Intro
Years ago, before kids, Carolyn and I visited a friend’s church in Vancouver. It was a Pentecostal church, and the Sunday we visited was Pentecost Sunday. That’s like visiting Toys ‘R Us in December with a five year old. The pastor preached a sermon on Acts 2, and I remember it vividly even after all these years. It was a great sermon. I think I even remember the title: “anything can happen”, or something like that. The preacher was a guest, and after the sermon, the lead pastor stood up. He spoke for a bit while the worship team played some music, and then he instructed the whole church to begin speaking in tongues. If it happened in Acts 2, it was going to happen today in Vancouver! Suddenly, all around us arose this cacophony of sounds as people spoke in strange dialects. It was chaos! I wasn’t super bothered by this, but I know that other people in my marriage were turned off by it. It made me wonder: is this kind of widespread speaking in tongues appropriate? Is it biblical?
Another story, but not mine: John Wimber and his wife Carol were instruments of spiritual renewal for millions of people in the ‘80s and ‘90s. They had been warned in their Quaker church setting that speaking in tongues was nothing but a demonic deception. One day, John was walking and praying and suddenly realized he had been praying in what sounded to him like gibberish. He was alarmed- how did the devil sneak in while he was talking to God? Carol reprimanded him, and he resolved to watch himself more closely. A little while later, they watched their three year old son hurry down the hill toward their house with bees attacking him all over. He had been stung about 50 times. John did something he had never done before, being a very new believer at the time. He laid his hands on his son and began praying for healing, except the words that came out of his mouth sounded to Carol like Cantonese. And John didn’t speak Cantonese. But as he prayed in these strange tongues, the beestings healed to the point that you couldn’t even tell their son had been stung. Carol chalked it up to natural immunity (after all, it couldn’t be supernatural healing, and there’s no such thing as tongues!) She was convinced of this until the next time her son was stung by a bee but this time, the sting didn’t just vanish!
Those are a couple of the first stories that come to my mind when I think about speaking in tongues. Healing, intimacy, chaos, division, all of that and more! I’m aware that as we speak about spiritual gifts, this is one of the gifts that gives us the most trouble. It gave the Corinthian believers trouble too. The spectrum of responses to gifts that I mentioned a few weeks ago is most stark here. We have people who speak in tongues and want to do it all the time. We have people who might believe the modern manifestations of tongues is manufactured or worse. We have others who might believe in tongues speaking’s continued existence but nevertheless feel quite nervous and uncomfortable about it. As always, we need to ask God for His guidance and direction. Thankfully, Paul had to deal with this issue in the first century, and the words the Holy Spirit inspired him to write are for us today as well.
Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. 2 For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. 3 But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort. 4 Anyone who speaks in a tongueedifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church. 5 I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be edified. 6 Now, brothers and sisters, if I come to you and speak in tongues, what good will I be to you, unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or word of instruction? 7 Even in the case of lifeless things that make sounds, such as the pipe or harp, how will anyone know what tune is being played unless there is a distinction in the notes? 8 Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle? 9 So it is with you. Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air. 10 Undoubtedly there are all sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning. 11 If then I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker is a foreigner to me. 12 So it is with you. Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church. 13 For this reason the one who speaks in a tongue should pray that they may interpret what they say. 14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. 15 So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. 16 Otherwise when you are praising God in the Spirit, how can someone else, who is now put in the position of an inquirer, say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since they do not know what you are saying?17 You are giving thanks well enough, but no one else is edified. 18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 19 But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.
1 Corinthians 14:1-19
1. What is speaking in tongues?
Let’s ask a series of questions about tongues in particular. Here’s the first: what is it? There are a few important details from what Paul says here.
First, Paul says that tongues speakers speak to God. God is the primary intended audience. This is going to factor in later when we talk about prophecy, but in prophecy, the intended audience is other people. Words are spoken that are directed towards others. Not tongues. They are primarily directed towards God. They are primarily used in private prayer and worship.
Second, Paul says that nobody understands the content of tongues-speaking. This would include the tongues-speaker him or herself, which is an important point. Unless the tongues-speaker has an interpreter (more on that later), they themselves do not understand what they are saying. That’s what Paul means later on when he says that if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful (v.14). It’s unfruitful because if you’re speaking in tongues, you yourself do not comprehend what you’re saying. And that’s why Paul, in verse 2, says that the tongues-speaker utters “mysteries”. Apart from the gift of interpretation, what is said is a mystery. However, this doesn’t mean that tongues are meaningless. They are indecipherable, but they are not meaningless, because God understands them. Which leads to the third point.
