“Just pray in your own language and we’ll all say Amen with you at the end”. I’ve said something like that many times because I recognise from my own experience that praying in a second or third language is not easy. Not easy at all.

I could speak, sing, write, read, preach in Swedish before I could pray in it. I still find praying in Swedish slightly uncomfortable and many are the times I’ve switched and flipped languages mid-prayer. And so in a church with many people praying in second or third languages it was a way of trying to encourage that sense of freedom to pray.

Then I re-read 1 Corinthians 14 and then I mostly stopped doing that. Here’s the key section:

Now, brothers and sisters, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I speak to you in some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? 7 It is the same way with lifeless instruments that produce sound, such as the flute or the harp. If they do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is being played? 8 And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? 9 So with yourselves; if in a tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is being said? For you will be speaking into the air. 10 There are doubtless many different kinds of sounds in the world, and nothing is without sound. 11 If then I do not know the meaning of a sound, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me. 12 So with yourselves; since you are eager for spiritual gifts, strive to excel in them for building up the church.

13 Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret. 14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unproductive. 15 What should I do then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also; I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will sing praise with the mind also. 16 Otherwise, if you say a blessing with the spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say the “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since the outsider does not know what you are saying? 17 For you may give thanks well enough, but the other person is not built up. 18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you; 19 nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue. ¹

Most commentaries & discussions get hung up on the tongues bit. What was it, can/should we still do it, what’s it for and so on but Paul is also making a broader point about languages and comprehension and notice he is also talking about praying. As Jonathan Downie says,

I take no particular position as to what Paul means by tongues here or elsewhere. Paul’s particular point at this stage in his argument works equally well no matter which view we take. He simply states that if people do not have a shared language, they cannot understand each other. ²

So when someone in my church prays in Arabic, Farsi, Finnish or some heavenly tongue, it doesn’t make any difference to me because I don’t understand any of them. Paul’s argument is pretty straightforward but let’s just lay it out so we can see the crucial points.

• Question: If speech is unintelligible how will anyone know what is being said? (v9)
• That’s just speaking into the air (v.9)
• Unless we share meaning we are strangers or foreigners to each other (v.10)
• Your spirit can pray or worship while your mind does not (v.14)
• It is better when both your mind and spirit are praying/worshipping (v.15)
• Question: How can anyone say ‘Amen’ if they do not know what has been said? (v.16)
• Lack of understanding does not build up the church (v.17-19)

When I encourage people to pray in their heart language, knowing I don’t understand it, then I am putting myself and others in precisely the situation Paul is describing. My mind can’t follow, I can’t say Amen in good faith, I am not with them in prayer I just happen to be standing close by. I think Paul is fairly clear, so I mostly changed my practice on this. This made me think a bit about what is going on when we pray.

When we pray we are always praying to God

First and foremost prayer and worship is directed to God. It is for Him and Him alone. This means I can pray & worship God on my own. The vertical dimension is critical and is not just ‘speaking into the air’ but communing with our creator & redeemer through the power and help of His Spirit.

In the church or prayer meeting we are mostly praying with others to God.

Now I am not approaching the throne of grace on my own but with my brothers and sisters, we want to be in agreement, to be able to say ‘Amen’ together. Now if my friend is praying in Telegu, my spirit can pray but it is really hard for me to say ‘Amen’ in anything other than hope that what she prayed was good. It’s a blind hope.

I’ve been in meetings on many occasions where people are praying in a language I don’t understand and that’s fine but Paul is right, I have to pray with my spirit because my mind is not getting it at all.

I say ‘mostly’ because I have said to a group, ‘OK, let’s all pray to God at the same time, so feel free to pray in your heart language’. If everyone is doing that at the same time then no one is listening to you or me so we don’t need in that moment to worry about comprehension, agreement or interpretation. The purpose in that moment is not to pray with but to rouse us all to simultaneously pray to God.

Some options

There are some things that can be done though. We tend not to use prayers that have been written but there is no reason why you couldn’t do that. Write the prayer down, get it translated and display the prayer in the service language while someone prays it in their own language. This is something we haven’t done much because I tend to forget this is an option but we’ll be working on this in the future. This would allow us to display our diversity, help people overcome their shyness in a second language and ensure we’re all praying together.

Of course you can encourage people to ask for interpretation and seek to lower the bar in terms of people think something should sound like. People are often more capable than they realise and simple prayers lack nothing in power or effectiveness. In fact our Lord prefers them I think.

1. The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), 1 Co 14:6–19. [↩]
2. Jonathan Downie. Multilingual Church (Kindle Locations 297-299). Kindle Edition. [↩]