Speaking Into the Air
1 Corinthians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up. Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me. So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church. Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue. Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
Welcome - continuing in 1 Corinthians and Paul’s discussion of spiritual gifts
Now that Paul has finished his great exposition on love - the why of our gifts rather than the what of the gifts themselves - Paul now moves from the heart to the head. He talked about the right motivation for using our gifts, and now he talks about the purpose in using our gifts.
What are we trying to accomplish by using our gifts?
Now, we are covering a long passage this morning, but it all goes together to show that there is a reasonable way to use the gifts God has given us. The whole chapter does.
Because as Christians, who have had our minds renewed and who have the mind of Christ, we are to always be reasonable in what we do: in our worship, in our own devotion and obedience, and as we see here, in using our gifts
The Bible has a lot to say about engaging our minds in our faith. Our reasonableness is to be known. Christ opened the minds of the disciples after His resurrection. The Spirit knows the mind of God and gives us understanding. We are to have a mind of wisdom to understand the Scriptures.
In other words: we do not check our minds at the door when we enter into spiritual worship or spiritual service.
God made us whole people, with bodies, minds, spirits, emotions, wills - and all are to be used for His glory. All are to be used as we carry out our purpose as Christians and as a church.
So Paul, now tells the Corinthians to serve each other using their gifts and that they have to engage their minds in doing so.
And this chapter contains the clearest teaching on how the miraculous gifts of tongues is to be used, and not to be used. And Paul starts with the not part of that.
And he begins with a closing word about the love he just spoke about:
Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
Paul finishes up the emphasis on love by telling the Corinthians - and us - to pursue that love. And the word he uses for “pursue” means to chase after someone or something that is elusive.
It is an interesting choice of word. But what a final word on the love Paul has been talking about.
Because, having that right motivation… it’s elusive. It’s easy to lose sight of it. As we saw, love is action, and continually acting in love is hard. The love he exhorts us to in chapter 13 is hard; if we’re not careful, we will lose that right motivation - it must be sought continually.
But Paul is also drawing a contrast. He says that love is to be pursued like it’s trying to evade us - because it often does - and then Paul brings this back to the gifts themselves.
And he says to earnestly desire gifts.
Paul already said this right before his talk about love. He said:
But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.
And that more excellent way was the why of our gifts - the love for the church.
But Paul brings this back to the desire that goes with the love.
Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
Except here, Paul doesn’t say “spiritual gifts.” He says what he said to start this section back in chapter 12. He just says “the spiritual.” Desire the spiritual.
And this “earnestly desire” is the same word Paul has been using that isn’t the usual word for “want” or “desire.” It is the word that means “to be zealous.” Paul wants us to seek love - pursue it at all costs. More than the gifts themselves.
But we are still to be zealous for spiritual gifts. And why shouldn’t we be? Using our gifts is how love works itself out through the ministry of the church. To each other and to the world. Why shouldn’t we be zealous to be equipped to do just that?
But notice that Paul focuses on prophecy. He wants the Corinthians to be especially zealous for the gift of prophecy.
Paul has twice in this letter listed gifts, and twice he lists prophecy ahead of tongues. In fact, when Paul told the Corinthians to be zealous for the higher gifts, he listed prophecy way ahead of tongues. Prophecy was second only to Apostleship. Here, he says to be especially zealous for prophecy. Because Apostleship was not going to continue, as we have seen.
But prophecy was. And Paul wanted the Corinthians to be more zealous for prophecy than for tongues.
Why?
Well, Paul reasons this out for them. He says:
For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.
We have seen this contrast before. When Paul talked about idolatry, he said that knowledge so-called puffs up, but love builds up. And we saw, the Corinthians were puffing themselves up by exercising their rights - by prioritizing themselves over the greater good.
Well the same thing was happening with the use of spiritual gifts.
Paul’s emphasis to this point has been on using our gifts for the building up of the body of Christ. For the benefit of one another. For the common good - all out of love.
Here, he says prophecy builds up, and it encourages, and it consoles. This talks about prophecy in the broadest sense - as speaking forth the Word of God by a miraculous act of God, or in preaching or teaching or even speaking encouragement from the Scriptures to one another. That builds up.
Paul would later write to Timothy how the Word of God was profitable for teaching and reproof and training in righteousness that a person may be complete and equipped for every good work.
We have already seen how in Ephesians Paul says the Apostles, Prophets, and pastors and teachers were gifted so that the rest of the church could be equipped to work - or minister so that the body of Christ would be built up.
