WWUTT 1602 One Who Speaks in a Tongue (1 Corinthians 14:2-3)

Many people think that God will grant them a private prayer language. Speaking words that nobody else can understand, but just between you and God. And they will call this speaking in tongues. But is it really when we understand the text?

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's Word that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will. For questions and comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Reading 1 Corinthians 14 on Tongues and Prophecy

Thank you, Becky. We pick up our study of 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Yesterday, I read through the entire chapter. Today, I'm going to begin by reading through just the first nine verses. This is out of the Legacy Standard Bible the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth.

Pursue love, yet earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God. For no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries.

But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and encouragement. One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but one who prophesies edifies the church. But I wish that you all spoke in tongues, even more so that you would prophesy.

And greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he translates so that the church may receive edification. But now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching?

Yet even lifeless things, either flute or harp, in producing a sound, if they do not produce a distinction in the tones, how will it be known what is played on the flute or on the harp? For if the trumpet produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle?

So also you, unless you utter by the tongue a word that is clear, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air. I'd like to take you back a few years, seven years to be precise, to the beginning of when we understand the text.

It was in 2015 that I began this program, the podcast in particular, the Bible Teaching Podcast. Still kind of trying to feel things out, figure out exactly how I wanted to do things. I believe I was doing Monday through Thursday in a particular book, and then Friday was a summary of everything we'd looked at during the week.

Then I changed that up and did a Q &A. I was trying to answer a question with every program. At the time, I wasn't receiving a whole lot of emails. So then I switched it to doing a Q &A at the end of the week.

That would be on Friday. And then, I think about a year in or something like that, we added the Old Testament study on Thursday. So we changed the Thursday study to Old Testament. I was leading an Old Testament study out of my home at the time, so that became easy.

Whatever I was teaching in my home, that was the same prep I was doing for the podcast. So it became easy to kind of put the two of those together. At the time, though, that I started, when I was answering those questions, when I would do a question every day, I'd do like 15 minutes of a Bible lesson, and then I'd save five minutes at the end to respond to an email of some kind.

At the time, I was a continuous, meaning that I still believed that the apostolic gifts were in use. Now, it wasn't that I had ever practiced them. I never thought that I healed anybody. I certainly didn't believe that I had any new revelation from God, and I strongly discouraged that, though I was kind of a partial continuous.

I strongly discouraged that anybody would claim to have a new vision from God. But if they got something from God where they, you know, thought that they needed to be encouraging of somebody, who was I to disagree with that?

I was also not a person who tried to ever speak in tongues. I never even attempted it. But when a person muttered, you know, did the little muttering prayers, you know what I'm talking about, and they'll say that speaking in tongues?

When somebody did that, and they claimed to be full of the Spirit, who was I to say that that was wrong? Like, according to what I read in 1 Corinthians 14, that this all seems to be very affirming of that, even having a kind of private prayer language with God.

He edifies himself. That's what Paul says here in chapter 14. Paul desires that they would rather prophesy so that they could edify the whole church. But what would be wrong with that person having a gift of tongues?

Even later on in chapter 14, Paul says that if a person has a word in tongues, but there's not a translator, then they just need to keep to themselves. They speak between themselves and God. So that's kind of like the private prayer language thing, right?

That was what I believed. That was seven years ago. I actually had a conversation with Todd Friel about this. He was surprised to find out that I was of that kind of thinking, of that theology. Didn't really try to persuade me out of it, though.

He just said in his own way that he disagreed. It was a friend of mine who helped me come up with the name of the program when we understand the text. We brainstormed about this in his living room. I was hanging out with him in Indiana.

He had moved from Kansas, was living in Indiana now, and he took me. We spent about three hours going through the scriptures, and he took me from Acts to 1 Corinthians. I was defending my position based on 1 Corinthians 14.

Again, it was still this kind of a position where it was like, if somebody has a private prayer language, who am I to say that that's wrong? They're speaking in tongues. That's what Paul is talking about in chapter 14.

