Which do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod [of discipline and correction], or with love and a gentle spirit?

Wast thou called being a slave, be not anxious about it; but if thou canst be made free, prefer it.

But I have used none of these things, and I have not written these things that it should be so done to me; for I prefer to die, rather than that any one should make my boasting vain.

When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, to prefer as child, to reason as a child: now I have become a man, I have laid aside the things of the child!

Now I would like you all to speak with 'tongues,' but I would prefer you to prophesy. The man who prophesies is higher than the man who speaks with 'tongues' ??unless indeed the latter interprets, so that the church may get edification.

but in the church I prefer to speak five words with my mind, in order that I may instruct other [people], than ten thousand words in a tongue.