Inigo Montoya Series: Tongues of Angels

The Misuse of 1 Corinthians 13:1 to Support Tongues of Angels

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, 1 Corinthians 13, verse one. That tongues of angels there, that's talking about praying in an angelic tongue. That's the gift of praying in tongues. So when you pray in tongues, you're praying in the tongues of angels, right?

Inconceivable!

You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.

1 Corinthians 13, verse one. You keep using that verse. I do not think it means what you think it means. Hello, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Justin Peters. I hope you and your family are doing well today.

I want to thank you very much for watching this video. This is one of the go-to texts for charismatics to support their belief that when you pray in tongues, that is praying in the tongues of angels.

And it's almost like they understand that they're not praying in any human language because when charismatics pray in tongue, they're just speaking gibberish. And so they say, well, it's because we're praying in the tongues of angels.

That's the language that angels pray in. But that's not at all what Paul here is saying in 1 Corinthians 13, verse one. First, just a little bit of background information. The apostle Paul came to the city of Corinth on his second missionary journey.

Paul’s Ministry in Corinth and the Church’s Pagan Background

And there he preached the gospel. A number of people were saved and they were all saved out of paganism, Apollinarian Dionysian cults. They were converted. And Paul started a church there in Corinth. He spent about a year and a half, 18 months, with these new believers, trying to disciple them and grow them up in their maturity and planted a church.

And when he felt like they had reached a level of spiritual maturity sufficient enough to carry things on in his absence, Paul then left Corinth and went to other destinations to preach the gospel. Well, Paul may have left a little bit too soon because not long after his departure, there were all kinds of sin issues that crept into the church, gross immorality.

And part of the problem, not the totality, but part of the problem in Corinth was that these people who had been saved out of paganism, they were holding on to some of the vestiges of that and incorporating it into their worship of Christ in the church of Corinth.

And part of this pagan worship was speaking in unintelligible, ecstatic, gibberish, nonsense. And they were confusing that with the genuine gift of tongues better said the gift of languages. And so when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, he was writing this letter as a corrective to many of the abuses that were going on in the church of Corinth.

Love, Not Spiritual Gifts, Is the Point of 1 Corinthians 13

And so I want us to look at 1 Corinthians 13, the first three verses here a little bit more in depth. For context, Paul says, if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become as a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

You see, the Corinthians had become very arrogant in their exercise of the spiritual gifts. Well, I'm more spiritual than you are because I speak in tongues more than you do, or I have the gift of healing more strongly than do you.

Look at me, you see how spiritual I am. And because of this spiritual arrogance, that was the open door to all kinds of sin and immorality that just about destroyed the church from the inside out. And so when we read 1 Corinthians, we need to understand that we are reading in large part, a letter of correction to the church of Corinth.

And Paul is saying here, if you do not have love, it doesn't matter what you think you know or what you think you can do. And then Paul goes on to use hyperbole. In fact, here in verse one, when he speaks of the tongues of angels, that in and of itself is hyperbolic.

He's using hyperbole, he's exaggerating to make a point. And it becomes very clear when we look at the next couple of verses. Paul goes on to say, if I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge.

Did Paul know all mysteries?

No.

Did he have all knowledge?

No.

You see, he's using hyperbole. He's exaggerating to make a point. He continues. And if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, had Paul ever literally moved a mountain? Had he ever rearranged the topography of Israel?

Of course not, obviously not. He says, but do not have love, I am nothing. And Paul says, and if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, had Paul done this?

No.

And if I surrender my body to be burned, had Paul ever surrendered his body to be burned? Obviously not. He was still very much alive writing this letter. But do not have love, it profits me nothing. You see, he is exaggerating to make a point.

He is rebuking the Corinthians. He is saying, look, it doesn't matter what you think you know. It does not matter what you think you can do. If what you know and what you do is not based upon love, it profits you nothing.

And dear friends, what was true of the Corinthians is true of us today. It does not matter what we think we know. It does not matter what we think we do. If what we know and what we do is not built upon a foundation of love, and I'm not talking about a sappy love, not a touchy-feely, kumbaya, let's all hug kind of love.

I'm talking about a love that is built upon a foundation of sound doctrine. If what we know and what we do is not built upon that, then it profits us nothing. That's what Paul was saying. He was saying, look, even if I could speak with the tongues, the languages of men, even if I could speak in any foreign language, even if I could speak with the tongues of angels, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

He was exaggerating to make a point. And let me bring your attention to this as well. Look back at verse one. When Paul says, but do not have love, I have become as a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal, that was very deliberate on the Apostle Paul's part because as I said earlier, these Corinthians had been saved out of paganism, Apollinarian, Dionysian cults.

Do you know what part of their pagan worship experience was? It was speaking in this unintelligible ecstatic gibberish, which they began to do in heightened, frenzied states of emotion. They would whip themselves up into these heightened emotional states.

And part of what they used to help whip themselves up into these frenzied emotional states in which they began to speak in unintelligible ecstatic gibberish were noisy gongs and clanging cymbals. And so when Paul wrote that to them and when the Corinthians read that, that would have been a ouch moment.

They would have known exactly what Paul was saying. They would have known exactly the reference. This was a very pointed and very deliberate corrective to them. So dear friends, 1 Corinthians 13, verse one simply cannot be used to support speaking in some unintelligible ecstatic gibberish that you call tongues and you think that's the tongues of angels.

That's not at all what Paul is talking about. And when you understand the context, that becomes very clear. And by the way, there is no example anywhere in scripture of anyone praying to God in anything other than a known human language.

Closing Summary and Benediction

All right.

Thank you very much, dear ones. I hope that this video has been helpful for you. Until our next time together, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit.

Be with you all.