(C) The gift of tongues.

(1) What is the gift of tongues?

It is:

(a) A way of speaking to God. For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to me but to God. v2.

(b) An unintelligible language. So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who do not understand or some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind? v23.

(c) An ecstatic language. People who speak in tongues do so to express deep emotion. Paul put it like this: For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. v14. For anyone who speaks in a tongue ...... utters mysteries with his spirit. v2.

Paul annoys me by the rather careless way he uses the word, 'spirit'. It is clear from other New Testament references that a man's spirit includes his mind - knowledge, beliefs, memories and will. What Paul probably means is that someone speaking in tongues is speaking in the spirit apart from the mind. The incoherent utterances are a product of the emotions.

There are times we are so overwhelmed with emotion that we do not speak intelligibly. A mother might well express her intense love for her new born child in baby talk - a nonsense language. I think the same could be true of a young couple head over heels in love. Some of the messages in the Daily Telegraph on Valentine's Day make no sense to me!

It surely is not beyond the bounds of possibility that a Christian may be so overcome with gratitude for God's love and so enraptured of Christ's mercy that the only language they can use is incoherent and unintelligible. Speaking in tongues can be spontaneous when the Holy Spirit gives a believer a special awareness of God's love. I can remember an old friend of mine, Jim Jones, telling us that this happened to him one night as he knelt praying by his bed. Time stood still and he addressed God in ecstatic language for 2 hours. I suspect, too, that speaking in tongues can be born of private contemplation and corporate worship.

Grace Baptists, a Reformed group of Christians to whom I belong, do not believe that the Holy Spirit still imparts the gift of tongues to believers. However, I have occasionally been in a meeting dominated by Grace Baptists where something very akin to speaking in tongues occurs. It is usually a fervent prayer meeting where the Holy Spirit has stirred the hearts of the participants. All sorts of strange noises accompany the prayers - sighs, groans, ahs, mms, ehs - all sorts of miscellaneous grunts. As the meeting gets more and more emotionally charged so the frequency and volume of the strange noises increases. This is not a bad thing! Afterwards folk are very uplifted and speak of the wonderful spirit of prayer that existed.

(2) The benefits of this gift.

Speaking in tongues does bring benefits. Paul wrote: I would like everyone of you to speak in tongues.... . v4. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than any of you. v18. The ability to communicate with God in this way builds up the individual believer. He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself. v4.

It is good to love and to express it. A mother delights in cooing over her baby. A lover enjoys whispering sweet nothings in his darling's ear. So, the ability to express adoration in an intense, highly emotional way undoubtedly builds up the believer. It imparts confidence, satisfaction and great pleasure. That is why speaking in tongues was a sort after gift. It is also why it seems unlikely that the Holy Spirit would discontinue bestowing this ability today. Perhaps, some of us should desire it more!

(3) A gift that should not be exercised in public worship.

(a) Speaking in tongues was a much prized gift at Corinth. People with the ability wanted to show it off and spoke, prayed and sang in tongues. Ecstatic utterances were obviously otherworldly or spiritual and as a consequence those blessed with the gift were afforded special status. They became special, elite Christians! This explains why Paul spent so much time dealing with the practice.

This tendency to grade Christians continues to this day! Many leaders of charismatic churches insist that speaking in tongues is the only genuine evidence of being baptised by the Spirit. Those who have not been baptised with the Spirit are not grade A Christians. However, some Reformed groups are no better. They grade Christians on the orthodoxy of their doctrine and deny fellowship to dissidents who are thereby categorised as defective goods. Jesus teaches us how to identify a genuine believer: "By their fruits you will recognise them." Mt7v20. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. Jn14v21.

The tremendous emphasis placed on tongues must have tempted some Christians at Corinth to simulate the gift. It is not difficult to do. Surprisingly, Paul did not suggest that this was happening. Doubtless, he felt he had no need to do so as he was going to advise the Corinthians to exercise the gift in private. Paul gave the Christians at Corinth the benefit of the doubt; perhaps, we should, too, especially when individuals speak in tongues for their own edification in the way that the apostle suggested.

(b) Speaking in tongues should only be used in public worship if interpreted. For this reason anyone who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret what he says. v13.

It is easy to be sceptical of this procedure. It seems a very inefficient way to communicate. What is the point of speaking in tongues? Why not just give the message in intelligible language? This is eventually what happens anyway. The interpretation must be compatible with what speaking with tongues is - a language of the heart. Imagine a mother talking to her baby: "Ishy wishy, ishy wishy, ishy wishy, tick, tick, ticklums." If you asked the mother to interpret she might say something like: "He's so lovely - I adore it when he gurgles with pleasure. It is wonderful to see him happy. He has such a sweet, little tummy. Watch how he laughs." The mother will not give a lecture on child psychology.

If speaking with tongues is the language of love interpretations should reflect this. You would expect the person exercising the gift to describe what prompted their intense devotion - what it was about God or the Lord Jesus that stirred their heart. If the interpretation involved something else I would doubt it! A mini sermon or close reasoning is not the product of the heart but the mind.

(c) Why speaking in tongues should not occur in public worship.