This is what he says prophecy does here. It builds up the church.
But the Corinthians wanted to speak in tongues - as we have seen - for the wrong reasons. Now we see, it was also for the wrong purpose. Because they did it to build themselves up.
And because of that, it was serving no purpose. No one understood them, but God. Their speaking in tongues did not address the minds of the church.
And this mysteries in the Spirit - this does not need to mean the Holy Spirit. I know the ESV translates it that was with the capital ‘S’ - but some other translations do not. They translate this to mean the spirit of the person, like the ESV does with the same word a little further down.
These people utter mysteries in their spirit. The insinuation is that they were excluding their minds.
Which would mean this is not of the Holy Spirit - and the rest of the passage proves out that understanding, that this was not of the Holy Spirit - otherwise, Paul is telling them to act contrary to the Holy Spirit in this passage.
And this is where we have to be careful. Because many Christians talk about how the Spirit leads them to do this or that. And I don’t doubt it. The Spirit does lead God’s people. But the way the Spirit leads is primarily through giving us understanding of the Word of God. He speaks through the Word.
And if you act on desires or inner feelings or promptings that you believe are from the Holy Spirit, you just need to be careful. Because if what you think the Spirit is prompting you to do does not line up with the Word of God, it’s not the Spirit at all.
Paul says that this was the case with the Corinthians in this passage.
And let’s be honest: we all crave a spiritual experience. God has placed that desire in us.
But the Word of God has final say, not our experiences! If you think you have had a spiritual experience - whatever it is - but it’s contrary to the what Bible teaches, it was not of the Holy Spirit, and you are misinterpreting what has happened.
But on the other hand, if you have never experienced a miracle or a sign gift in action, that doesn’t mean you exclude them, because the Bible doesn’t.
Neither extreme serves God’s purpose. Neither will build up, because neither is of the Holy Spirit.
And Paul says that the Corinthians who were speaking in tongues in their spirit were serving no purpose. Only God understood what they were saying. They were not speaking to anyone else.
And why were these people speaking in tongues speaking only to God? Because they were speaking in tongues where there was no interpreter.
For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.
Paul says the speaking gifts - tongues, prophecy, preaching - they have to engage the mind and the spirit.
And he says that he wishes - this is the normal word for “desire” - he desires that they would all speak in tongues. Even more he desires that they would prophecy.
This is an echo of what Moses said when Joshua was upset that the two elders were prophesying among the people. Moses rebuked him and said he wished that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit on all of them.
But of course, they weren’t all prophets. And as Paul has said, neither does everyone in the church prophesy or speak in tongues.
But to be zealous for the gifts is good, if you have the right motivation and the right purpose in mind.
We see again the two contrary uses of the gifts - you can use them to build yourself up, or you can use them to build the church up.
This is why Paul has been focusing on these other gifts - particularly prophecy - over speaking in tongues. The Corinthians were speaking in tongues when there were no interpreters, and no one understood what they were saying, so they were doing nothing to build up the church in love. Instead, they were building themselves up.
And this literally says “the prophesying is greater than the speaking in tongues.” Remember, there is a priority to the gifts, but not to the gifted. Having a greater or higher gift does not make someone a greater Christian.
But it is important to note what Paul says - the prophesying is greater than the speaking in tongues - unless someone interprets. Because, as we’ve seen, speaking in tongues is speaking forth the word of God - it’s being a prophet or evangelist or an encourager - just in a different language a person is miraculously gifted to speak.
Which is why Paul says:
Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching?
What good is tongues if no one can interpret to reveal what’s said, and to share the utterance of knowledge, or the prophecy, or the teaching, or the prayer, or the encouragement?
If they do not learn anything from the speaking - if it doesn’t address their mind along with their spirit - what good is it?
It’s no good at all!
And Paul uses some similar analogies to those he used right before this to illustrate:
If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air.
If you play in instrument or ever played an instrument, you know that for a long time, you sound horrible playing. When my daughters were all learning instruments in school, it was sometimes torturous to hear them practicing.
Who here had kids that had to do that stupid recorder thing in grammar school?
I have to imagine that when I started playing guitar, it was no where near as good as I thought it was. That’s probably still true.
And if you’ve ever tried to play a wind instrument - like the flute - or a brass instrument - like the bugle - you know how difficult it is to even start getting actual notes out of the thing. It starts out as squeaky, screechy, noise.
