I’m about to admit something to you that may surprise you.
In two lessons so far, we have studied from Scripture the gift of tongues, which was when the Holy Spirit provided someone the miraculous ability to speak the mighty deeds of God in a human language they had never studied before. Yet, many sincere religious people are claiming that their incomprehensible speech in their assemblies is truly the gift of tongues. From most people’s perspectives, it’s unintelligible speech that no one on earth can understand. Given that they believe the Bible is the written word of God, surely they believe they have scriptural reasoning to practice this. What is it? When I was a part of a group like this, I was desperate to know the truth. When I asked for evidence, I was met with something like, “I don’t know. My pastor should know. All I know is that when I do this, I feel the Holy Spirit and I cannot deny that He takes over my body.” However, more recently, some people have been willing to rise up to the challenge. What scriptural proof is there that this what they’re practicing is the gift of tongues? Apparently, 1 Corinthians 14:2:
For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries.
I admit that there was a time when this verse seemed problematic to the conclusion that I thought Scripture was leading me to, especially when I read it in the King James Version, which adds the word unknown.
For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries. 1 Corinthians 14:2 KJV
If the gift of tongues really was when humans miraculously spoke understandable, human languages, then what do I make of 1 Corinthians 14:2, where Paul said that when someone spoke in a tongue, no one understood him, and he was speaking to God, not to men? Then, one day as I was studying, everything clicked into place. I saw the truth that had been staring at me the entire time.
If you’ve ever seen this verse as a prescription of how the gift of tongues was or is to be used, then I believe the paradigm shift we will offer in this video will likewise help everything in 1 Corinthians 14 click into place for you. A closer examination of the context proves that this verse was not prescriptive; it was descriptive. It was actually a rebuke!
I highly encourage you to read all of 1 Corinthians 12–14 in one sitting. Better yet, read the entire book. You’ll see that much (most!) of the book was a rebuke of how the church in Corinth was behaving. In this section of the book, Paul wrote to correct the church’s abuse of spiritual gifts. Here’s a quick recap:
- In chapter 12, Paul helped the Christians realize that the Spirit had distributed specific gifts to individual disciples just as He willed. Every member of the body of Christ in Corinth was important. So for a disciple to have said to themselves that they’re not valuable in the body of Christ was to contradict God. To compare themselves with a brother or sister was to undermine the work of the Spirit.
- In chapter 13, Paul helped the Christians refocus on the most valuable aspects of Christ: faith, hope, and love. He explained that love was more excellent than tongues, prophecy, and knowledge. What gift or role they had in the body of Christ was meaningless if love was not the motivation. Just as Jesus taught, the greatest commandments and ways of life are through the love of God. The fact that this chapter explained there was an expiration date on the gifts of knowledge, prophecy, and tongues proves that love is superior, since love never fails. Love is eternal.
- In chapter 14, Paul specifically dealt with how prophecy and tongues were to be used among disciples. Many people in the twenty-first century have zoomed into verse 2 to try to justify what happens in their assemblies:
For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries.
1 Corinthians 14:2
I’ve been among the assemblies of people who use this verse as descriptive and instructive, and I can testify that no one understands what is being said and the entire thing is mysterious. I covered that in the previous two videos on the gift of tongues.
As we have said multiple times on this channel, it is reckless to zoom into a verse, ignore the context, and then make a conclusion, even when studying the Bible topically. Sure, looking at this verse does seem to validate what many people are doing today that they call “speaking in tongues.” However, once you read all of chapter fourteen, you’ll likely notice the key word: understanding. Paul used the word understand or understanding nine times in the first twenty verses alone, which discussed the gift of tongues in detail. The first time Paul, by the Holy Spirit, used the key word is in this verse where he describes how no one understood the tongue-speakers in Corinth. The person may have been speaking mysteries in his own heart, but who could know? This ought not to have been!
When the tongue-speaker could not be understood by those who heard him, Paul said, “He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself” (v. 4). Again, many sincere people think this is a good thing. Believing that modern unintelligible speech is tongues, they go home from their assemblies where practically everyone “spoke in tongues,” feeling really good about themselves. They have edified themselves, because, allegedly, the Spirit had again controlled their bodies and their tongues. However, again, Paul was rebuking the Christians in Corinth by saying, “He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself.” You’ll only know this by reading the passage in context. From the first chapter of 1 Corinthians, we learn that the church in Corinth had a sin problem with arrogance, with edifying themselves. Over and over up to chapter 14, Paul chastised them for thinking too much of themselves and not edifying the body of Christ. Here, it came to a head, when Paul said even the speech that God had given them to pray with believers and spread the gospel to unbelievers, they were keeping to themselves to build themselves up individually! This ought not to have been!
Even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for the edification of the church that you seek to excel.
1 Corinthians 14:12
In verse 6, Paul said that if he were to use the gift of tongues among them, it would have only been valuable if he spoke “either by revelation, by knowledge, by prophesying, or by teaching” in tongues. The conclusion is that these things could only be valuable if the hearer understood what was said.
Imagine Jeremiah the prophet standing up before Judah in the sixth century BC and warning God’s people of Babylon’s coming in modern-day English. How helpful would that have been when no one could understand their prophet? What if a schoolteacher in rural Tennessee stood up today and began teaching her children in Hebrew? For words to be helpful, they must be understood.
Then, Paul explained how tongues could be compared to “Even things without life, whether flute or harp” or trumpet.
For if the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who will prepare for battle? So likewise you, unless you utter by the tongue words easy to understand, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air.
