The Gift of Tongues
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This morning’s Scripture lesson is taken from 1 Corinthians 14:1-20:
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.
May God bless this the reading of His holy and infallible Word.
Tongues speaking is perhaps one of the most controversial and divisive issue in the Church today, just as it was in Corinth. Perhaps the most controversial and divisive aspect of this debate is the question of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and the question of whether or not a person must speak in tongues to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. I am going to address that question next week; in preparation of next week, I want to address three questions:
First, Do All Speak in Tongues?
Second, What is the Content of Tongues?
Third, What is Tongue Speaking a Sign Of?
Let us begin with the first question:
Do All Speak in Tongues?
Do All Speak in Tongues?
This is the question found in 1 Corinthians 12:30, where Paul asks rhetorically, “Do all speak in tongues?” From the context the answer is obviously NO!
Pentecostals and Charismatics realize this; yet they still insist that speaking in tongues is a necessary sign of being baptized in the Holy Spirit. How can they do this? They can do this by manufacturing a new type of tongue speaking. They call this new type of tongues a “prayer language”. There are two passages of Scripture they cite of evidence of this; the first is 1 Corinthians 14:14:
For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful.
The second passage is:
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
At first glance, their argument seems to have merit, but in vs. 20 of our passage today, Paul calls us not to just “glance” at Scripture like infants, but to be mature and dig deep into God’s Word. When we do this, we discover that the idea of a “prayer language” is a total fabrication, used to prop up a faulty view of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
The first problem with the Pentecostal/Charismatic interpretation is found in Romans 8:26-27, there the text explicitly says that it is the Holy Spirit praying, not the Christian praying in tongues! There is not doubt that a Christian with the gift of tongues can pray in tongues, Paul says this several times in 1 Corinthians 14; but this is not what is being talked about in Romans 8. In addition, Romans 8 is not teaching that the Holy Spirit only helps those who have a so called “prayer language”, but all Christians!
This leads to the second problem, in 1 Corinthians 14, Paul is speaking of the Gift of Tongues, NOT of a so called “prayer language”. There is nothing in the context of 1 Corinthians 14 to suggest that Paul is speaking of any other type of tongues than the Gift of Tongues.
In conclusion, there is only one type of tongues, the Gift of Tongues and not everyone speaks in tongues!
Let us now move on to the second question:
What is the Content of Tongues?
What is the Content of Tongues?
The key passage for answering this question is 1 Cor 14:10-11
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.
The Gift of Tongues, is often referred to as “speaking in unknown tongues”, not because the syllables have no meaning, but because the hearers do not know the language. This point is so self-evident, that we often overlook it’s significance. If the syllables being spoken constitute a real language, then there is a real message behind those syllables!
Consider this: If you visit a foreign country, where the people speak a language you do not know, the syllables you hear have no meaning to you. It is just a collection of meaningless sounds. However, if an interpreter shows up, suddenly everything being spoken has meaning. That is exactly the way it is with the gift of tongues, when there is someone present who can interpret that tongue. This is why Paul insists an interpreter must be present when there is the public exercise of the gift of tongues. Listen again, to what Paul has to say in 1 Cor 14:1-5:
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.
In vs. 2, Paul say the person who speaks in tongues “utters mysteries in the Spirit”. Doubtless he means by this that the people hearing cannot understand what is being said, but Paul’s choice of the word “mystery” suggests he means some else as while. Last week, when we looked at prophecy, we learned that a “mystery” in the Bible is a revelation for God that is inaccessible to us by our own human effort. Therefore, a “mystery” is a revelation from God.
With this in mind, look at vs. 5, what is Paul saying here. He is saying that if tongues is interpreted it becomes equal to prophecy. In other words, the content of what is spoken by a person speaking in tongues is divine revelation! When Paul speaks of praying in tongues in vs. 14 and singing in tongues in vs. 15, he is not speaking of ordinary prayers or songs. If these prayers and songs were interpreted, they would be divine revelation just as the prayers and songs of the Book of Psalms are divine revelation!
Now I hope you see where I am going with this. If the Gift of Prophecy has ceased because the need for new revelation has ceased with the completion of the NT Canon, then the need for the Gift of Tongues has ceased as well.
So, if the authentic Gift of Tongues ceased once the NT Canon was complete, what is being manifested in Pentecostal and Charismatic churches? This is what the final question addresses.
What is Tongues Speaking a Sign Of?
What is Tongues Speaking a Sign Of?
If you attend a Pentecostal/Charismatic worship service, it is not uncommon to hear people speaking in tongues with no translation; in fact, it is not uncommon to hear the whole congregation break out in a chorus of singing in tongues. Pentecostal and Charismatics see these manifestations that they have discovered the “Full Gospel” and have arrived at a level of spiritual maturity and blessing far beyond other congregations. But is it?
Many in the Corinthian church thought their uninterpreted tongue speaking was a sign of their spiritual maturity. Clearly, they believed that tongues was the most important gift, but what does Paul have to say about all of this? Throughout the whole chapter he presents prophecy as superior to uninterpreted tongues, of example:
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.
Then he gives this warning concerning uninterpreted tongues:
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?
First, note that in vs.20, Paul is saying that their use of uninterpreted tongues is a sign of immaturity, not maturity.
Then in vs. 21, he issues a dire warning, he cites Isaiah 28:11-12, who in turn was alluding to Deut 28:49 which reads:
The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand,
From this, Paul concludes that uninterpreted tongues are a sign of judgement upon unbelievers.
In addition, Paul speaks to the disorder and confusion created by uninterpreted tongue speaking:
For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.
As in all the churches of the saints,
Pentecostals and Charismatics have it all wrong. Rather than uninterpreted tongue speaking being a sign of revival, it is a sign of judgement, rather than it being a sign that God is at work, it is a sign that someone else is at work!
During the Reformation, Martin Luther and John Calvin had to deal with enthusiasts who substituted experience for obedience to God’s Word, by claiming the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives. In response, John Calvin made this observation:
“God does not bestow His Spirit on His people in order to set aside the use of His Word, but rather to render it fruitful.”
As we move forward in this study of Spiritual Gifts, God’s Word and God’s Word alone must guide us. That we may be so guided by God’s Word, let us pray.