What does "Speaking in Tongues" Mean?
Speaking in tongues is a very controversial topic in the Church today and has been the reason for many denominational battles and church splits. Some Christians oppose speaking in tongues because of the confusion and disorder that inevitably occurs when it is practiced. Other believers approve the practice as evidence of divine empowerment and blessing. Which is it? It would seem that the answer probably lies close to a middle position. Let’s look at the biblical evidence.
The practice of speaking in tongues was found in the Early Church. According to Paul, it was one of the many gifts distributed by the Holy Spirit among the believers for the work of the ministry (1 Corinthians 12:4-11). This gift was first manifested soon after Christ’s ascension, during the feast of Pentecost. While gathered in prayer, the followers of Jesus “were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit enabled them.” (Acts 2:4-11).
This experience was the divine ability of the Holy Spirit which allowed a believer to speak a language that he had not learned and did not understand, but which foreign Jews visiting Jerusalem instantly recognized and understood as praises to God. On that occasion, it seems “speaking in tongues” meant that the believers spoke in known human languages which non-believers understood naturally, as one understands a native tongue. Other instances of “speaking in tongues” occurred in Acts 10:46, 19:6, but little detail is provided in the text to describe the content of what was being said.
When writing to the church at Corinth, Paul attempted to correct an imbalance in their use of spiritual gifts. He mentions “the gift of tongues” as one in a list of nine (1 Corinthians 12:7-10). Paul also spends the entire fourteenth chapter of his epistle to correct the unhealthy practice of tongue-speaking in public worship. It seems that the Corinthians had become obsessed with tongues as a sign of their authentic spirituality and believed that interrupting a worship meeting with loud “tongue speaking” was evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence in their services.
It is not established if the tongues practiced in Corinth were known human languages or perhaps even angelic ones (1 Corinthians 13:1). In either case, “speaking in tongues” was only to be manifested in public worship together with the gift of interpretation of tongues. Again, we do not know if this subsequent gift meant actual native understanding of a “tongue” or simply a supernatural illumination of its message. (1 Corinthians 12:10: 14:5, 26-28). Whatever it meant, Paul commanded the Corinthians to focus on communicating in an understandable language among the corporate body, exercising spiritual gifts for the mutual benefit of its members. In such a public context, the gift of prophecy, spoken in the common language of the people, was to be stressed instead of “tongues.
While it is tempting to forbid the “speaking of tongues” as a means to curtail expressions of infantile spirituality (1 Corinthians 14:20), we are actually forbidden to outright forbid speaking in tongues (1 Corinthians 14:38). Instead we have Paul’s firm yet gentle doctrinal guidelines for understanding its purpose for the believer and the church. However, it is quite clear from the various epistles of the New Testament that one’s spirituality is verified by a consistent pattern of obedience to the teachings of the Lord Jesus and the Apostles, not the speaking in tongues.
The root cause of the “tongues” conflict seems to rest in the polarizing extremes of the “all or nothing” approach. Lest we grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30) or put out His fire (1 Thessalonians 5:19), we must find a way to accept the gifts which He distributes in the church and allow for their individual as well as corporate expressions within the guidelines clearly revealed in the Scriptures.
Nothing should disrupt the unity that Christ desires for his Church. No one should exercise any spiritual gift in such a manner as to suggest that those who do not possess that gift are something less than truly Christian. Likewise, someone who exercises a gift in a scriptural manner should not be “puffed up” in thinking that he or she is more of a Christian than someone who does not exercise that gift. The Holy Spirit gave gifts to the Church to build up its members, not to give believers a tool to determine who is or is not a true Christian.
