I wish I could say that my wife’s first encounter with speaking in tongues was as enjoyable as mine. She was at a Christian meeting where the speaker was teaching on the spiritual gifts. At the end of the talk, the speaker asked for everyone who hadn’t spoken in tongues to raise their hands. My wife wasn’t reared in a Christian home, and the church she attended wasn’t charismatic at all. After raising her hand, she was told along with everyone else who hadn’t experienced tongues to come to the front of the room. Then the speaker had everyone who had spoken in tongues surround them. Trapped, and feeling more uncomfortable with every second, it could only get worse. The speaker said that they would pray for them until they spoke in tongues. No one was ever asked if they wanted to be prayed for. When the prayer started, my wife felt nothing but fear and anger. Eventually, she just muttered something that sounded like tongues so she could escape. From that moment on, she has found it difficult to be open to the gift of tongues.
Unfortunately, I have heard many people’s stories that sound like my wife’s. In some churches today, if you haven’t spoken in tongues, then you are told that you haven’t “received” the Holy Spirit. Some go so far as to say that if you haven’t spoken in tongues, then you aren’t a Christian at all! Is there a secondary experience to salvation where the Holy Spirit releases gifts like tongues? is that what Paul means by “baptism of the Holy Spirit”? are you a lesser Christian if you haven’t experienced it? As we continue with this study, these are questions you need to be asking yourself.
Picking back up in 1 Corinthians, Paul is going to say in chapter 14 what the purpose of tongues is, and why he prefers prophecy in a corporate church service. Verses 4 and 5 give his main thought, “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’s point isn’t that prophecy is a sign that someone is more “special” or “higher”, it has to do with the effect on others. Paul made it clear in chapter 12, that the point of the gifts in a worship service is to help and build up OTHER people, not ourselves. Therefore, if you speak in tongues and others can’t understand you, only you are built up (unless there is translation).
What seems to be happening in Corinth is that they have reverted to pagan practices. Speaking in tongues is well documented in Asian and Greek religion of this time. People would “channel” the spirits or spirit of the god and speak in that heavenly language. It was typically done in a ecstatic state and would be accompanied by loud music, dancing, and alcohol. Women were especially known to be mediums for tongues in paganism. It would appear that a Corinthian worship service is full of people that are praying or shouting out in tongues at the same time, with each individual showing everyone how spiritual they are and only building up themselves. We need to keep this in mind for worship services today. Paul’s command about tongues in public is clear in verses 27-28, “If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God.”
It is not that Paul is discouraging the use of tongues, but he is limiting it in a PUBLIC service. Paul is not talking about someone sitting at their own seat, quietly talking to themselves either. He is talking about someone standing up and loudly speaking in tongues to the whole congregation. Some separate this use of tongues from a private, prayer language. We will get to that in the next post, so be patient. Why have tongues at all in a public service then? Paul answers this by quoting Isaiah 28:11 , “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.” When someone speaks in tongues, it serves as a supernatural sign that pulls the unbelievers in as it did in Acts 2. Once pulled in however, if it isn’t a real language (again like in Acts 2) or there is no interpretation, it doesn’t finish the sign with the evangelistic message that the unbeliever can understand.
Paul is not anti-tongues as he concludes in verses 38-39, “So, my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. But all things should be done decently and in order.” Paul IS against self-centered Christianity and out of control, experientially motivated worship times. That doesn’t mean he is against people displaying emotion through dance and music (which is often loud), but he questions those who only are at corporate worship times to help themselves feel better. He encourages them to strive after the spiritual gifts, but simply remember that the gifts are given to bless others. What about using tongues for your prayer language? Coming up next!
The Bible Nerd 