In I Corinthians 14:7 Paul states “And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped?” Is this referring to having instruments in the church?<\/p>\n\t
“Follow after love, and earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. For he who speaks in another language speaks not to men, but to God; for no one understands; but in the Spirit he speaks mysteries. But he who prophesies speaks to men for their edification, exhortation, and consolation. He who speaks in another language edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the assembly. Now I desire to have you all speak with other languages, but rather that you would prophesy. For he is greater who prophesies than he who speaks with other languages, unless he interprets, that the assembly may be built up.<\/em><\/p>\n
But now, brothers, if I come to you speaking with other languages, what would I profit you, unless I speak to you either by way of revelation, or of knowledge, or of prophesying, or of teaching? Even things without life, giving a voice, whether pipe or harp, if they didn’t give a distinction in the sounds, how would it be known what is piped or harped? For if the trumpet gave an uncertain sound, who would prepare himself for war? So also you, unless you uttered by the tongue words easy to understand, how would it be known what is spoken? For you would be speaking into the air<\/em>” (I Corinthians 14:1-9).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
When dealing with a quote from the Scriptures the context must always be considered. I Corinthians 14:7 falls in a section where Paul explains that speaking in other languages (speaking in tongues) is of limited use. It appears to have been popular in the Corinthian church because it was a showy gift, but Paul points out that there are two major limitations to the gift. First, the gift is useless if someone doesn’t understand what is being said. Second, the gift is worthless if something meaningful isn’t said. The verse you quote falls in the second argument and serves as an illustration to the point. Why would someone want to listen to a flute being played if there was no tune? Or what use would a bugle call be if the sound didn’t carry a message, such as “advance?”<\/p>\n
The worship service is not being discussed at this point. Nor is the illustration one from a worship service. To apply an illustration beyond the intention of the context is to do injustice to the Scriptures. It would be taking it out of context. If verse 7 would justify instruments in worship, then verse 8 would justify keeping a platoon of soldiers in the church building.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: In I Corinthians 14:7 Paul states “And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped?” Is this referring to having instruments in the church? Answer: “Follow after love, and earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[728,292],"class_list":["post-16697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-i-corinthians","tag-instrumental-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":34476,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-person-pray-in-a-tongue-and-not-know-what-they-are-saying\/","url_meta":{"origin":16697,"position":0},"title":"Can a person pray in a tongue and not know what they are saying?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello! I was talking to someone about tongues, or the so-called 'tongues,' with a friend. She insists that people can say what they don't understand and referred to I Corinthians 14:14. This verse literally says one can pray using words they themselves don't understand. Please help me out. Thanks.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1730,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-an-unknown-tongue\/","url_meta":{"origin":16697,"position":1},"title":"What is an unknown tongue?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 21, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is unknown tongues a heavenly language or does it mean a language not known to people but for God? Answer: The phrase \"unknown tongue\" only appears in the King James Version in six places in I Corinthians 14. If you look carefully you will notice that in all six\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":83748,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-speaking-in-tongues-for-communicating-with-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":16697,"position":2},"title":"Is speaking in tongues for communicating with God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: May God continue to strengthen you guys in Jesus' name. Amen. You may not be aware, but many issues arise with the topic of speaking in tongues here. A brother recently sent me some voice notes discussing speaking in tongues with a man. He explained that speaking in tongues,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46768,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-unknown-tongue-in-i-corinthians-142-would-sound-like-mumbo-jumbo-to-you\/","url_meta":{"origin":16697,"position":3},"title":"The unknown tongue in I Corinthians 14:2 would sound like mumbo-jumbo to you","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: [Note: I left the following unedited since the author claimed to have the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He had asked that this not be published, but since there is nothing in the note that is personal to him, I decided it serves as a good example of what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90346,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/tongues-without-an-interpreter\/","url_meta":{"origin":16697,"position":4},"title":"Tongues Without an Interpreter","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Hugh DeLong The gift of being able to speak in languages that one had not previously known is called the gift of tongues. There are only five references to this: Mark 16:16-20; Acts 2; Acts 10; Acts 19; and the longest one in I Corinthians 12-14. That such was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12830,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/you-are-totally-wrong-about-the-cessation-of-the-spiritual-gifts\/","url_meta":{"origin":16697,"position":5},"title":"You are totally wrong about the cessation of the spiritual gifts","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 12, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I already read so many of your articles and Q&A sections dealing with the cessation of gifts. I have to say, you are totally wrong. One mistake is not referring to this verse: \"So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16697\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}