This friend of mine, his name is Joe, he said to me, your understanding of tongues is wrong. You're coming to this, you're reading in 1 Corinthians 14 your own idea of what tongues is, and you're imposing that onto the text.

So we went all the way back to the book of Acts and came to an understanding of tongues from there. And then everywhere else it appears in the New Testament, it's with the understanding of what tongues is called as the Spirit grants it from the book of Acts, from the Acts of the Apostles.

So, like I said, I spent several hours with my friend. He took me through the text and helped me understand this. And after that conversation was over, I was no longer a continuous. I no longer believed that the thing that we call speaking in tongues, the little muttering gibberish or nonsense, that's very clearly not speaking in tongues.

Whenever we read about it in scripture, we're talking about actual known human languages. And we'll go to the book of Acts together and talk about this here in just a moment. So at the time, back in 2015, when I was responding to those questions that we get emailed in, I remember getting one about speaking in tongues.

And I responded to that question with the continuous theology that I had at that particular time. I came back to the question again months later. I want to say this was in April of 2016. I believe that was about the time frame of when I had changed my mind on this.

So it was about April, in the spring of 2016, I answered that same question again. I went back to the emails, found the same question, brought it back up, answered it again, but a different way. Because I had a new understanding now.

My thinking had been corrected on what we understand tongues to be according to how scripture defines it, how scripture defines it. So let's consider this together here. Chapter 14, verse 2. For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God.

For no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries. Now this is a verse, just this verse by itself. This is a verse that many take to mean that you can have a private prayer language. And that private prayer language is speaking in tongues, is what scripture calls speaking in tongues.

It's that gibberish thing that some people will do when they pray. They're speaking nonsense. It doesn't make sense to anybody. But maybe it's the sort of a thing where their spirit just really yearns for God.

They can't think of anything to say. So in that yearning earnestness for God, what comes out of their mouth is just nonsense. However, the spirit of that person is still really truly for God. So God has granted to them some sort of heavenly utterance.

Remember back to chapter 13, if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels. Paul is being hyperbolic there, but people will take that verse, chapter 13, verse 1. And they will say, see, this is the heavenly language.

It's like the tongues of angels. So they'll say, God has granted me this utterance that I may communicate with the Lord. And nobody else can know what it is that I'm saying. It's private. It's between me and God.

But I'm edified by this. That's not speaking in tongues. Even you are not edified by that speaking gibberish thing that some people do when they pray. Pagans do this. So it is not unique to Christianity.

It's nothing miraculous. It is not filled with the spirit. It is entirely of the flesh. It is a person with a certain yearning or drive within their own person. Not the spirit of God, just within their own person.

This desire to want to have some sort of a spiritual experience. And then they start this muttering thing. It comes from the flesh. It is not granted by the Holy Spirit. Once again, there are pagans that do this.

And those pagans that will see Christians, charismatic Christians doing it, do not think that the Holy Spirit of God is coming to them. They might think it's a spiritualness of some kind because they say that they have it too.

Yeah, sure. My spirits will manifest tongues for me. And then they speak their gibberish nonsense. This is happening all over the world in all different kinds of religions. Therefore, this proclamation of this utterance in prayer cannot be unique to Christianity.

And it is not from the Holy Spirit of God. There's nothing miraculous or nothing supernatural about it at all. So, what is Paul saying then in verse 2 when he says, One who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God.

What was going on in the church in Corinth is that you would have certain people that would say things in a foreign language. And some of them were pretending. Again, at the beginning of the chapter, verse 1, Pursue love, yet earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.

So, don't just put on a front making it look like that you have some sort of a spiritual gift. Actually desire the spiritual gifts, the true spiritual gifts. So, a person there in the church in Corinth may speak a foreign language.

And that foreign language is not beneficial to anybody. Maybe they've memorized phrases in another language. Maybe they are actually well-versed in that other language. But when they speak or they prophesy in the church in Corinth in that language, it makes them look like they're filled with the Holy Spirit.