That point is that tongues-speaking is empowered by the Spirit. I mentioned this last week, but I want you to hear this again. There’s a well known passage in Romans 8:26 where Paul writes, “we do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” That, to my ears and others, sounds a lot like what Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 14. You don’t know what to pray for, but the Spirit prays through you. That’s what tongues-speaking is. It is the Holy Spirit of God within a believer, praying through them in wordless (meaning unintelligible to human ears) sounds, or groans. This might also explain why Paul talks about speaking in the tongues of angels in 1 Corinthians 13:1. It could be that the authentic gift of tongues is heavenly speech that can only come about by the indwelling of the Spirit.
Fourth, despite the fact that it is by the Spirit, it is nevertheless under one’s control. Sometimes we imagine that gifts like this entail someone falling into a trance, eyes rolling back or glazing over, as if they’re being “possessed”. We think of it as something you have no say in. But Paul’s instructions here about when it is or is not appropriate to utilize the gift make no sense if the tongues-speaker has no control over when they speak. Later on in the chapter, he leaves instructions that only two or three people at most should speak in a tongue in a gathering (14:27). Again, that only makes sense if there is some kind of dynamic interplay between the Spirit and the believer with this gift.
Fifth, at least one of the primary contents of tongues is praise. Paul writes in verse 16 about praising God in the Spirit. He says “you are giving thanks well enough.” That this is what tongues is about makes sense if you think about it. If God truly is God, transcendent over all creation, infinite, holy and awesome, glorious beyond compare, completely other than all of creation, how could human words adequately praise Him? How could our words and thoughts match up in any way to the wonder of who He is? But tongues are a gift of the Spirit praying through us, enabling us to worship and praise in a way we could not otherwise do.
And sixth, speaking in tongues springs from human weakness. I think this is where one of the great misunderstandings and abuses of the gift comes in. When you Google this later, you might come across bombastic televangelists who are speaking, seem to lose their train of thought, and suddenly break out in loud and showy displays of tongues-speaking. I don’t know, man! It looks like a cover up for the preacher losing track of what they wanted to talk about! Again, Romans 8:26 reminds us that the Spirit helps us in our weakness. It seems to me from that and from everything we’ve seen in 1 Corinthians that humility is one of the keys to the authentic exercise of this gift. Gordon Fee, maybe the most prominent Pentecostal New Testament scholar in the last century and someone I have a ton of respect for, said that biblical tongues represents a position of weakness, not of strength!
Put this all together, and here’s what you have. The gift of tongues is an empowerment of the Spirit whereby a believer speaks to God in sounds that humans, including themselves, cannot understand, in order to intercede in prayer and praise to God where human words fall short.
2. Who speaks in tongues?
Here’s the second question: who speaks in tongues? What I’m especially thinking about here is the classic Pentecostal doctrine that speaking in tongues is the evidence of the Holy Spirit, and that God intends for every believer to possess this gift. In this chapter, one verse that stands out is verse 5, where Paul states, “I would like every one of you to speak in tongues.” Book closed! Paul would like everyone to do this, so let’s make Paul happy and do it already!
That might work, except that the very next phrase says that he would rather have them prophesy. And he doesn’t seem to think that everyone will. That’s one of the points of the body image in chapter 12. The whole body isn’t made up of eyes. That would be a monstrosity and not a body. You’ve got a variety of gifts distributed throughout the body. He asks at the end of chapter 12 “are all apostles? Are all prophets? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?” (12:29-30) The implied answer sure seems to be “no”. No, not all do.
Added to that, consider that Paul talks about other things he wishes for all the Corinthians but know will obviously not happen. In 1 Corinthians 7:7, he’s talking about singleness, a marital status he possesses. He declares, “I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.” He wishes that they were all single, “wish” being the same word that’s translated as “like” in 14:5. Does he think they actually should all remain single, or will remain single?
The bottom line is that I just don’t buy the Pentecostal doctrine that God will give this gift to every believer, or that it’s the evidence of the Spirit. Some will receive the gift, others won’t. That’s ok.
3. Who does speaking in tongues help?
Question three: who does speaking in tongues help? Some of you might even wonder if it helps anyone? If nobody understands, what could possibly be the point of this gift?
In verse 4, Paul says it plainly: “anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves.” If you’re not sure what edification means, it’s a construction word- think “edifice”. Edification has to do with building something up. In this case, that something is the person who has the gift. The person who benefits from this gift is the person who speaks in tongues.
And that is actually ok! I know, at first, building yourself up sounds really selfish. It sounds like it goes against everything Christians are supposed to be about. How dare you do something that is meant to help yourself? But of course, we all do this! Every meal you eat is primarily for your own benefit, so that your own body can be strengthened. Every time you visit the gym or complete the Grouse Grind (a popular and gruelling hike in North Vancouver), it is primarily for your benefit. Try to remember that the next time you’re puking Papa John’s pizza on the side of Hollyburn Mountain as your thighs burn with an unholy fire and you glance up to see that you’re only at the ¼ mark.