(I) Speaking in tongues does not build up the church. Paul wrote: Now, brothers, if I come to you and speak in tongues, what good will I be to you. v6. Tongues do not benefit other church members because they are unintelligible. Paul emphasises this point by referring to:
• Playing notes at random on the harp, flute and trumpet. They convey nothing and will be ignored as meaningless.
• Visiting a foreign country and not knowing the language. It will be impossible to understand what the barbarians are saying. It is just all ba ba, ba ba, - hence barbarian, the word Paul actually uses.

(II) Speaking in tongues is not done with the intellect. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind. vs14and15.

It will surely bring more benefit to ourselves if both the mind and emotions are involved in our praying, singing and speaking. It is good to articulate what we feel. It will certainly benefit others. Paul is emphatic about this: If you are praising God with your spirit, how can one who finds himself among those who do not understand say, "Amen" to your thanksgiving, since he does not know what you are saying? You may be giving thanks well enough, but the other man is not edified. vs16and17.

It is our minds that allow us to speak intelligibly and communicate with others. One of the greatest sorrows of living with someone suffering from dementia is that communication becomes impossible. We are charmed by a little child's strange experimental speech; it is not a pleasant thing in an adult.

Paul told the Corinthians: But in church I would rather speak 5 intelligible words to instruct others than 10000 words in a tongue. v19. Strong stuff! So, too, was this sharp reproof: Brothers stop thinking like children. v20. Paul urged the Christians at Corinth to grow up!

Some lessons:

• For the charismatics. Some need to grow up and stop showing off their gift of speaking in tongues in public as though it was a new toy.

• All believers should use their intellect to think deeply about Christian truth. There is a lot of careless, sloppy, incoherent thinking by those who misuse Scripture. The times I have heard the words, 'eternal damnation,' used to signify everlasting torments when they actually mean, 'ultimate judgement.' I have endured on numerous occasions preachers saying, "Hell is a real place." I feel like screaming!! Well, Gehenna was a real place - the rubbish dump of Jerusalem. Is that the real place the unrepentant wicked eventually end up? Surely, Jesus was teaching that the unrepentant enemies of God would be treated like the rubbish in the Valley of Hinnon and destroyed.

  Wouldn't it be wonderful if every time we attended church we learned something new. If our teacher, to use the words of Jesus, was: "Like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old." Mt13v52.

(III) Speaking in tongues is no help to non-Christians.

Paul illustrated this in three ways:

• He quoted Is28v11:
  "Through men of strange
  tongues
  and through the lips of
  foreigners
  I will speak to this people,
  but even then they will not
  listen to me."
  says the Lord.

  I would point out, as I have done on several occasions, that Paul tends to quote Old Testament passages from memory. He never manages to be quite accurate! So much for the inerrancy of Scripture! However, it makes no difference to the point Paul is making. Apparently, Isaiah witnessed to drunken priests and false prophets who mocked him in nonsense language: "Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, a little here, a little there." Is28v10. Young children still do this kind of thing! God reacted by telling the mockers that a day would come in captivity when he would speak to his people through the foreign lips and strange tongue of their conquerors. This language would be truly meaningless to them: "Sav lasav, sav lasav, kav lakav, kav lakav."

  Paul was making the point that unintelligible language does not enlighten.

• A statement follows in the NIV that makes no sense: Tongues then, are a sign, not for believers, but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is for believers, not for unbelievers. v22.

  This does not harmonise with what comes before or after. It contradicts the point Paul is trying to make.

  In all probability Paul quoted what the Corinthians said about speaking in tongues as a rhetorical question: Are tongues then a sign, not for believers, but for unbelievers and prophecy for believers, not for unbelievers? (After L. Morris and B.C. Johanson.)

• Finally Paul made it clear that speaking in tongues was a terrible witness to interested, but still unbelieving, visitors. Paul wrote caustically: They will think you are out of your minds. v24. What a contrast to what happened in churches where prophecy was regularly practised - enquirers fall down and worship God, exclaiming, "God is really among you!" v25.

(IV) Lessons

• Practices likely to bewilder unbelievers should be purged from our churches.

• Christian worshippers should avoid what is off putting: long and boring sermons, passionless preaching, expositions with a lot of irrelevant content, old fashioned language, religious jargon, messages delivered in a preachy voice, dirge like hymn singing, uncomfortable seating, cold premises and a frigid atmosphere.

• Preachers and teachers should do their very best to make the message clear and comprehensible. It helps to use a version of the Bible in modern English, to use words people understand, to employ illustrations the hearer can relate to, to speak from experience and to show how Scripture applies to the day and age in which we live.

(1) Speaking in tongues should be done in private. All those Christians who do so in public worship are disobeying the clear and emphatic teaching of Scripture. However, it is possible that those of us who never speak in tongues do not enjoy God enough. A Christian's love for Jesus is more likely to be lukewarm than ecstatic.

(2) Our services should build up, encourage and comfort the believer. They would probably do so better if they were less formal and more spontaneous with people both speaking from experience and addressing specific needs of the church.

(3) Our services should convey the reality of Christian experience to visitors. Enquirers should be able to sense the very presence of God in the church. Their testimony should be: "God is really among you." .

My experience is very limited but in my own church this often happens at funerals. The leader conducting a funeral service prophesies. He does address a real and present need. Christians are strengthened, encouraged and comforted at the funeral of one of their own. Unbelievers are moved, deeply touched and so stirred that the secret of their hearts are laid bare. In recent years the only growth my church has known has been through folk attending regularly following a funeral.

Many, many fellowships are crying out for more prophecy.