Hopefully you have been able to read my previous four blogs about this very important topic of speaking in tongues. Having come from a Pentecostal background, I felt it was my duty to try to understand this spiritual gift, and tried to learn all I could about it in the Bible.
My wife held no desire to join me in the ecstatic prayer language I was accustomed to, and so I had to find out why, and show her from the scriptures that my experience was real and biblically sound.
Surely, a closer look at 1 Corinthians 14 would be sufficient to verify this gift as I had come to know it. After all, I knew many morally upright and sincerely devout Christians in Pentecostal circles who had supported and encouraged me in the practice of this “gift”. They couldn’t all be wrong, could they?
The study of the next verses in 1 Corinthians 14 (v. 20-25), where we left off, seems to bring to our attention the reaction of this gift for both the believer and the unbeliever.
In order to fully understand what may have been going on in Corinth, it would be helpful to review the Pentecostal experience as described in Acts 2:1-13. It was truly a miraculous sign that these unlearned disciples were able to be heard in languages that were previously unknown to them.
Some of the witnesses there, probably the believers, were amazed and perplexed (v. 12). But there were also present other witnesses (the unbelievers) who mocked them, saying they were drunk (v. 13). Keep in mind that Paul, when writing to the Corinthians, had only this episode from Acts 2 to inform him about how the gift of tongues (or languages) should be used.
“Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit (however), in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.” 1 Corinthians 14:20 KJV
Paul is asking the Corinthian believers to stop acting like children when it comes to understanding spiritual things. When it comes to worldly sin (malice), it’s alright to be innocent and like babes. But maturity is the ticket when it comes to our spirituality.
“In the law it is written: ‘With [men of] other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet, for all that will they not hear me,’ saith the Lord.” v. 21
This quote is from Isaiah 28:11, 12. It sounds like the language itself won’t make a difference for some people. No matter what language is preached, there will be people who won’t hear what God has to say. The language itself isn’t what’s important; it’s the heart of the person who is reaching out for God, who will hear the message.
“Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to them who believe not: but prophesying [serveth] not for them that believe not, but for them which believe.” v. 22
Tongues, we must assume meaning actual languages, were used in a miraculous fashion, as seen in Acts, chapter 2. They got the attention of people, who wouldn’t have otherwise heard them speak in their own language. But prophesying, just another word for preaching, is what is needed by those who are seeking to be Christians. The need for the gift of tongues is evidently not for everybody. But preaching, receiving instruction in righteousness, would always be needed by God’s people.
“If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in [those that are] unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?” v. 23
Perhaps Paul was trying to avert what happened at the first Pentecost experience years earlier (Acts 2:13), when they were mocked by visitors and accused of being drunk with wine. There were true believers who were blessed, but the effect we have on those outside the church is evidently important to Paul, when it came to the Corinthian church.
Paul is describing a totally unorganized situation there, with everyone speaking different languages, and little interpretation going on. They have gathered to have church fellowship, but their meetings end up with them missing an opportunity to preach (or prophesy) to unbelievers, who may be in attendance that day. Instead, they go away shaking their heads and thinking these people are going out of their minds.
“But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes in, he is convinced by all, he is convicted by all.” v. 24
The emphasis, as Paul has stated previously, is on prophecy. This term not only refers to predictions about the future, but can also mean preaching, or giving instructions in religious matters. Paul is hopeful that when clearly-communicated preaching is evident in a church, unbelievers will have the opportunity to be convicted and saved.
This can result in the church growing, not only in numbers, but in spiritual understanding. This is what edification of the church is all about, and for what tongues were originally intended.
“And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on [his] face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.” v. 25
If the gospel is manifest in the manner God has designed, He will speak to the hearts of unbelievers and reveal things that only they would know about themselves, and this would soften them to the point of falling down in prayer and giving their life to Jesus.
The last passage in Corinthians, which we’ll look at next week, sounds like a church manual. Paul is very specific in ways that the church should and shouldn’t conduct its meetings. Order is key to having a haven for sinners, where the gospel can be most effectively shared with those in the family of God and with those in the community.
I hope also to explain more fully in future blogs the difference between glossolalia, which first became popular in the early 1800s, and the spiritual gift of tongues as experienced in the church of Paul’s day. This became more and more apparent to me, as I reached the end of my examination of 1 Corinthians 14.
Many other scriptural references were helpful to me in reaching my conclusions. I have become convicted about the deceptive quality of speaking in “tongues”, and am grateful God has shown me a better way to have a close relationship with Him.
Scott Holder, a truck driver in Lincoln, NE, has a passion for sharing the truth of God’s Word. He regularly journals his devotional discoveries, of which there are many, since he married and became an Adventist in 1980.
