"Speaking in Tongues" Season Three/Episode Twenty Four (1 Corinthians 14:1-19)

Episode Synopsis:

Speaking in tongues was causing chaos in the Corinthian church.  Tongue-speakers were speaking at the same time, and their tongues were not always interpreted as required by Paul.  Some acted as though tongues was the greatest of the gifts of the Spirit and were lording it over others who did not possess the gift.  Paul is also writing to correct the misguided (and pagan notion) that tongue-speaking was the manifestation of ecstatic religious experiences from which tongues spontaneously came forth.  Much of what he has written in chapters 12-14 has been to correct false Corinthian notions about the “spiritual,” informing the Corinthians that gifts of the Holy Spirit are not for the benefit of the recipient, but for the strengthening of the church.  These gifts enabled Christians to love one another, and equip officers and others in the church for the building up of the body of Christ.  Chapter 14 is the conclusion to Paul’s extended instructions about these matters.

But what exactly is “speaking in tongues?”  Is it a language known or unknown to the speaker?  Is it a heavenly or angelic language?  Paul disabused the Corinthians of that notion in chapter 13.  Is it some sort of ecstatic speech?  Are tongues an untranslatable utterance (divine gibberish) which must be interpreted by someone with the Spirit enabled gift of interpretation?  Given the inability of commentators across time to agree on just what exactly Paul is describing, we cannot be certain as to how the gift operated in the Corinthian church–especially since tongue speaking ceased in the churches by the mid-second century.  There are plausible theories, but I am not confident anyone really knows.  But then Paul does say, “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.  Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.”  So the matter cannot be dismissed.

What we can say for sure is that when someone has a private, subjective, religious experience and speaks forth an ecstatic utterance, that person cannot then appeal to the New Testament and claim that what they are doing is what Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 14.  Nor can they claim that their experience is how we ought to practice tongue-speaking today.  Instead, we work from biblical teaching about tongues to explain what tongue-speaking is and how we ought to utilize the gift in both public and private settings.  Paul assumes the Corinthians know what tongues is–they’ve seen it.  But since he does not explain in detail what this gift is, we should be cautious and charitable in our assessments. 

For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/