And Paul references the bugle, because it is an instrument used to signal different things to soldiers. When to attack. When to retreat. When the battle is over. And Paul says “imagine a bugle just making a squeaky noise - how will anyone know what to do with that?”
This is like speaking in tongues with no interpreter.
If no one understands what you say, you are speaking into the air. You are the noisy gong or clanging cymbal. You are like a kid taking their first bugle lesson. You are making indistinct noise. And you are serving no purpose.
And again, Paul talks about speaking existing languages:
There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me.
I don’t know if any of you have ever tried communicating with someone who speaks only a different language. I mean, you know, before Google could do it for you on the spot.
Woman trying to get to NYC
The problem was not that I didn’t know how to get to the city. It wasn’t that I couldn’t explain how to, to someone who understood my language - I’d be a help to them. It’s that my language was foreign to her.
Clearly, my words had no meaning to her, and they served no purpose.
All my knowledge - and in this case, even my good intentions and my desire to communicate something to her - they served no purpose at all.
What good comes from speaking if no one understand what you’re saying?
How is anyone encouraged, or built up, or helped in any way?
If you speak in a tongue that no one understands and no one can interpret, it serves no purpose.
That’s why Paul brings it back to the purpose: to build up the church:
So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.
Paul says the Corinthians were eager for manifestations of the Spirit. We have seen twice already that Paul uses this phrase to talk about the use of spiritual gifts. They make manifest the power of God. They make manifest the truth of His Word.
The Corinthians were eager for these manifestations, but they were missing the point and the purpose these manifestations are supposed to serve.
They should build up the church. This is why God has given all of us gifts.
And speaking in tongues no one understands, that can’t build up the church.
So, Paul tells the Corinthians that if they speak in tongues, they should pray that they can interpret the tongues.
Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret.
The way this is phrased makes the interpretation the end game. The goal of speaking in tongues is that someone understands what’s being said.
And note: Paul insinuates that not even those speaking in tongues knew what they were saying. Even they couldn’t interpret.
And why is it important for the one speaking in tongues to understand what they are saying?
Because we are to use reason in how we use our gifts. We are to engage our minds.
Here is where this gets confusing, I think. We are talking about spiritual gifts. They are manifestations of the Holy Spirit. As Paul says in this section, we use them according to our spirit - the spiritual side of our humanity.
But, again, we cannot be so “spiritual” that we check our brains at the door when it comes to worship, or serving using out gifts, or anything concerning our faith.
Listen, faith is not the opposite of reason, contrary to what atheists want to believe. But so many have given them reason to believe that! Because we so often remove reason from our spirituality at times.
But this is why Peter tells us to be ready to make a defense for anyone who asks for a reason for the hope that is in us.
We are to have reasons that we believe. We are to have reasons that we serve. We are to have reasons that we strive to serve out our calling.
And this idea that being spiritual is opposed to using our brain, or that faith defies reason is a very new phenomenon, relatively speaking. It is the result of eastern spirituality influencing Christianity in the west over the last two hundred years.
But from the first century on, the greatest philosophers, and scientists, and doctors have for the most part been Christians who worked with the Bible as their foundation for understanding their areas of study.
Read the writings of the church fathers or the Reformers or the Puritans and see how some of the greatest minds the world has ever known reasoned their way to right doctrine and practice in the church.
See how Paul, one of the true geniuses this world has known, not only thinks through his doctrine, but encourages Christians to engage their minds in their faith.
This is why he says:
For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.
Paul wants the mind to be part of worship. He wants to engage his mind in prayer. He wants to engage his mind in singing praise.
He wants the Corinthians to use their heads when it comes to speaking in tongues.
Because if we don’t use our heads in all of these things and in our ministries, how can we engage the minds of those we are ministering to? How will we build them up?
We won’t.
Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up.
And this word translated “outsider” means someone unskilled or untaught - ἰδιώτης if you want to work out the etymology of a certain English word. In this case, this is someone untaught in the language you are speaking, or unskilled in interpreting.
And here, again, Paul uses this idea of talking in your spirit - which is how it should be translated above - this is talking about speaking in tongues according to your own initiative. If you pray in tongues, and nobody understands the language, how can they say “amen?”
And all of this is not to say that the gift of tongues is not useful for building up the church. It can be. But if it is words nobody else understands, it can’t be.
If your mind is not engaged, it can’t be.
Paul engaged his mind in everything he did. Including speaking in tongues.
He says:
I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.
Paul spoke in tongues more than the Corinthians. He brought the Gospel to so many different people groups. He was learned, but his learning would have been in Hebrew and Greek - there were so many languages and dialects of the people he preached to, God gave him the gift to speak in those other languages.
