Spiritual Gifts and 1 Corinthians 14
The church in Corinth had many problems: division, immorality, court cases among believers, marriage problems, and the abuse of the Lord’s Supper. Another problem concerned spiritual gifts, particularly the use of the gift of tongues (1 Cor. 14:1–5).
What was the gift of tongues in the book of Acts? Going solely by what these texts say, what kind of languages were being spoken? Acts 2:1–11.
What were the tongues spoken in the church in Corinth? 1 Cor. 14:1–25.
When we apply the principle Scripture interprets Scripture, which means obscure passages are explained by plain ones, we have to conclude that the tongues in 1 Corinthians 14 are of the same nature as the tongues in the book of Acts, especially because the same Greek word glossa is used for tongues in both books. In other words, the evidence is that tongues in both places were the supernatural ability to speak in foreign languages. Some understand the gift to apply also to instances in which a person speaking in one language is understood in another language or languages by those listening. In either case, this undoubtedly rules out the common and popular notion of tongues today, in which people babble in unknown languages.
Also, God works through man's intelligence. Would the Lord, Who warned us against babbling on as the heathen do (Matt. 6:7, NEB), inspire unknown noises? In 1 Corinthians 14:22, tongues are for a sign to unbelievers as at Pentecost, and how could someone uttering noises that no one under-stands be a sign to unbelievers? Tongues, as Acts 2 shows, are real languages, given for the purpose of building up the church. Furthermore, spiritual gifts were given for the common good (1 Cor. 12:7), ruling out using a gift purely for personal gratification, as the so-called modern gifts of tongues is used today.
In spite of all the manifestations of ecstatic speech today, nowhere does the Bible teach that the gift of tongues is anything other than human languages. Modern tongues-speaking, called glossolalia, is not the same as the biblical gift of languages. Think about the word you speak on a daily basis. How much is meaningful, purposeful talk, and how much is nonsensical banter?
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