Today I’m going to speak to you about the gift that many people find the most difficult to understand, the gift of tongues. We need to bear in mind that in the language of the New Testament, the word tongue also meant language.
So, you can call it the gift of tongues, or you can call it the gift of languages. Usually, it’s referred to as the gift of unknown tongues.
But in most cases in the original Greek, the word unknown is not actually there in the text, although the context indicates that it must have been an unknown tongue or an unknown language.
Now we need to look at some general principles about the tongue to understand some of the problems. The tongue is the problem member of the body. It’s the one that causes at least 50% of all the problems in our lives.
James 3:8 says, no man can tame the tongue. No man can fully control his own tongue. What is our tongue given to us for?
In the Psalms, David calls his tongue, my glory. Why does he call it his glory? The answer is that the supreme purpose of the human tongue is to glorify God. That’s the reason why a tongue was put in our mouth in the first place.
Consequently, every use of the tongue that does not glorify God is a misuse of our speech.
I doubt whether any of us on that basis would deny that we are frequently guilty of misusing our tongues. The answer is really that no human being can fully control his own tongue. That’s why we must have the supernatural help of the Holy Spirit to enable us to use our tongues right.
In Romans 6.13, Paul says, present your members as instruments of righteousness to God. In other words, we’re to offer to God all the physical members of our body as instruments for Him to use.
The urgent need is to present our tongue to God, because that’s the member which, above all others, we cannot control.
Now, the first actual instance of speaking in tongues that’s recorded took place on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit descended. The waiting believers were filled with the Holy Spirit.
The first immediate result was that they began to speak with other tongues or other languages, as the Spirit gave them to speak.
There was a crowd of Jews from all over the Roman Empire who were there for the celebration of the Feast of Pentecost. The Jews understood the languages that the disciples were speaking, but they also knew that the disciples themselves did not. They weren’t just Galileans.
So, we see clearly that speaking in an other tongue or an unknown tongue means that a believer, through the supernatural direction and help of the Holy Spirit, speaks a language which he has not learned and does not understand, but could be understood if there was a person present who knew that language.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 10, Paul refers to this as “different kinds of tongues”. I understand kinds to mean different purposes of tongues.
So, I’m going to mention three specific different purposes of tongues.
The first use, which I believe is primary and basic, is for direct, personal communion with God.
In 1 Corinthians 14: 2, Paul says, for one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God. But in his spirit, he speaks mysteries.
When one speaks in an unknown tongue, one is not speaking to men. One is speaking to God. One is speaking mysteries. That is, things that the natural understanding cannot fully comprehend.
In verse 3 Paul says, one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, builds up himself. So, though we do not intellectually understand what we are doing, when we are speaking to God in a tongue, we are speaking mysteries and we are building ourselves up spiritually.
1 Corinthians 14, verses 14 and 15. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. What is the outcome then? I shall pray with the Spirit, and I shall pray with the mind also. I shall sing with the Spirit, and I shall sing with the mind also.
Paul indicates there is more than one way of praying. There’s one way of praying in the spirit when we do not know with our minds what we should be praying. There’s another way of praying with the mind when our mind is fully aware of what we are saying. Paul says, both ways are legitimate.
The second use or the second kind of tongues is when an utterance is given out in a public assembly in an unknown tongue and is followed by the interpretation into a known tongue.
When that happens, then the combined use of tongues plus interpretation is equivalent to the exercise of prophecy.
The third use of an unknown tongue, or tongues, one which many people are not really very clear about, that is, an unknown tongue as a sign to unbelievers.
In 1 Corinthians 14: 22, Paul says, So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to unbelievers. Notice that tongues are for a sign to unbelievers. What’s the meaning of that?
Let’s go back for a moment to the day of Pentecost. What happened? The Holy Spirit came on the disciples. They were filled. They began to speak with tongues they did not understand what they were saying, unknown tongues.
But the unbelievers round about, when they gathered, recognized the languages. And they were overwhelmed by the realization that these men spoke languages perfectly and fluently which they themselves understood, but the man who was speaking them did not understand.
And so, their attention was caught, and they were made ready to receive the message that Peter went on to preach to them.
So that’s tongues as a sign to unbelievers. It’s unusual, but it’s something that has not ceased.