The Place of the Spiritual Gift of Tongues in Church
You can understand the circumstances by reading the words. Examples include Leviticus 18.1-30, about what the peoples of The Promised Land were doing that God said not to do; Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7, where He said what God meant and not what the Pharisees were teaching and doing; and Paul’s contrast of prophecy and tongues in 1 Corinthians 14.1-40. God, Jesus, and Paul warned the hearers and readers not to do what seemed to be acceptable. God must be the absolute comparison. The Corinthian believers had come from a community worshipping Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of sex, that included the frenzied participants saying unintelligible words, supposedly to a spirit, during their intercourse. The place in worship of the supernatural must have been their question to Paul. Read the chapter and think about the points made below. Numbered ‘verses’ are from 1 Corinthians 14.1-40 (AD 55-56).
Twice Paul reminded Corinthians about the nature of God.
- Having just discoursed about the nature of God’s love, Paul begins verse 1 with a command to pursue agape love from the will and not the lesser commitments of love, philo or eros, from emotions. That is, see one another as made in God’s image and, therefore, encourage their pursuit of God, as illustrated in 1 Corinthians 13.4-7.
- In verse 20, Paul repeats his emphasis in 1 Corinthians 13.11 about giving up childish ways to become mature, adult in their thinking leading to doing. Oh, that you, too, would be naive about evil! Remember Proverbs 4.23 because of Proverbs 8.13 and Hosea 14.9.
- God has said you should strive to be like Him; Leviticus 11.44-45. Therefore, verse 1 encourages you to ‘earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy’.
Prophecy is of greater importance than glossolalia (Greek for speaking in an unknown language).
- Paul defines ‘prophecy’ in verse 24-25 as speaking about God for the purposes he lists in verse 3. This combination is the idea God expressed in Jeremiah 1.9-10 and was Paul’s remembrance of Jesus’ instructions to him (Acts 26.16-18).
- Verse 5 tells why prophecy is better than tongues; it builds up the church! See Ephesians 4.13 for Paul’s goal of building persons and 2 Timothy 3.16-17 for his procedure and 1 Corinthians 2.4-5 for his methodology; see Hebrews 4.12-13. Verse 12 redirected the intent of Corinthian believers from unintelligible to intelligible communications, to build up their fellow Christians.
- Verses 6-11 and 13-19 state Paul’s rationale with illustrations. He continues this in verses 22-25. [One curious note is Paul’s apparent distinction of glossolalia from foreign languages, that were, apparently, spoken in Acts 2.5-11. Could this illustrate Matthew 10.19-20?] His foundations for speaking intelligibly in the church are verses 33 and 40.
- So, what is the place of glossolalia? In verse 2-5a and, Paul acknowledges the value of speaking a language to the Holy Spirit. However, verse 27-28 state his only allowance for this in the congregation: someone must interpret. Why? To build up the body by interpreting what the Holy Spirit is instructing. Your spirit communing with God, in glossolalia, is like your child conversing with you; see Job 32.8 and Zechariah 12.1.
- Another interesting note is Paul’s encouragement of ‘two or three prophets speak[ing]’, in verses 29-32, while ‘others weigh what is said’. This may reflect what Paul experienced with approval while among Berean Jews; see Acts 17.11.
Paul used the protocol of Jeremiah 1.9-10 to disarm glossolalia among the Corinthians and to arm them with increasing strength. You, who speak language you cannot understand, do so in your personal worship, but speak clearly among believers to grow their understanding of the things of God.
Praise God!!! Copyright © by Maurice L. Painter, 2014. www.sozoclass.com