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In Part 1, we looked at how the gift of tongues was given at Pentecost, as well as God’s original purpose for it. Now let’s dig in to what this gift looked like as Christianity spread throughout the world. After giving people in Jerusalem the gospel in the own language, what was God’s purpose for this unique gift?
The purpose of tongues – confirmation
So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed. (Mark 16:19-20)
This is a direct follow-up to Christ’s final words in Mark and His ascension into Heaven. In other words, these “signs that followed” is talking about what Christ said His followers would do through the power of the Holy Spirit. Including tongues.
Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. (Acts 2:43)
As we continue to see, God didn’t just use tongues as a “one and done” event. The apostles spread the gospel by preaching everywhere, and wherever they went they were accompanied by these supernatural signs. What we see in Acts is directly in line with what we see at the end of Mark – the true words of the apostles were being confirmed by them doing things that could only be possible for those who were clearly representatives of the almighty God.
This is important because it helped the Jews get beyond their pride and biases. Remember that these people were confident they understood what it meant to follow God and find salvation in Him. They thought an eternity with God was found in things like sacrifices and keeping the Law. Suddenly some new guys come around and start talking about the Messiah and how He fulfilled the Law for them. They were saying that salvation wasn’t from their good works, but instead from faith in Jesus Christ.
Why should these Jews listen to their words instead of stone them for blasphemy? Why follow this Jesus whom many hadn’t even seen? How could they know these men were truly from God? Because they weren’t just accompanied by truth, but incredible signs. God backed up what they were saying by showing they clearly carried His authority. And for a people who understood the Old Testament, they understood the importance of someone having more than just words to support their claims.
There are some things we must pay attention to when it came to the Holy Spirit granting any sort of miraculous sign. First, miracles and signs were used to authenticate a message (and its messenger). Moses was given signs to demonstrate his authority to Pharoah. Christ performed miracles to authenticate His authority to those around Him. Whenever we’ve seen something like this, it was to prove they represented God, even if their words seemed impossible to believe.
All the people kept silent, and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. (Acts 15:12)
Second, we must recognize that these gifts always seemed to accompany the apostles. Acts and Mark both talk about how these supernatural gifts seemed to follow the apostles. Whether it was the apostles themselves doing it or those around them performing them after being given the Holy Spirit, things like healing, tongues, or prophecy always seemed present where the apostles have had a presence.
With all of that, the Bible seems clear that the supernatural gift of speaking in a language you don’t understand was not only used to give the gospel to people from all nations, but to give authority to the words of those preaching that gospel. So what about Paul’s commands for the use of tongues in the church?
The purpose of tongues – building up the body
Before discussing 1 Corinthians, we need to lay some groundwork for the context of the entire book. We must remember that the Bible isn’t written to us – instead, we are most often eavesdropping on historical conversations and events, then learning about who God is based on what we see there. In the case of Paul’s letters, we’re seeing a man, perfectly inspired by the Holy Spirit, often talking to a group of people who he has interacted with in the past. Again, we’re learning by eavesdropping.
As you read Paul’s letter to the church, one thing becomes abundantly clear – this letter is largely about correcting sin and error within this group of believers. Paul is addressing questions and concerns people have had, and many things he says is an attempt to reorient their thinking toward glorifying God. A theme we see often throughout this particular letter is that the Corinthian church was divided by selfishness and pride, and Paul was calling them to a single unity in Christ. It’s within this context that Paul isn’t teaching them about spiritual gifts, but correcting a much larger issue with how the church was using them.
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. (1 Corinthians 12:4-7)
Paul leads into his discussion about gifts by laying out an important truth – any spiritual gift, supernatural or otherwise, is intended to build up the body of Christ. Whatever gift God gives a person through the indwelling Holy Spirit, He intends for that person to use it to serve others. They aren’t meant to be selfish, lazy, or anxious about using this gift – if God gave it to them, He expects them to be good stewards in using it for their intended purpose.
After spending the bulk of chapter 12 detailing how God uses individual members to form the body of Christ, Paul begins the very famous chapter 13. We’ll dig more into that when we talk about the “tongues of angels,” but one thing in chapter 13 is clear: everything, whether it’s exercising supernatural gifts or being killed for our faith, must be done out of love or it’s done for nothing.