And Paul says, One who does that, one who speaks in a tongue, is not actually benefiting the church. So, it cannot come from the Holy Spirit. Because what have we read? Once again, back in chapter 12, the Holy Spirit grants these spiritual gifts for the purpose of building up the body.

For the purpose of edifying the saints, the church. So, if a person is speaking in a tongue and only they know what they're saying, but the rest of the church is not, it can't be from the Holy Spirit.

Because it is not blessing or benefiting anybody. Even if you have a circumstance where a person is proclaiming an actual known tongue in a human language. One who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men.

They speak to God. For no one understands. But in his spirit, he speaks mysteries. So, let's say that this speaking in tongues that this person is doing in front of the church, let's say it is actually granted to him by the Spirit.

Well, then he's still speaking to nobody but God. And in his spirit, he speaks mysteries. Paul makes a distinction between the ability to speak in tongues and the ability to interpret. And they're not the same.

A person who is speaking in a tongue does not necessarily know what it is that they are saying. It's somebody else that comes along who is given the gift of interpretation that is able to say what it is that that person means.

Hence, why we have a little bit later on, this gift of speaking in tongues, a person not understanding what's being said, another one comes along and interprets. And Paul says if there's not an interpreter, then he needs to sit down and just be with himself and the Lord.

Because there's no way that that can bless or benefit anybody else if the people cannot know what it is that person is saying in a tongue. So, one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men. He's not edifying the church.

It's only between him and God. For no one understands. But in his spirit, he speaks mysteries. Verse 3, but one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and encouragement. Again, we're talking about not necessarily new revelation that comes from God, but even that revelation that's been given from the apostles, by God, through his apostles, proclaiming the things that Jesus taught, proclaiming even those things that have yet to come, like Paul talking to the church in Thessalonica about the return of Christ, or the revelation that had been given to John a little bit later on.

These things that become proclaimed to the church are therefore edifying to the church and building up. This is prophesying. It is prophesying that which God has given through his prophets and apostles.

One who prophesies speaks to men. For what purpose? For edifying. For exhortation. Calling to action. For encouragement. That we may be emboldened and confident, even in these present days, that Christ is with us and he is working.

That's what we come to the knowledge of when we hear the word of God proclaimed. Not through new revelation, but that which God has revealed through his apostles and prophets. And we have that full revelation right here in the Bible.

What we are reading is complete. It's done. We don't need anything more. We don't need anything added to this. So a person who comes claiming that they have new revelation from God, if it agrees with the Bible, it's needless.

If it contradicts the Bible, then it's wrong. So, therefore, this is our completed revelation. This is the revelation that we have from God, what we're reading here in the Bible. Now, let me jump back.

I'm kind of jumping ahead a little bit here. Let me go back to verse 2. How do we understand that speaking in tongues is only known languages? It's not gibberish. It's known languages. I said I'd walk through Acts with you in this.

So let's do that here in these last few minutes that we have of this episode. There are only three occasions in the book of Acts where we observe speaking in tongues in the narrative. You probably don't think about it coming up that infrequently.

But, nonetheless, only three occasions. The first, you surely know, it's at Pentecost. The disciples going into Jerusalem and proclaiming the gospel in the languages of the people that are there. Everybody's able to understand the gospel as it is proclaimed to them because the apostles are speaking in everybody's own tongue.

You even have a list of the people who are there. It says in Acts 2 .7,. And the people were amazed and astonished, saying, Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language?

Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.

There you have it proclaimed. Exactly. In plain language. That the tongues that the apostles were speaking was not gibberish. They were actual known languages. And even the nations represented at Pentecost there listed for us in Acts 2.

So that's the first occasion that we see speaking in tongues. What is the next occasion? The next one comes up at the house of Cornelius in Acts chapter 10. So Peter goes there after a vision from the Lord.

He goes to Cornelius, the house of a centurion, and he preaches the gospel there. And after he proclaims the gospel, while Peter was saying these things, this is Acts 10 .44. He speaks to them about the Christ who died on the cross, rose again from the grave.

To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. That's verse 43. Verse 44. Peter was still speaking when the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard.

