Recently there’s been much discussion about the issue of tongues in Southern Baptist life. I know individuals who believe in the gift of tongues and know that they love the Lord and His Word. So with what I write I am not attacking anyone. I only endeavor to summarize the scriptural teaching on this matter.
Recently there’s been much
discussion about the issue of tongues in Southern Baptist life. I know
individuals who believe in the gift of tongues and know that they love the Lord
and His Word. So with what I write I am not attacking anyone. I only endeavor to
summarize the scriptural teaching on this matter.
Primary passages in two books
– Acts and 1 Corinthians – describe the gift of tongues. One resulted in
thousands being saved, the other in confusion and problems in the church.
In Acts 2 the apostles and
about 120 other disciples were gathered in a room near the temple when the Holy
Spirit filled these believers and they began to praise God in other languages.
People had gathered from 15 different provinces, yet each person heard the
words of praise to God spoken in his or her own dialect.
In Acts 10, Cornelius – the
first Gentile convert – had a similar experience but without all the
supernatural manifestations. Several years later in the city of Ephesus the Apostle Paul
met 12 believers in Christ who had been led to the Lord by a follower of John
the Baptist. They had an incomplete understanding of the Gospel, so Paul
instructed them, baptized them and placed his hands upon them. The Holy Spirit
came upon them and they spoke with languages and prophesied (19:6).
Each of these instances
involved individuals speaking in a known language they had not learned. Their
speaking was understood by those who heard them. No evidence is found that
anyone sought or prayed for the gift of speaking in other languages. Every
occurrence was the spontaneous work of the Holy Spirit. The fact that this
phenomenon was not mentioned in all the other great experiences recorded in
Acts shows its lack of importance as an ongoing ministry.
The emphasis in Acts is not
on the gift of tongues, but the filling of the Holy Spirit in believers. That
filling revealed the continuous control that the Holy Spirit exercised over the
disciples so they could witness in power (1:8).
In the 22 books of the New
Testament that follow Acts, only 1 Corinthians mentions tongues. These 22 books
contain 143 chapters, yet only three chapters make any reference to this gift,
and only one chapter treats the subject in detail. Whatever we may deduct from
this, it certainly means that speaking in tongues was not a major factor in the
spread of the Gospel or in the practice of the apostolic church.
Additionally, when Paul
listed the spiritual gifts in Romans 12 and Ephesians 4, he did not mention
speaking in tongues. Believing the Holy Spirit has inspired every word of the
Bible as He spoke through the writers, we must conclude the gift of tongues was
either not a matter of importance, or it was not practiced by the Christians in
Rome, Ephesus
or elsewhere.
In the three chapters in 1
Corinthians several things emerge regarding gifts that need to be noted. No one
is left out. Everyone is given a spiritual gift or gifts. They are not rewards
for spiritual maturity and achievement. It is not the normative experience for
all believers.
Chapter 12 clearly teaches
that the gifts are divinely distributed and work for the good of the entire
body of believers. They are designed to prepare a people to function as a
witnessing community.
Another thing is abundantly
clear in this passage. The abuse of tongues was a problem in the church at Corinth. Care was given
to regulate and restrict the use of tongues in the church and not to encourage
their use. Clearly it teaches that no believer has all the gifts and none of
them are equated with the infilling of the Holy Spirit.
Paul used a distinctive
negative participle in all the questions asked in 1 Corinthians 12:29-30, which
indicates that the answer to each one was “no.” None of these gifts is bestowed
upon all, nor are all bestowed upon any one individual. The great apostle concludes
in verse 31 that the Corinthian believers should “desire the greater gifts. And
I will show you an even better way.” The better way is love, according to
chapter 13.
In chapter 14, Paul provides
restrictions for the use of the gift of tongues and in-depth instruction on how
to correct abuses found in the church. The key is found in the last verse of
this chapter when we read, “But everything must be done decently and in order.”
Paul noted something positive
about the gift of tongues, but each time he did so he followed the positive
with a qualifying statement. For instance, he wrote in verse four that tongues
edifies only the person speaking, but follows that with the better alternative.
It is best, he wrote, to do what builds the body of believers. In verse five he
expressed a desire that all the Corinthian believers should speak with other
languages, but he desired even more for them to prophesy. That is, he wanted
them to expound the Word of God in a language that was understandable. Paul saw
this act of proclaiming the Gospel as being far superior to speaking in other
languages. Though he spoke in languages more than those in Corinth, he wrote that he would rather speak
five words with understanding than 10,000 in another language (14:18-19).
Careful restrictions were
given on the exercise of the gift of tongues in these chapters.
Here are just a few. The gift
of tongues should not be exercised in the presence of unbelievers (14:23). Only
one person at a time is to speak and not more than three in one service, and an
interpreter must always be present (14:27). This must not cause confusion among
believers (14:33). Women are not to speak in tongues at any time in the church
(14:34-35). This was probably because it would be too similar to the temple prostitutes’
ecstatic frenzies as they practiced their pagan, immoral rituals. In no way
does this mean that women cannot teach or speak in church. That issue was
settled in 1 Corinthians 11:3-10 when Paul gave instructions to the women as to
how they were to dress when they prayed or prophesied in the church.
One thing is clear:
pre-occupation with tongues-speaking is childish (14:20). It was a problem with
the immature and carnal Christians in Corinth.
These chapters were not given to recruit people to speak in tongues, but to
correct, control and restrict the use of the gift.
All spiritual gifts are
divinely bestowed by our sovereign God. He can give the gifts as He pleases and
to whom He pleases. No one can “develop” a gift or be “taught” how to exercise
a gift.
This gift must
not be a test of fellowship, but it must be restricted and regulated by
Scripture under the authority of the ministers of the church. It should not be
a reason for disfellowship unless the one practicing the gift uses it in a way
that promotes confusion and disharmony. We must remember that nowhere in
Scripture is anyone commanded to speak in tongues. Gifts are sovereignly
bestowed individually by God. The church must be a ministering church
expressing love as the greatest gift, “the even better way.”