The Work and Person of the Holy Spirit. Pt. 17 Tongues

What will we do with the time God gives to us?

Psalm 90:10-12 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. 
Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Here we are at the beginning of another work week.  Time certainly passes quickly and the Psalmist helps us have a right perspective on these things.  70 years is the normal lifespan and some reach 80 years by reason of strength. 

He is teaching us that we must ask God to "number" our days in order that we might love and serve Jehovah as our life's priority. The word number is an accounting term meaning to tally up how many days or years have gone by when compared to the lifespan of 70-80 years and then to use each individual day to glorify God.

What we have learned about tongues so far

Today I would like to look further into the gift of tongues.  So far, we have seen what it is: an ability to speak gospel truth in a foreign language so that those people can hear from God.  It was administered by the Spirit of God in order to advance the gospel into Gentile nations where multiple languages were spoken. 

We have also seen that tongues are apparently no longer in use since every missionary must learn a foreign language before they head to the mission field. 

Using the scripture as the authoritative guide, we see that tongues was not a special prayer language to use when praying to God. Infinite God already knows and understands every language on the earth and He does not need us to pray in any other language but our own.  It was intelligible speech from a disciple to a person from another country that shared gospel truth in that person's own language. 

Paul spent a lot of time addressing the issue of tongues with the Corinthians.  This gift of the Spirit was mentioned 5 times in the book of Acts.  All other references are found in Paul's letters to Corinth.

In addition to this, Paul has another list of spiritual gifts in the book of Romans that does not mention tongues at all. 

Romans 12:6-8 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; 
Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; 
Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness.
When writing to the church at Ephesus Paul teaches about the resurrection of Christ and how He gave gifts.  There is no mention of tongues in this list.  In this list Christ gave the church: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. 

Ephesians 4:8-12 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. 
(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 
He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) 
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 
For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

We can see that tongues helped spread the gospel truth to people who spoke a different language than what the apostles and disciples could speak.  We see that tongues were manifested when Peter took the gospel to Cornelius at Caesarea.  Tongues was manifested again when Paul arrived at Ephesus and found some disciples who only knew the preaching and baptism of John. 

I think the scripture shows us that tongues were used sparingly by the Spirit of Christ for a period of time when the church was growing and spreading beyond Jerusalem. 

In 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 Paul uses the analogy of the many parts composing our bodies and how the body acts as one unit.  In the text below Paul concludes this with 7 rhetorical questions that demand an answer of "No."  In other words, Paul is telling us that not every believer is a prophet; not every believer can heal someone; not every believer can speak in tongues. 

The apostle then uses the next chapter to explain what true Biblical love looked like and why the Corinthians needed to focus on this rather than sign gifts. 

1 Corinthians 12:27-31 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. 

And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. 
Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? 
Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? 
But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet show I unto you a more excellent way.

1 Corinthians 14 is where Paul expended much labor to help the Corinthians see the gifts of the Spirit and tongues in particular, in the proper context.  Charity or true Godly love comes first.  Then Paul tells them to desire the gift of prophecy rather than tongues. 

The Corinthians were speaking in tongues among themselves and not using the gift in compliance with what we saw in the book of Acts.  The native language that they spoke was Greek.  They apparently were speaking to others in Corinth who only knew the greek language with another language like Syrian or Latin. 

This seems to be what Paul is getting at when he said that no man understood their speech when they spoke in tongues. 

Notice also that the word "unknown" is italicized.  This means that the Translators added this word for clarity but the word is not in the original Greek.  The word "unknown" adds confusion to the gift of tongues because we have demonstrated clearly that tongues is being able to supernaturally speak in a foreign language that you never learned. 

Paul forcefully declares that prophecy edifies the church and they needed this because the New Testament scriptures were not yet complete. 

1 Corinthians 14:1-5 Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy. 

For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries. 
But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. 
He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church. 
I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.

I call your attention to the last verse of this paragraph.  Paul says "I would that ye all spake with tongues.."  I was once given a charismatic tract that had this part of the verse emblazoned on the front page.  The tract then argued that speaking in tongues is required, desirable and necessary for all believers. 

However, putting this fragment of a verse back into its context does not support that position.  Paul made it very clear that prophecy was preferable to speaking in tongues.  The reason goes back to the early church not having a copy of the New Testament in their hands for a number of years. 

Points to Ponder...

• The gift of tongues is speaking gospel truth in a language that you never learned or used before.

• The gift of tongues seems to have limited usage outside of the church at Corinth. 

• The Corinthians were saved out of a pagan background and were prone to seeking out experiences of ecstasy. 

• This led them to seek out the gift of tongues as a manifestation of ecstasy. 

• Paul labored to correct their doctrine and practice with regard to tongues. 

In tomorrow's post we will look into the apostolic teaching to see Paul's correction for the Corinthians. 

Bob