The point is, when it comes to self-benefit, we’re actually supposed to do this. The Old Testament makes a really big deal about the Sabbath: one day a week where you stop your work and you just rest. Who’s that for? It’s for you! The Pharisees found themselves caught up in the legalism surrounding the Sabbath, which prompted Jesus to remind them that man wasn’t made for the Sabbath, but that the Sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27). God gave us a day of rest for our own benefit, for our own edification! And yes, the point of self-edification is at least partly so that you can be a blessing to others. Blessed to be a blessing! Nevertheless, self-edification is good and important- in the right context.
That’s why Paul says one of the more astounding things in this chapter: in verse 18, he thanks God that he speaks in tongues more than all of the Corinthians. What a statement, right? He’s like the Michael Jordan of tongues-speaking. You think you have something on me, watch out, because I’m about to drop 50 points on you! The point is that Paul is big on speaking in tongues. He has this gift and he exercises it with frequency. Tongues-speaking encourages him and builds him up. For tongues-speakers, the exercise of this gift draws them close to God. Paul thinks that’s great and he wishes that everyone could have this ability. He wishes everyone could experience the benefit of it! Whatever your feeling is about tongues-speaking, you’ve got to listen to what Paul says here. It’s a gift! It’s a good gift from God that accomplishes good things.
4. Where does tongues-speaking fit in the church?
But that raises a crucial question. If tongues-speaking primarily benefits the speaker and is directed towards God, then where does it fit in the gathered church? This is the question that prompts Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians.
A few times in this section, Paul makes a comment about the proper mindset when believers gather together for worship. In verse 5, he says that “the one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be edified.” So that the church– the people of Jesus- may be edified. Verse 12, “since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church.” Those that build up the church. Verse 17, “you are giving thanks well enough, but no one else is edified.” And finally, verse 19, “but in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.”
From those verses, which conclude every major thought Paul has in this section, what would you say should be our concern when we come together as the church? I’d say it’s to build one another up, to build up the people of God, to strengthen the body of Christ. We come together for each other. This has everything to do with what we’ve talked about in chapters 12 and 13. We are members of the body of Christ, given gifts for the common good. We are to love one another with an agape love.
Remember last week, when we talked about eros vs. agape love? Eros love tends to be self-centered. It treats others as a means of satisfying a desire within me. This is how some people treat corporate worship of God. They attend a service for a personal experience. They say, “here we go, God, let’s get the music rolling, let’s get the sappy preacher stories, let’s get some tears flowing, the synth harmonizing with that final sermon point, the fog machine fogging, I want to feel something!” And if that’s the main point of a worship service, then sure, do it at home. Do it wherever and whenever it’s most comfortable and convenient. But our mode of existence as Christians is to be defined by agape. As we said last week, agape is other-oriented. It is a committed decision to lift others up. And if a main purpose of corporate worship is to build others up, to strengthen the church, to exercise this agape love, then that changes our mindset, doesn’t it? Our fundamental desire when we come together is to encourage and strengthen others, including through our gifts. What if you participated in worship on Sundays as much to benefit others as yourself? How would that change things? An outworking of this would even be simply showing up and being present- that’s an encouragement to others! It also, of course, includes using our gifts to serve in various capacities on Sunday morning.
I do want to point out an important caveat here. What Paul is talking about is the use of spiritual gifts. That doesn’t mean there might not be seasons in your life where you desperately need to be built up. Seasons where you need to be fed, to be restored, to be encouraged, and the gathered church is exactly where you will need to be. Somebody once said that the church is not a museum for saints, it’s a hospital for sinners. When we gather, it’s not just for the people who have everything together. It’s for those who know how broken they are and how desperately they need grace and healing! This is where that’s supposed to happen! Praise God for that. Remember 1 Corinthians 12:25-26: the parts of the body should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. However, when you’re exercising spiritual gifts in the context of the church, your aim should be to build others up.
In line with that, Paul’s contention is that speaking in tongues does not generally do this. Let’s look a bit more at the metaphors he uses in verses 6-12. He uses the analogy of musical instruments. For instruments to communicate a song to others, you need to be able to hear the notes. When I was in Grade 7, everyone had to play in the school band, and my best friend and I chose the tuba. Terrible choice. I had to walk to school, uphill both ways in -40 degree weather and driving snow! I’m just kidding of course, the uphill part is a lie. This was Manitoba, so elevation changes didn’t exist! Anyway, the tuba was the biggest and heaviest instrument, which meant it never came home. Never got practiced. Our whole reason in choosing the tuba was to learn the A&W theme song, but we were so bad and had so little ability to play different notes that nobody could discern that this was the song we were trying to play. That’s Paul’s point. He uses the example of a military bugle- its purpose is to wake people up, to get them ready for battle. If nobody can understand the meaning of the call, what’s the point of blowing the trumpet? There’s no effect except annoyance and a grating on the ears.
