NOTES for Co1 14:15

The apostle seems to contrast praying “with the spirit” and praying “with the understanding.” What does he mean? By “spirit” Paul means what today, without any theological background, we would simply call breath. This may be the “breath of life” God gave humanity at creation or God's breath, whose presence the prophets feel within themselves during ecstasy. In any case, this is precisely an ecstatic experience, the sensation of a certain power of God that acts upon a person and sometimes not only embraces him from without but also enters within. As a rule, God's power is felt as something impersonal, so a person can only surrender himself to it, assuming that behind it stands God Himself, who abides beside him and leads him after Himself. It often happens that while under the influence of God's power, a person not only lacks control of himself but does not always remember everything that happened to him after the ecstasy ends. Glossolalia may, or may not, be an element of such an ecstatic state.

Such ecstasy, however, is of little benefit to those around the person. It can only become a vivid demonstration of how God's power works and what it can do with a human being. That is why Paul calls such phenomena a sign for unbelievers: by observing such an ecstasy, a person with no idea what God's power and action are can form a more or less clear impression of them. But such an ecstasy brings nothing new to Christians themselves.

Praying “with the understanding” is another matter. By understanding, the apostle means here not the intellect but the spiritual center of the human person that the Bible usually calls the heart. Greek philosophers called it the “mind,” and Paul uses this word in his epistles, which were written in Greek. This is conscious prayer, conscious communion with God, which may also become prophetic if God gives a person such a revelation. Here not only God's power but also His will is revealed, a will the person senses and recognizes as part of his own spiritual space. He can therefore follow this will consciously, commune with God consciously—in short, live a conscious spiritual life. And if God entrusts this to him, he can therefore also instruct others: he does not merely experience certain ecstasies but understands the meaning and significance of what is revealed to him and what is happening to him. This is how an inhabitant of the Kingdom should live.