Yet this isn’t some warm fuzzy love, but the kind of love we see throughout the rest of the Bible. It’s a love for Christ above all, a love for His people more than ourselves, both of which create a desire for us to bring God the most glory. In other words, supernatural gifts are to be used sacrificially towards others out of a love for them and the Savior who unites us.
Chapter 14 concludes this call for love, unity, and building up one another when it comes to our gifts. Paul tells the Christians in Corinth that, between prophecy and tongues, they should desire prophecy because it has regular benefit to other believers.
There are, perhaps, a great many kinds of languages in the world, and no kind is without meaning. If then I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be to the one who speaks a barbarian, and the one who speaks will be a barbarian to me. (1 Corinthians 14:10-11)
Tongues, he clarifies, is only useful when there is someone to interpret what’s being said. Without understanding what’s said, there’s no building up of the body. Thus someone with this particular gift may rarely use it because the occasion for it would be less frequent. This continues to reinforce Paul’s point that spiritual gifts aren’t given for our own benefit, but for building up the body of Christ.
Although we don’t know the exact circumstances that led to Paul needing to write all of this, we can look at all the evidence to get a picture of what was happening in this church in Corinth. And when we do that, we may better understand the role of tongues in the church.
As Paul continues to hammer on their need to set aside division and focus on their unity through Christ, Paul spends a lot of ink talking about how spiritual gifts are used to build one another up. So what was likely happening? If Paul’s words are a correction, then it becomes clear that the Corinthian church had spiritual gifts, but was using them sinfully.
Paul’s call to use gifts out of a motivation to love Christ and His people shows that they were using their gifts selfishly. Most likely, these believers were causing further division as people either boasted of their gifts or looked at others with jealousy. They used gifts, but not how God intended for them to be used.
If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two or at the most three, and each in turn, and one must interpret; but if there is no interpreter, he must keep silent in the church; and let him speak to himself and to God. (1 Corinthians 14:27-28)
In chapter 14, Paul even calls for people with the gift of tongues to be silent if there’s no one to interpret. Why? Because those with this gift were likely standing up and speaking in a language that no one in the room understood, and thus they served no benefit. And if the rest of the letter to the Corinthians has taught us one thing, it’s that these people were likely puffing themselves up by speaking with no one to interpret.
So we’ve seen that tongues not only gave authority to the apostles, but it was also meant to be used to build up the body of Christ. There’s one question we should now be asking ourselves: how did tongues specifically accomplish this?
The ultimate purpose of tongues
God isn’t random. When He established tongues as a spiritual gift, He had two things in mind: What it would be, and how it would be used. As Christians, our greatest desire is to be true to God’s word above all else. So regardless of what we’ve experienced, how we feel, or what our church believes, it’s critical that we get our understanding about tongues from our highest source of truth.
So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers; but prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers but to those who believe. Therefore if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad? (1 Corinthians 14:22-23)
Simply put, tongues is an evangelism tool. As we saw in Acts 2, God gave some people the ability to speak in a language that was not there own. As we see further clarified in 1 Corinthians, this gift was only to be used if someone else could understand this language.
So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. (Acts 2:41)
Go read everything that happens in Acts 2. This was the ultimate conclusion of Pentecost, when God allowed people from all nations to hear the gospel in their own language. The major event wasn’t tongues being given, but sinners being saved from judgment.
The gift of tongues builds up the body, but not in the way we often think of it. It builds up the body by ministering directly to those who are still enemies of God, giving a Christian the ability to give unbelievers the good news of Jesus Christ without language acting as a barrier. The gift of tongues was God’s way of reaching those who were lost.
So as we think about tongues today, it’s important to let God’s word be our highest source of understanding. What we see in the Bible may not match how many think of tongues. Yet whatever our experience or church tradition tells us, it’s clear that God’s greatest purpose of tongues is nothing more than a way to tell others about the weight of their sin, their inability to save themselves, and the glorious work of Jesus Christ as their only means of salvation.
Understanding that, there may be some extra questions that seem unanswered:
- What about the “tongues of angels” in 1 Corinthians 13:1?
- What about the mystery tongues in 1 Corinthians 14:2?
- How should we understand those who use tongues in a way not taught in the Bible?
- Are biblically-correct tongues still active today?
Let’s talk about those next time as we keep digging in to God’s word for truth.
