TONGUES: A GOOD GIFT FROM THE FATHER OF LIGHTS
LIKE MANY PEOPLE, I grew up loving Christmas. I couldn’t wait until Christmas morning when my sister and I would tear into the many gifts our parents had worked so hard to purchase for us. Even more enjoyable was when I became a parent of two daughters and experienced the satisfaction of blessing them with gifts they so passionately desired.
My sister and I were, as best I remember, always appreciative of what our parents gave us. And my own daughters were likewise grateful. If they ever felt disappointment, they never let on to me or my wife, Ann. But I can easily envision how I would have felt if they had. If, after opening a particular gift that I personally picked out for them, they responded by frowning at it, expressing virtual contempt for what I thought was in their best interests, only then to cast it aside and never take it up again, I confess that I would have been heartbroken. Perhaps those of you who are parents have experienced precisely this scenario, and you know the awkward feeling that comes with watching your children treat your best efforts at blessing them with utter disregard and disdain.
I don’t think it’s much of an exaggeration to suggest that this is what a large portion of the body of Christ has done with the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues. Because our heavenly Father loves us, has our best interests in view, and wants to bless us beyond anything we could ever deserve, He carefully conceived, crafted, and then lovingly bestowed on His children the gracious gift of tongues. Yes, it’s a gift. Yes, it was God’s idea, not that of any human being. And yes, God thought up and generously poured out on His children a gift that sadly so many of us have frowned upon, made fun of, tried to explain away, and largely ignored.
Try to imagine how that makes our heavenly Father feel. How would it make you feel if out of love you designed a special gift for your children, only to have them laugh at it, mock it, and then cast it aside? Speaking in tongues, or what I call the language of heaven, was God’s idea. He thought it up. He invented it. He graciously bestowed it upon the church. And how have so many responded? Some with utter contempt, making statements such as, “But it’s so weird.” Or perhaps something like: “It’s actually useless. It doesn’t make much sense to me. I have no desire to receive this gift, and I’ll do whatever I can to discourage others from making it an object of their prayer requests to God.”
The gift of tongues and those who regularly practice praying in the Spirit do not have a good reputation among many outside the Charismatic movement. Those who practice this gift are thought by many to be mushy-minded and spiritually uncoordinated. They are perceived as incapable of chewing their theological gum and walking in a straight line at the same time. I’ve been told on several occasions that people who pray words they do not understand are probably intellectual lightweights who prefer feeling to thinking. Such Christians are likely averse to deep and rigorous engagement with the Scriptures and avoid theological argumentation at all costs.
Of course, I can only speak for myself, but I have found the gift of tongues to be a tremendous boost to my spiritual zeal and an immensely effective way of deepening my relationship with Jesus. Contrary to the caricatures many have of this gift, I can tie my shoelaces, balance my checkbook, drive a car, and hold down a job, and I rarely ever drool!
A CLANGING CYMBAL?
So why is talking about speaking in tongues not what one might call polite dinner conversation, especially in more conservative evangelical circles? Speaking in tongues is considered only a notch or two above snake-handling (or in the opinion of some, below it) and the drinking of deadly poison! If you’re courageous enough to admit you speak in tongues, you will likely be met with looks of confusion or incredulity. “What did you say? You speak in tongues? You? But you always struck me as being normal, and you always appeared to love studying the Bible and engaging in rigorous theological debates. But tongues? Ah, you’re kidding, right?”
The gift of tongues is often treated like the proverbial “redheaded stepchild” in the family of God. We can’t completely dismiss its presence, but we regard it as something regularly found only among doctrinally weak-minded Christians who are emotionally unstable at best. What accounts for this reputation in the Bible-believing world?
Some of you may be tempted to think I’m being overly negative in even asking this question. You may think no one really cares much about the issue these days, especially since the spiritual gift of prophecy has usurped tongues as the most controversial of all spiritual gifts. But I assure you that the prejudice against tongues is alive and well. Whereas prophecy is looked on as a potential threat to the sufficiency of Scripture, tongues is just plain weird. It’s only people who lack self-control and have little regard for their public image who admit to possessing and making use of this spiritual gift.
So why do so many people twitch nervously and sweat profusely at the thought of someone speaking in tongues? Why do they carefully hide the cover of this book lest someone sitting close by get a glimpse of the title? Why do they make certain to place the book facedown when they pause their reading? As you’ll discover later in the book, there are numerous ways to answer this question, but here I want to focus on only two.
First, the disdain many have toward tongues is primarily the result of a misunderstanding of what is likely the most famous of all biblical texts on tongues. I’m sure you know it well:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
—1 CORINTHIANS 13:1
Who wants to be a “noisy gong or a clanging cymbal”? No one, obviously. But the image (or sound) of tongues in this passage has often served to lodge in the hearts of many a deep dislike of the gift, or at least a healthy fear of it.
But Paul isn’t denouncing or denigrating tongues. Far less is he making fun of the gift. His criticism is aimed at tongues devoid of love. He’s talking about tongues pursued and practiced selfishly, without regard for others. He’s talking about tongues being sinfully used to promote oneself or to draw attention to one’s spirituality, as over against others who are “lesser” Christians because they haven’t been blessed with the gift. The same would apply equally to every other spiritual gift. Any and all of the charismata that are exercised in the absence of love for others and a commitment to their spiritual welfare could easily become a noisy and offensive intrusion into the life of the local church. The only reason Paul mentioned tongues in particular is that the Corinthian church abused this gift more than any other.