And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed. So you have some Jews who had become Christians who came with Peter. They're amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles.

They hadn't seen this yet. They had only seen the Holy Spirit come upon Jews who were believers in Christ. They had not yet seen the Holy Spirit come upon Gentiles. So they were hearing them. Verse 46.

They were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. What is it that the Jews there are observing? They're observing exactly what they saw at Pentecost. In Acts chapter 2 with the Holy Spirit coming upon the apostles and they were proclaiming the gospel in known human languages.

So the very same miracle that was done at Pentecost is now being done among Gentiles. At Pentecost it was among Jews. At the house of Cornelius it's among Gentiles. So now these Jews are seeing the Holy Spirit poured out upon Gentiles and they too are speaking in tongues and extolling God.

And then Peter declared verse 47. Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who received the Holy Spirit just as we have? There's no reason for us to believe that what the kind of tongues we're reading about in Acts 10 is anything other than known human languages.

Just as we saw in Acts 2. The same gifting of the Holy Spirit at the beginning of the book is now the gifting of the Holy Spirit that we see for Gentiles in chapter 10. So there's the second occasion of speaking in tongues in the book of Acts.

Where's the third? The third one is in Acts 19. And this is when the apostle Paul shared the gospel with some men at Ephesus. Acts 19 beginning in verse 1. It happened that while Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus.

There he found some disciples and he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said, no, we've not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. And he said, into what then were you baptized?

And they said into John's baptism. And Paul said, John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him. That is Jesus. And on hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. There were about 12 men in all. And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.

But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of tyrannous.

This continued for two years so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. That's the first 10 verses there of Acts chapter 19. So what is meant here by these men speaking in tongues?

Paul had led some men to Christ, 12 men in all. They began speaking in tongues and prophesying.

Why?

Because Paul is now going to go to Ephesus and preach the gospel. And these men are going to be with him, proclaiming the gospel in the other known languages that were being represented there in Ephesus, a major port city where a lot of different people from a lot of different nations came in, speaking multiple different kinds of languages.

And here the Holy Spirit has come upon them so that when they reason in the hall of tyrannous and around that area for two years, they're proclaiming the gospel in languages that people can hear and understand their own language, the gospel proclaimed.

Those are the three occasions that we have speaking in tongues in the book of Acts. And in all three occasions, it's only known languages. There's no reason to think that it's anything other than that.

When we pray, we should not be looking for reasons to speak nonsense in our prayers. Jesus taught us to pray clear prayers. That's the Lord's prayer. Every prayer that Jesus prayed was a prayer that his disciples understood.

He didn't have a private language between him and the heavenly father. And so we should not be striving for one either. Even in our prayers, speak words that have been guided by God's word. Our mind, our tongues, our hearts, they've been shaped by the word of God.

And so even our prayers then become edifying to us and to other people who overhear when we speak words of sense. And Paul is going to talk more about this as we go on, as we read here in 1 Corinthians 14, which we'll come back to tomorrow.

But once again, verse three. So we've looked at verses two and three today. One who prophesies speaks to men for edification, for exhortation and encouragement. And that's what we should strive for. Speaking words that are honoring of God and edifying to the church.

Prayer, Edification, and the Completed Revelation of Scripture

Heavenly father, thank you for your word. Thank you that we can understand this. It's by your Holy Spirit that we read not only the words that have been inspired by the spirit, but we can understand these words as well and know how they apply to our lives.

So may we live according to these things. We desire to understand the mysteries of God. Reveal to us your truth according to your word. And we desire to be one who prophesies, who speaks words of God to the people of God for edification.

That we may be filled, that we may be fed by the word of God. Exhortation. That we may be driven to action. That we would know how to do what is said according to the word of God. And for encouragement.

That we would know that in these days God is with us. That you are working all things together for our good and for your glory. And we live according to the promise that Jesus reigns and is coming again.

Give us courage to speak this word to a lost and dying world. That they may know the word of Jesus Christ and so live. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.

Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website www .utt .com.

Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word when we understand the text.