nothing but blind faith, oblivious to all evidence that contradicts them.
On the contrary, we see Paul encouraging the use of the mind. In fact, he was run out of Thessalonica because his effective arguments for the Gospel were upsetting some of the more close-minded Jews (Acts 17:1-9). He then went to Berea where his listeners were “examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so“. (Acts 17:10-12)
Not only in the New Testament, but in the Old as well, God asks His people to “reason together” with Him (Isaiah 1:18). The first chapter of Isaiah is God describing how the people have sinned against Him, and the resulting discipline that is coming. He begs them to listen to reason, and to return so He doesn’t have to destroy them.
My main motivation for this website is to show that Christians are not acting thoughtlessly or unreasonably. We are following good evidence that objectively supports our faith in the Bible, and in the God and Savior that it reveals.
Our Spirits Are Valued
This is not to say that everything of God can be learned using only our minds. For that matter, not everything secular can be learned using only our minds, either. A book I read recently, “Believing Is Seeing: A Physicist Explains How Science Shattered His Atheism and Revealed the Necessity of Faith” by award-winning Harvard physics instructor Dr. Michael Guillen, makes this point. As an atheist and highly-respected scientist, he found that even secular science involves faith.
Dr. Guillen realized that scientific research takes things on faith that cannot always be proven “scientifically”. An example is the assumption that the material world is logical, and that it makes sense which can be discovered. If that were not the case, there would be no point in scientific study. The assumption is manifestly true, but it is not “scientifically provable”.
Dr. Guillen’s specialties include the deeper sciences that go into the workings of the universe: things like quantum physics, quasars, quarks, dark matter, dark energy. Such things defy our ability to explain using black-and-white, random-controlled-trial, test tube experiments. They include concepts like “light has properties of both particles (matter) and waves (energy)”, which are two opposite things. Another mind-blower is quantum entanglement, the idea that a quantum particle can exist in two places at once, and communicate instantaneously between the two. It takes more than our normal rational mind to even try to envision such things!
Similarly, the truths taught in the Bible are bigger than our rational minds can fully comprehend. This site has articles exploring things like the Trinity, Jesus as the God/Man who atoned for our sin, God’s Spirit residing in us, and His causing us to be re-born. But those articles are very limited in their ability to explain something that is transcendent to simply physical life.
But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
1 Corinthians 2:14
There are those (often the same people who accuse Christians of not using their minds) who try to insist that we use only our minds, ignoring any spirit-revealed knowledge. That would mean cutting off our access to advanced cosmology and physics, to intuition, to wonder, and to much else that enhances our lives. There is no need to do so.
Everything About Us Is Valued
Jesus said that the greatest commandment is “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30) God wants us to relate to Him with our entire being.
We are free, even expected, to use all our faculties while finding our place in His world. So, we can enjoy praying and singing…and loving and worshipping…with our spirit AND our mind!
Footnotes and Scripture References
- See this article.
- See this article.
- About 7 miles down, deeper than Everest is high.
- To use an alternate plural of octopus, of the three allowable choices. 😁