The other analogy he uses is foreign languages. This is an analogy, so it doesn’t mean that tongues are a foreign human language, as some have suggested. Paul says if I don’t understand what another person is saying, they are a foreigner to me. And here’s a fun little linguistic fact for you. The Greek for foreigner is barbaros. That’s where we get the English word barbarian from. And the reason the Greeks called a foreigner a barbaros is because that’s what they thought foreign languages sounded like- barbarbarbarbar. Seriously! It sounded like gibberish to them! So Paul says when you gather as the church and someone is speaking in tongues, you have now become foreigners to one another. You can’t understand each other. They’re praising God in tongues, and you can’t say “amen”. You’re left out. And Paul doesn’t want that.
The end result of all this is that the only way speaking in tongues should happen publicly in the corporate gathering is if there is someone to interpret those tongues. This gift is simply the divine empowerment to understand the content of the tongues. Remember, tongues are not meaningless, they’re just indecipherable. Someone with this gift can understand the content of tongues and explain that to others. The challenge here, obviously, is that there’s no way to really confirm the accuracy of the interpretation. The other challenge is that you might not know if anybody in the church has the gift of interpretation. That wouldn’t have been an issue in Corinth, where you’d have 25-50 people meeting at a time and you’d know what gifts each other had.
Having said that, the most likely person to interpret might be the person who speaks in tongues. Paul says in verse 13 that if you want to speak in tongues in the gathered assembly, you should also be seeking the gift of interpretation. Regardless, in Paul’s eyes, interpretation is crucial if tongues are exercised in the gathered church instead of one’s own private prayer life. Frankly, I don’t understand why so many in the Pentecostal or charismatic movement ignore this. They discard this pretty simple and straightforward biblical instruction. They pray and speak in tongues publicly and loudly without interpretation and encourage others to do that as well. Why?
Now, could someone speak in tongues in the gathered assembly if it’s quietly, not from a microphone or in a way that overtakes the worship time or distracts others? Could there be tongues-speaking without interpretation in a much smaller group where everyone is on board with it? I think there’s some room for this, because the crucial question is love. Is your exercise of speaking in tongues consistent with your love for others and desire to build them up as you meet with them to worship?
5. Why is it compared to prophecy?
There’s a fifth and final question I’ve got for us this morning, because tongues and interpretation of tongues are not the only gifts mentioned in this section. Prophecy is as well. We’ll focus more on prophecy a bit more next week, but here’s the question for today: how does tongues compare to prophecy?
That’s what Paul does in this section. Numerous times, he compares tongues to prophecy in the context of the gathered church. And in that context (remember, Paul is really big on tongues in a private setting), he has an extremely clear preference. Verse 1: “follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.” Verse 5: “I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues.” Verse 6: “what good will be to you, unless I bring some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or word of instruction?” And finally, once again, verse 19: “I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.”
Clearly, whereas tongues are indecipherable, prophecy is not. Prophecy is a clear word from God spoken into a particular situation that is meant to be understood. Whereas tongues are directed solely towards God (unless an interpretation is provided), prophecy is primarily directed towards others. And whereas tongues are primarily self-edifying, prophecy, according to verse 4, edifies others. Verse 3 says prophecy strengthens, encourages, and comforts people. That’s why Paul equates the desire to prophesy with the way of love. Agape love is the committed decision to lift another person up, right? That’s what prophecy is uniquely able to do. And so, in the context of the gathered church, Paul says that prophecy is actually greater than tongues. He teaches that the one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues. Not because God loves them more or because they have accomplished more or because they have a higher status in the world. Rather, because they are better able to serve and bless others. As Jesus said to his disciples, “whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:43-45)
Conclusion
Let’s conclude by reflecting on that just a bit more. Humans are created in the image of God, right? That’s Genesis 1. We are supposed to reflect Him and show the world what He is like. Which we often don’t. That’s where sin comes in, when we fail to reflect His character.
Jesus is different. He is God in the flesh. The New Testament says that he is the image of the invisible God and the exact representation of His being. And yet, think about Mark 10: the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. The one who in very nature is God, fully God, Almighty King of Kings, came down in the flesh and gave His life for you. He did that despite the fact that you are not exactly at his level, if you know what I mean! Jesus, the image of God and exact representation of His being, came to be a servant and to lift us up.
Put that together, and we get a point we’ve re-iterated throughout this series: you were made for this. You were created for this! You were made to bless others, to serve others, to benefit others. You were made to love! You were not made to have others wait on you hand and foot. You were not made to passively consume! God has given you gifts! He has empowered you so that you can love! Therefore, use your gifts for this purpose. Desire gifts that will enable you to do this even more. Step into your calling towards agape love. Be an active member of the body of Christ. You were made for this.