1 Corinthians 14:8–9
In verse 2, Paul said the tongue-speakers in Corinth were not speaking to men since no one understood them. In verse 9, Paul said this practice was “speaking into the air,” and was as useful as an improv session on the battlefield: noisy, dangerous, and counter-intuitive. Stop looking at verse 2 as prescriptive. See it for what it really was—a rebuke! This passage wasn’t instructive, as their actions were destructive! Read the entire passage where the key word was understanding. Even today, if what you are saying is not understood, then you’re wasting your breath and making God look foolish by claiming it’s a miracle that He gave you unintelligible speech that even unbelievers can replicate.
Therefore, if I do not know the meaning of the language, I shall be a foreigner to him who speaks, and he who speaks will be a foreigner to me.
1 Corinthians 14:11
Here was Paul’s conclusion of the entire matter:
Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.
1 Corinthians 14:13–15
Even the prayers said out loud in a tongue were to be understood by the hearers. He said in the next two verses:
Otherwise, if you bless with the spirit, how will he who occupies the place of the uninformed say “Amen” at your giving of thanks, since he does not understand what you say? For you indeed give thanks well, but the other is not edified.
1 Corinthians 14:16–17
What Paul said here helps us understand another aspect of verse 2, where he said, “in the spirit he speaks mysteries.” In biblical Greek, there was no distinction between capital and lowercase letters, so when Paul mentioned “spirit” here, what was he talking about? Was he talking about the Holy Spirit? No, for the context shows us that Paul was talking about the personal spirit—the inner person—just as he does in verses 13–16.
Additionally, if you follow Paul’s usage of the word mystery in his writings, he never had in mind something that is or was mysterious and couldn’t be understood. He always meant something that God had hidden in the past but had now been revealed through Jesus Christ. Just like all stories in the mystery genre have a big reveal in the end, through Jesus, God has revealed His plans from before the foundation of the world. For a perfect example of this, read the book of Ephesians and see how Paul displayed the gospel to the Jews and Gentiles as a mystery—something that was secret in the past, but has now been revealed through Jesus (see also 1 Corinthians 2:7–8, which is the same letter from which our main text at hand comes). The people in Corinth may have been speaking the mysteries of God within their own spirits, but they were supposed to be revealing the mysteries of God to the hearts of men, specifically unbelievers.
Verse 13 does raise another good question many have asked. If tongues was meant to be understood by those in the assembly, then why should there have been an interpreter? Doesn’t that imply that the words coming out of the person’s mouth are naturally not understandable? To address this, we must first and always remember what the gift of tongues was. It was when God provided someone the miraculous ability to speak His mighty deeds in a human language they had never studied before. In the first century church that was made up of Jews and Gentiles from different regions of the world, there were likely several mother tongues and dialects represented in the assembly at any given time. Since no more than two or three were to speak with a tongue in the assembly, and they were to take turns—one at a time (see verse 27), then perhaps the prayers or messages spoken were not in a tongue that certain people in the assembly could understand. Remember, the key word was understanding, and the main theme of chapter 12 was that every member of the body of Christ was essential and was to be included. Therefore, it was important that every member of the body understood what the speaker was saying, even if the speaker was teaching or praying with a tongue not native to the hearer. That was why God provided the gift of interpretation.
The Christians in Corinth were abusing the gift of tongues, and the tragic consequences were not limited to just them. They were also preventing unbelievers from hearing and obeying the gospel. Paul said:
In the law it is written:
1 Corinthians 14:21–22
“With men of other tongues and other lips
I will speak to this people;
And yet, for all that, they will not hear Me,” says the Lord.
Therefore tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers; but prophesying is not for unbelievers but for those who believe.
Do you hear the heartbreak in this passage? It was God’s intention for people who heard the gospel in tongues to hear and believe. Paul took this passage from Isaiah to convince the Christians that their abuse was preventing the salvation of unbelievers. How so?
Therefore if the whole church comes together in one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those who are uninformed or unbelievers, will they not say that you are out of your mind? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes in, he is convinced by all, he is convicted by all. And thus the secrets of his heart are revealed; and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is truly among you.
1 Corinthians 14:23–25
Again, we are seeing a passage that is descriptive, not prescriptive.
Again, we are seeing a passage that is descriptive, not prescriptive. The Christians in Corinth who had the gift of tongues were tempted to show off and edify themselves by all speaking at the same time. Think back to a time you were in a loud crowd full of dozens of conversations going on at once. Even in your native tongue, it’s a racket that makes no sense. Now, picture that happening in multiple languages. There’s no wonder why the uninformed would write them off as crazy! The good news was that, in this case, because of prophecy, the unbeliever still worshiped God. But it could have happened closer to God’s plan if the Christians had followed through with God’s intentions for spiritual gifts. The gift of tongues was to be used orderly, which Paul gave specific instructions for in the next passage. But as it was, all were speaking at the same time with tongues, and it was a confusing cacophony, resulting in the unbeliever thinking the Christians were out of their minds! That is absolutely tragic and not far off from what I thought when I heard people in the twenty-first century supposedly speaking in tongues. For more on that, check out our other articles.
Now that we have studied this passage in context, how does verse 2 read to you?
For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries.
We have two options. We can continue to ignore context, zoom into this verse, and treat it as a foundation for a pet doctrine. Or we can provide God and ourselves the courtesy of understanding Scripture in its context, which will show us that 1 Corinthians 14:2 is a rebuke, and not instruction.