But that was to spread the Gospel to those who understood those languages. In the church, among fellow believers in a community where the same language was spoken for the most part - Paul says he would rather speak five words with his mind than ten thousand words in a tongue, or in another language.
It may seem less extraordinary to the Corinthians - and to us - but speaking reasonably builds the church up more than the miraculous tongue no one understands.
This is another extreme example. Paul says five words from the mind are better than ten-thousand words through a miraculous gift. In other words, no matter how many times the Corinthians spoke in tongues with no interpreter - now matter how many words they used - they would do nothing to build up the church.
And note the contrast between speaking with the mind and speaking in tongues the way the Corinthians did it. It did not come from the mind. It was completely unreasonable!
To speak in tongues that nobody understood, was them not being reasonable! Paul is saying, “when it comes to speaking in tongues, stop being so ‘spiritual’ and use your head.”
And we can’t take this out of the context of this whole portion of the letter. Because they had to use their heads, but as we saw last week, they had to engage their hearts, too. The right motivation for using our gifts is only ever love.
So for Paul, speaking in tongues that nobody understands is not only unreasonable, it doesn’t come from love. Because love seeks to build up the church. It seeks the good of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
So Paul says:
Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.
He comes back the his metaphor from earlier in chapter 13. The Corinthians were being childish. They were acting immature. They were thinking like children - which Paul earlier tied in to their childish speaking, which here he makes clear was their speaking in tongues.
He again says to grow up. But he also again says to use their heads. Think like a mature Christian.
And let’s not rip verse 20 out of its context like so many do. This isn’t an unrelated throw-in about doing evil. Like Paul throws in a warning not to sin in general in the middle of this very particular discussion.
He is saying that what they were doing was evil. It was a perversion of a spiritual gift.
It was malicious and selfish because they did it for the wrong reason and for the wrong purpose. They didn’t do it out of love, and they didn’t engage their minds or the minds of their fellow believers to build up the church.
Because they were speaking in tongues no one understood.
And they were doing it of their own will, not that of the Holy Spirit Who gives gifts that are, as we saw:
empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
How do we know it was of their own will?
The Apostle Peter would later write:
For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Does that include what Paul is writing here to the Corinthians? Of course.
So then, were the Corinthians speaking in tongues in the power of the Holy Spirit? Was the Spirit initiating what they were doing?
Well, if we are reasonable about it, the answer has to be “no.” What the Corinthians were doing was not of the Holy Spirit.
if the Holy Spirit inspired Paul, then He would not lead someone to use the gift contrary to this. So if there is speaking in tongues, and there is no interpreter, the Holy Spirit is not initiating whatever’s happening
Yet the Corinthians were doing it.
So why did they do it?
Because they were seeking to build themselves up. They were seeking a very good gift for the wrong reason and using it for no purpose.
So they were talking into the air. They were playing indistinct notes. They were just making noise.
And Paul then uses the Scriptures to make his point.
In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.”
Paul is back to the idea of speaking as a foreigner to someone.
Paul here paraphrases part of the book of Isaiah. This comes from Isaiah chapter 28:
For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the Lord will speak to this people, to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they would not hear.
But as I’ve said before, when Paul quotes the Old Testament, he is assuming his audience knows the context of the passage, because he is invoking not just the passage he quotes, but the context.
And what is the context of this passage?
Judgment. Judgement for not listening to God.
Let’s read a little more to get the context.
Ah, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine! Behold, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong; like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest, like a storm of mighty, overflowing waters, he casts down to the earth with his hand. The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden underfoot; and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley, will be like a first-ripe fig before the summer: when someone sees it, he swallows it as soon as it is in his hand. In that day the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people, and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate. These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink; the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are swallowed by wine, they stagger with strong drink, they reel in vision, they stumble in giving judgment. For all tables are full of filthy vomit, with no space left. “To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, those taken from the breast? For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.” For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the Lord will speak to this people, to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they would not hear. And the word of the Lord will be to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
This is talking about the captivity and the end of the northern kingdom. Assyria was going to come and take them away and destroy them as a nation.
And why?
Because they would not listen to God.
Assyria, the people of strange lips and a foreign tongue would speak to Israel. And they would speak to them through the edge of the sword and with chains - a language they would understand came from God. Because the people of Israel did not understand God when He spoke to them. He was like a foreigner to them.