So what do you think Paul would say if our speaking in tongues was motivated by love, thoroughly characterized by humility and consideration for others, and done for the praise and glory of God? I think Paul would have said something like this:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, and do so in a loving, gentle, and merciful way, I am a glorious and melodious sound, a virtual symphony of sweet music that is pleasing and satisfying to all who might hear me. If I never make use of my gift to put others down but only to serve them and build them up in their faith, what a marvelous and beautiful blessing this would be for everyone!
So let’s be sure we don’t take what Paul says about the selfish abuse of tongues and apply it to the loving and others-oriented use of tongues.
A second reason many harbor a deep-seated prejudice against tongues is the careless and unbiblical way in which tongues is flaunted in corporate gatherings without the benefit of interpretation. We’ve all seen it. And we’ve all cringed as the speaker appears to flaunt his or her “anointing” by delivering what we are told is a crucial message from God. The only problem is that this “message” is never interpreted for the benefit of those who hear it. It grieves me to say it, but some Charismatics give every appearance of simply not caring what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14 about how tongues is to be exercised when God’s people are gathered in corporate assembly. Perhaps they are thinking we’ve moved beyond the need for or relevance of such guidelines. Maybe the thinking is that what may have been important for first-century church life, one simply doesn’t obtain in the twenty-first century. Or perhaps they think there are times when the Spirit comes in such power and the prompting one feels within is so overwhelming that to insist on interpretation would be to quench the Spirit or to grieve Him.
It really matters little what justification they may provide for violating Paul’s instructions. There is no excuse, at any time, for intentionally violating the guidelines set forth in Scripture for the exercise of spiritual gifts. The conclusion of some on the cessationist side of the debate is that any alleged spiritual gift that is subject to such obvious abuse and mishandling cannot be of any value or hold any validity in the life of the church today.
So let me be clear about something in this book before we get started. I will do my very best to stay rooted in and tethered to the inspired and infallible Word of God. I will strive to justify my conclusions based on what Scripture says. I realize that some in the professing Christian community believe this is too restrictive, that it puts limitations on what God might choose to do in our day that the church so desperately needs. I do not share that fear. My fear in fact is that once we step outside the governing rule of the Bible, we are subject to all manner of deception and abuse.
God doesn’t speak out of both sides of His mouth. He didn’t say something about the nature and operation of tongues in the first century only then to reverse Himself and render those guidelines superfluous for us in the present day. The Bible is our functional authority when it comes to the gift of tongues (or any other gift, for that matter). I am governed by and submissive to its teaching. Its guidelines and the boundaries it articulates are no less applicable and essential in the contemporary church than they were in the early days of church life in the middle of the first century. I trust that my commitment to the functional authority of Scripture will be evident on every page that follows.
MAINTAINING A BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE
As we prepare to explore this spiritual gift called speaking in tongues, let’s make a commitment not to repeat the error of the Corinthians. Among their many problems, their immaturity was most readily seen in the way they overvalued tongues, as if it were the most important gift from God and a sure and certain indication that those who had received it were extraordinarily blessed and highly spiritual. As you’ll hear me say repeatedly throughout this book, tongues is neither the best gift nor the worst gift. It is simply a gift like all the others.
When the apostle Paul exhorts us all to “earnestly desire the spiritual gifts” (1 Cor. 14:1), he means all spiritual gifts, not just tongues and not just prophecy. Some gifts are more overtly miraculous, while others are seemingly mundane. But nowhere does the New Testament place a value judgment on any particular gift based on that distinction. We must resist the temptation to exalt tongues above teaching, or to place a higher value on mercy than on prophecy, or to put healing above evangelism. This may seem to you as if I’m speaking out of both sides of my mouth. After all, I haven’t written a book on the gifts of administration or giving or exhortation. So if tongues isn’t special, why is it deserving of book-length treatment? That’s a fair question.
Unlike the many other spiritual gifts, tongues is uniquely controversial (of course, prophecy, healing, and words of knowledge can just as readily provoke heated debate). And it is often misunderstood. On top of it all, sadly, tongues has the potential to be horribly divisive. I have never yet heard of a church split that cited as the principal cause a dispute over the legitimacy of teaching or serving others. But countless are the times I’ve heard of angry arguments and eventual divisions in the body of Christ because of the gift of tongues.
Now, let me bring a word of clarity to that last statement. The problem isn’t tongues. The problem isn’t that there is something inherently defective or divisive in this gift. The problem is always our sin, our ungodly ambition, our judgmental attitude, our tendency to exalt ourselves above others as if God loves us more based solely on the gifts He has given us. We must be careful that we do not swing to either end of the spectrum. At one extreme is the belief that we should focus on tongues because it is the inescapable mark of God’s unique blessing. At the other end is the equally misguided belief that tongues is dangerous and not worth the effort it takes to understand it correctly and practice it to the building up of others and the glory of God. My aim is to shed biblical and pastoral light on this gift so it might operate in the lives of God’s people in a way that all are encouraged and blessed and built up by it.
We’re now ready to dive into the deep end of the pool and explore this phenomenon called speaking in tongues. Before we do, let me say something briefly about the way I’ve structured this book. My hope and prayer is that all of you will start at the beginning and read consecutively through each chapter. I believe that in doing so, you will more greatly profit than if you merely skip around. However, in attempting to answer what I believe are the thirty most crucial questions about this spiritual gift, some of you may wish to cherry-pick, as it were. Each question and its answer stand independently and can be read in any order you prefer. So if you see a question in the list of thirty that is especially intriguing, feel free to jump ahead and dive in there. Or you may find it helpful to move back and forth. Read in whatever order you believe will prove most beneficial to your growing understanding of this gift, because understanding is what we’re after. So however you choose to read the following pages, enjoy!