But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God.
Read Chapter 14
John Chrysostom
AD 407
What do you say, tell me? Having spoken so much of tongues, that the gift is a thing unprofitable, a thing superfluous, if it have no interpreter, do you command again to speak with tongues? I do not command, says he, neither do I forbid; as when he says, if any of them that believe not bid you to a feast and you be disposed to go, he says it not laying down a law for them to go, but not hindering them: so likewise here. And let him speak to himself and to God. If he endure not to be silent, says he, but is so ambitious and vain-glorious, let him speak by himself. And thus, by the very fact of so permitting, he greatly checked and put them to shame. Which he does also elsewhere, discoursing of converse with a wife and saying, But this I say because of your incontinency. But not so did he speak, when he was discoursing of prophecy. How then? In a tone of command and legislation: Let the prophets speak, two or three. And he no where here seeks the interpreter, nor does he stop the mouth...
The person who speaks in the Holy Spirit speaks when he chooses to do so and then can be silent, like the prophets. But those who are possessed by an unclean spirit speak even when they do not want to. They say things that they do not understand. .