They said God’s law was “precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.” They gave lip service to what God said, but they didn’t believe it.
So God says that it would be better to teach children than the people of Israel. This is the tie-in with that infants in evil remark of Paul’s.
But then God says it is “precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little… that Israel may be judged and broken and captured.”
And in English, we miss what God is doing through Isaiah, because we miss the poetry of this part of the prophecy. God is a great poet.
Because God is using repetitive alliteration - in Hebrew, this “precept upon precept” uses the same sounds over and over again - to talk about what the Law was to the Israelites. It was like gibberish. In our terms, we could say they heard God’s Law as “blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”
What does this have to do with the wrong use of tongues?
Well, Paul invokes this passage about foreigners:
In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.”
Then he says it proves his next point:
Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers.
And then he says that there is a danger to this misuse of the sign for unbelievers.
If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?
If the point of tongues is to speak to unbelievers or to give the a sign that God is at work. But there is no one to interpret what someone is saying to unbelievers, then the unbelievers will say that you are simply out of your mind. It will not serve it’s purpose.
It is intended to be a sign to unbelievers that what God says is true.
But all anyone hears when someone speaks in tongues with no interpreter is “blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”
So let’s take that all together:
Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?
Tongues are a sign for unbelievers - it is first and foremost about the truth of God - about spreading the Gospel. Paul spoke in tongues to spread the Gospel to new peoples. Tongues today is first and foremost to spread the Gospel to new people - to speak to them in a language they will understand.
Tongues is a sign to the unbeliever that proves the truth of God’s Word.
But when the whole church comes together - which means Paul is talking about the worship service of the church. This will be important for the rest of the chapter. Paul is saying that especially in the worship service, tongues is not as profitable as prophecy.
But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
This is another reference to Isaiah:
Thus says the Lord: “The wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you and be yours; they shall follow you; they shall come over in chains and bow down to you. They will plead with you, saying: ‘Surely God is in [or among] you, and there is no other, no god besides him.’ ”
This is a prophecy that God would reverse the oppression by the foreigners and bring them to faith. They will realize that the One true God is among His people when they hear the Gospel.
This is what has happened since Christ’s ascension and the sending of the Spirit. This is the commission of the church.
And this is why God has given us our gifts. To build up the body of Christ. Both by bringing in new believers and by building each other up in faith.
But we have to be reasonable about how we do that.
We have to consider not just whether we use our gifts with the right motivation, we have to think about our purpose in using them. We have to use our gifts to build up the church.
That happens best, according to Paul, when the Word of God is spoken, and is proven true.
The gift of tongues is for speaking forth the Word of God. So speaking in tongues where there is no interpretation serves no purpose. It is not a sign that God is at work if there is no interpretation.
Rather, Paul says it just makes you look like you’re out of your mind.
And Paul will give some rules about using the gift of tongues even used rightly later in the chapter.
But for today, I want us to engage the Word of God with our minds.
Whatever our understanding of the miraculous gifts, Paul gives very straightforward instruction here. Does our understanding align with his teaching?
I want to leave you with a few things to engage your mind with this week. Think about it, and pray about.
think motive (love) and purpose (building up the church) - do you engage your mind with your spirit in all you do for God, because, number 2:
our faith is a reasonable faith - we have every reason to believe what we do - do not give anyone an impression it is otherwise - how we use our gifts goes a long way to revealing what we really believe. And using them rightly proves the truth of the Word of God we say we believe.
Look to Christ. Christ did what He did out of love, and with a purpose. And He accomplished that purpose - He accomplished all God promised He would. And if we use our gifts with the same motivation and for the same purpose, God will achieve His purposes through that. I go back to what I said when I started this section of the letter - the church needs you and your gifts, because God will use you to make us a fully functioning body that carries out our commission
Through our gifts, God will prove the truth of the Gospel - through your gift - whether performing a miracle or speaking in tongues or interpreting tongues - or your gift of administration or hospitality - God will prove the truth of the Gospel as we serve each other and live out our calling in Christ.
For the right reasons, with the right purpose, engaging our mind and spirit, God will do the miraculous through us, whether through a miraculous display, a simple word of encouragement, or through very ordinary means.
As Paul said, God will make every gift extraordinary. Because when we use them for Him, He works them through us, and His truth goes forth, and His glory and power are made known.
And that is how His salvation continues on until the day we see Him face to face.
Through us, if we do it all His way, Christ will continue to build His church through us, and build us up.
Let’s commit ourselves to Him that He would do just that.
