The apostle moves on to the more important, though possibly less sensational, gift of speaking as God’s inspired messenger, passing along instruction from Heaven to the church. The superiority of this gift over tongues and other spiritual gifts is emphasized in ch. 14:1, 39. The prophet, who stands between God and men and reveals God’s will to men, must be dominated by love, otherwise his messages will have little effect upon the hearers.

 Gr. mustēria (see on Matt. 13:11; Rom. 11:25). Because of sin, man’s powers of mind have become weakened; his capability of understanding the wonders of life, both natural and spiritual, is greatly inferior to that which God originally intended him to have (see Isa. 6:9, 10; John 12:37-40; 2 Cor. 4:4; 4T 585; 5T 698, 701). Long and arduous study and research are required to enable men to discover the secrets of nature, but these were readily acquired by Adam before he sinned (see PP 50, 51). The unconverted, sin-dominated mind cannot understand the things of God. This is because sin has wrought a complete change in man’s spiritual nature, so that his ways are diametrically opposed to those of his Creator (see Isa. 55:8, 9). To the prophets God sees fit to reveal the workings of His will on behalf of men. In turn, they are commissioned to instruct men as to their relation to God and their fellow men (see Ps. 25:14; Amos 3:7).

 By “knowledge” Paul doubtless refers, not to knowledge in general, but to the gift of knowledge described in ch. 12:8 as “the word of knowledge,” meaning “the utterance of knowledge” (see comment there; cf. on ch. 12:28).

 That is, the gift of faith described in ch. 12:9 (see comment there).

 See on v. 1.

Having listed the possible possession of the gifts of prophecy, wisdom, knowledge, and faith, outstanding and greatly desired spiritual endowments, Paul makes the simple statement that all these things, admirable and important though they may be, are ineffective without love.

 The same is true also of acquired gifts, such as intellectual attainments. Satan has great intellectual power, and knowledge that exceeds that of men, but he is not elevated thereby (see 2T 171; PP 36; 5T 504). The mind that is not surrendered to Christ and actuated by His Spirit is under the control of Satan, who works in it to accomplish his own pleasure (see 5T 515). Thus it becomes apparent that mere intellectual attainments, separated from the Godlike quality of love, merely serve to aid the enemy in achieving his ends, and do nothing to further the spiritual interests of men (see 1 John 4:8). One who may have had much of this world’s wisdom, together with a theoretical understanding of the relationship that should exist between man and God, and yet had no experimental knowledge of love, would still be lost. His efforts to do good to others would be fruitless, and the great goal that should be his in life, the glorification of God, would remain unreached (see John 4:7, 8; MB 37).